Mechanical Megatalent

In late 2023, researchers at Georgia Tech in Atlanta unveiled a robotic performance sculpture they named Medusai. It is modeled after Medusa, the mythological Gorgon who turned anyone who looked at her to stone. The bot has snakelike arms that allow it to simultaneously play percussion and strings and interactively “dance” with observers. “The eerie and uncanny notion of AI-driven robotic snakes following and threatening humans is balanced by the sculpture's potential to inspire humans to push the boundaries of their creativity and expression,” explains Gil Weinberg, the professor at Georgia Tech's Center for Music Technology who heads the team that created Medusai.