Discover Google's TextFX and Its 10 AI Tools for Rappers, Writers
Google Lab collaborated with Grammy Award-winning rapper Lupe Fiasco to build an AI experiment called TextFX. The tool utilizes machine learning models to help artists explore new creative possibilities with language and text.
The team started by observing Lupe's writing process, noticing tactics like creating phrases that sound identical to given words but have different meanings. They wanted to see how AI could assist this process.
Using examples provided by Lupe, they trained models on tasks like generating same-sounding phrases through prompts. After refining the technique, they expanded it to 10 tools covering similes, wordplay, perspective taking and more.
Google’s TextFX includes 10 tools and is powered by the PaLM 2 large language model via the PALM API. Meant to aid in the creative process of rappers, writers, and other wordsmiths, it is part of Google Labs. The tools include:
Simile: Create a simile about a thing or concept.
Explode: Break a word into similar-sounding phrases.
Unexpect: Make a scene more unexpected and imaginative.
Chain: Build a chain of semantically related items.
POV: Evaluate a topic through different points of view.
Alliteration: Curate topic-specific words that start with a chosen letter.
Acronym: Create an acronym using the letters of a word.
Fuse: Find intersections between two things
Scene: Generate sensory details about a scene.
Unfold: Slot a word into other words or phrases.
TextFX was built with Google's PaLM API to house the prompts. It allows adjusting "temperature" to control model creativity.
The collaboration showed how AI can augment human creativity. TextFX is available online for experimentation, and its code is open-sourced for others to explore building with AI. The team hopes it inspires use of language models to develop new ideas across creative fields.