https://agheieff.com/2026-10-22T00:00:00ZArkadiy Agheieffhttps://agheieff.com/symphony-no-1/2026-10-22T00:00:00Z2026-10-22T00:00:00Z

The first thing I properly tested Astra on was a symphony, in roughly Romantic style.

<p>The first thing I properly tested Astra on was a symphony, in roughly Romantic style.</p> <p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zp95PXmlQYU">Watch on YouTube</a></p> <p>The workflow:</p> <ul> <li>First I tried working on a piano concerto, giving it detailed instructions – pointing out what sounded bad up to individual notes, and having it plan out and write roughly 8-bar sections.</li> <li>After working our way through the first 32 or so bars, I told it to write a symphony – 4 movements, no interruptions from my side.</li> <li>It took roughly 4.5 hours for it to finish the piece, and then 2.5 to work on the sound, and create the video.</li> </ul> <p>You can review the chat <a href="https://chatgpt.com/s/cx_6aa03ed4c9708191932393d58b97012c">here</a>, I recommend starting from the end.</p> <p>Overall the jump in capabilities in different areas (see <a href="https://drivingbench.com/">driving</a>, robotics through <a href="https://x.com/cdngdev/status/2097339677128982873">painting</a>, blender) feels roughly like GPT-2 to GPT-3 on text, so my guess is we get quasi-AGI on a much wider set of topics than now very soon.</p> <p>The presentation (the video and the thumbnail) was decided on and generated by Astra without my intervention.</p> <p><a href="https://github.com/agheieff/symphony-no-1">https://github.com/agheieff/symphony-no-1</a></p> <p class="meta">The symphony was made on 8 September 2026.</p>