ROBIC APPLAUDS THE GENEROSITY AND INGENUITY OF ITS CLIENTS. HERE IS THE STORY OF NESTED MINDS!
A consortium of international researchers becomes Nested Minds, a leading Montreal-based 2D animation company that, in October 2020, created the first-ever music video entirely designed by artificial intelligence, for Duran Duran « Invisible ».
It began when Maxwell Ramstead, now CEO of Nested Minds, thought to unite his worldwide network of neuroscience, philosophy, physics and mathematics researchers so they could all benefit from their research findings.
Since they often used the same themes and the same types of data, the idea was to make the researchers’ findings accessible, set up discussion groups and form new research groups—all outside the academic sphere.
The creation of website and communication platforms came next, which enabled the researchers to find collaborators and, in time, develop a new data-sharing platform based on the constraints of artificial intelligence and blockchain technology.
Things worked out so well for the consortium that the researchers—who were based all over the world (Boston, England, Germany, Holland, Hollywood, New York, New Zealand, Quebec)—realized they could solve a host of problems by pooling their knowledge.
The consortium was sought out for increasingly complex requests and, by November 2020, the influx of funds required that they be incorporated.
Born out of necessity, Nested Minds now employs roughly 20 people, including 10 developers. Huxley, “an artificial intelligence, a unique dreamer whose mind has been modelled after the cognitive and emotional processes of humans,” is the brainchild of the company’s innovative team.
Linc Gasking wanted to externalize the results of active inference in a more visual and accessible way. In Huxley, he was looking to create an artist who could use active inference to reproduce works of art from all over the world—the idea being to generate surprising pieces born of two concepts.
It was while using both previously generated images and image-generating technologies that the team behind Huxley realized they could combine several AI technologies, including emotional analysis, text analysis, tension creation and active inference, to identify differences between certain images.
So, they created a few images, and these images caught the attention of one of Duran Duran’s contacts, who was very intrigued by the concept.
To provide Huxley with the works of one of the band’s favourite artists, Japanese photographer Daisuke Yokota, as the basis for generating new images, the team at Nested Minds had to customize imaging technology in order to create a series of animations.
Huxley generated a total of 68,000 new images, and Duran Duran liked what they saw. The band selected their favourite images, which Huxley then organized, and the end result—the music video for the band’s new single, INVISIBLE—was unveiled at the 2021 Billboard Awards to rave reviews.
As a result of Duran Duran’s enthusiasm for their new technology and the media coverage surrounding Huxley, Nested Minds has been getting a lot of exposure. Huxley even has an agent and its own website!
“For the time being, Huxley doesn’t speak,” says Mahault Albarracin, Director of Operations and Technology Developer at Nested Minds. “But it can respond using language. It can reproduce works by Van Gogh. There’s no limit to what we can do with Huxley. We could go as far as 3D printing but, for now, we’re focusing on 2D visual applications.”
As for Nested Minds, the company is working on a variety of projects—everything from optimization to fintech, and even robotics. It would appear that the sky’s the limit for what they can model in terms of optimized processes and predictive analytics that improve future decision making.
Despite its fledgling status, Nested Minds has a monopoly on the field of active inference and is experiencing significant growth as the demand for artificial intelligence increases.
Here’s wishing the company continued success in its efforts to meet the humanitarian needs it cares so deeply about, which could lead to even greater achievements.
We applaud the real intelligence of the team behind Nested Minds and Huxley and congratulate them all in advance for the leading-edge projects and creations that are certain to change the future.