Engram sampler turns AI hallucinations into music

Engram is not connected to the internet. Instead, it runs a "tiny AI" locally. The company said the model is designed in-house and custom-trained. According to the Kickstarter listing, Thoughtful Things trained its audio models on open datasets that contain only audio licensed for commercial use, under CC-BY or similar terms. The company said it has not trained and will never train its models on non-commercial, pirated, or otherwise stolen data. Thoughtful Things also plans to open Engram's firmware so that others can tweak it or load their own custom models.

The device is not intended to be "Suno in a box," according to The Verge. It is not a "push-button, get-song" device aimed at creating something that sounds ready for top-40 radio. Instead, the focus is on creating experimental, uncanny sounds and pushing AI audio models beyond their limits.

In the campaign video, founder Evan King uses his voice to ask for "piano," and Engram produces something glitchy and vaguely piano-like. King describes Engram as a "field recorder for latent space." The project draws inspiration from circuit bending, allowing users to tweak and even break its tiny AI models as they explore AI hallucinations and experimental sound design.

Thoughtful Things is launching Engram with a limited run for the Kickstarter campaign. The devices start at $675. The company has not announced a retail price, though it is likely to be between $850 and $900, because the $675 pledge is listed as a 30 percent discount.