Shankar Mahadevan creates song with Google's AI tool
What's the story
Acclaimed Indian musician Shankar Mahadevan recently teamed up with tech giant Google to create a song with the help of its AI music generator tool, Lyria. Mahadevan's virtual appearance at Google's annual I/O developer conference on Tuesday brought attention to this innovative venture. The event highlighted several of Google's new AI products, including filmmaking and music generation tools. Google Research Scientist Jason Baldridge introduced Lyria 2 and revealed its collaboration with musicians to develop a "music AI sandbox."
Song creation
Mahadevan's creative process with the Lyria AI music generator
During the conference, a video of Mahadevan in his studio spoke about the experience of using the AI tool. He said, "I am a music composer, singer, producer, and a happy man... Working with Sandbox is great. We input our requirements, and it gave us a bed. We used that bed and we came up with this song." The video further detailed the entire process of creating the song, from selecting beats to fine-tuning the pitch.
Tool praise
Mahadevan praised Lyria AI music generator's potential
Mahadevan also praised the Lyria AI music generator, saying, "For a musician, it is such an inspiring tool. You open a door and you see there's another room... And then you open another room, and you have another door... That is what AI does." Acclaimed for his eclectic taste spanning Bollywood, devotional, and classical music, Mahadevan has lent his voice to songs like Maa, Dil Chahta Hai, Kal Ho Naa Ho, Desi Girl, Kajra Re, and Uff Teri Adaa.
Twitter Post
Mahadevan was featured at the Google I/O conference
Shankar Mahadevan, featured at Google IO to share his experiences in using Google’s AI in creating music. pic.twitter.com/v9WbMTkAW6
— Teja Karlapudi (@teja2495) May 20, 2025
Tool introduction
Google's Lyria AI music generator: A new frontier for musicians
Baldridge introduced Google's Lyria AI music generator as a platform for professionals to explore the limits of generative music models. "It is a tool for professionals to explore the possibilities of our generative music model Lyria, in their work," Baldridge said. This innovative tool could revolutionize the music industry by providing musicians a new sandbox to experiment and create.