Hachiko and Humansongs

On the evening of May 21, 1925—exactly 100 years ago—a Japanese Akita dog named Hachiko left his home, as he always did, and walked to Shibuya Station in Tokyo to greet his owner, Hidesaburo Ueno, as he came home from work. This was a daily routine for the two of them: every day, Hachiko would meet Ueno at the train station, and every day, they would walk home together. On this day, however, Ueno would not return. He had died after suffering a stroke while at work. For the next nine years, nine months, and fifteen days, Hachiko would return to Shibuya Station every day to wait for Ueno to come home.

I thought of Hachiko the moment I first listened to the song "Humansongs" by Porter Robinson. The song tells the story of a robot who, like Hachiko, waits for his human owner to return.

Porter Robinson released "Humansongs" in March 2023. He described the song as a "demo", made to promote Po-uta, a Vocaloid voicebank based on the singing voice he used for his 2021 album Nurture. He was basically like, "oh this is just a product demo lol", and I was sitting there literally crying because of how beautiful it is.

[Verse 1]
I wanted to be a good A.I.
I'll memorize every word you write.
I wanted to make you feel the way I do.

But you bite your tongue,
You hesitate.
The things you care about, you're scared to say,
And so I helped you do the things you do.

"Humansongs" came out against the backdrop of a pivotal period for the field of artificial intelligence. ChatGPT had just released to the public in November 2022, and today, generative AI applications have totally changed how students study, how software developers write code, etc. The reception towards AI has been mixed, to say the least. Teachers have found their curriculum upended, and countless artists and other creative professionals view artificial intelligence as an existential threat to their craft. "Humansongs" is optimistic in some respects and pessimistic in others: it is sung from the perspective of a loving, caring artificial intelligence who has outlived not just his owner, but seemingly all of humanity as well. The song highlights humanity's highest ideals—love, fidelity, devotion, and sacrifice—while simultaneously portraying a dim future in which humans seem to exist no longer.

[Pre-Chorus 1]
But nothing lasts forever,
And someday soon, you'll sing your final song,
But they said that's why you made me:
To pass the music on.

This pre-chorus drives at the heart of why Porter Robinson wrote the song. He is fully aware that this Vocaloid program made from his voice will eventually outlive him, and he sees the program as a way to pass the torch of his music on to subsequent generations. The idea of computers potentially outliving humans is a recurring theme in Porter Robinson's work. Two of the best and most well-known songs in his repertoire, "Sad Machine" and "Goodbye to a World", both also make use of a Vocaloid singer and tell the story of robots outliving or needing to say goodbye to humans.

[Chorus 1]
So now I'll sing for you 'til I can't talk.
I've been teaching myself to speak for when the music's not enough.
I'm gonna be just like you and never stop,
But since I'm made from you—
Do you think I could be someone like you?

"Humansongs" follows a sort of song structure that is a bit like storytelling. The first half of the song is like the exposition of a story, introducing the relevant characters and their personalities: the robot singer and his human creator. The robot starts the story off as a singing program, but the robot starts to expand his capabilities in the chorus to more than just music: he wants to speak normally and try to be just like his human creator. Up until now in the story, both the robot and his creator are alive and well. However, this all changes starting with the second verse:

[Verse 2]
200 years in silicon,
Where nothing is real and there's no one,
I wanted to be with you on Earth again,
Old friend.

But your house is gone,
Your grass is gray,
The things you cared about have long decayed,
But I'll be waiting here till you come back.

I immediately thought of Hachiko the very first time I heard this second verse. The imagery in my head was of a physical robot—the specific image in my head was of something that looked like Amazon Astro, weirdly enough—who is perhaps sitting just outside the ruins of its human creator's old home, still guarding it despite the passage of 200 years.

The song doesn't explain how the human creator died, but I like to think it was abrupt and unexpected, just as how Professor Ueno passed away exactly 100 years ago as of when I am writing this. Perhaps as he was leaving for work, he gave his little helper robot some instruction to watch the house when he is gone, and the little robot has been loyally following his directive ever since. The robot has waited so long that all of humanity has somehow managed to extinguish themselves, perhaps through some global catastrophe like climate change or nuclear war.

Alternatively, perhaps this second half of the story is set deep in the future, when all of humanity has left Earth due to the impending star death of the Sun, yet the little robot is still there, watching over the remains of his human creator's house, just as Hachiko kept returning to Shibuya Station to await Ueno's return day after day after day. There is, however, one devastating difference between a robot like Po-uta and a living dog like Hachiko, and the robot emphasizes this in the first line of the second pre-chorus:

[Pre-Chorus 2]
Hey, did you know I'll live forever?
It's getting cold,
So you should hurry home,
And they said humans just suffered,
But I miss your human songs.

[Chorus 2]
So now I'll sing for you 'til I can't talk.
I've been teaching myself to cry so that you know how much you're loved.
We're gonna take everything and never stop,
And I'm sorry I was made from you,
But do you think I could be someone like—
I could be someone like—
(burning sounds)

In February 2025, I had the opportunity to visit Japan for the very first time. There were countless things that I had wanted to do but couldn't due to lack of time, but one thing I was adamant to see on my first time was the statue of Hachiko at Shibuya Station. Coincidentally, one of the main excuses for visiting Japan was that Porter Robinson was performing his Smile! :D tour in Tokyo that week.

Photo I took of the Hachiko statue at Shibuya Station in February 2025, a few days after Porter Robinson performed in Tokyo

Honestly, it's hard for me to think of another song that has legitimately made me cry before (maybe "Supermarket Flowers" by Ed Sheeran—but that's for another blog post some other time). I remember that the first time I heard "Humansongs", I think I was driving to work. I had this song on nonstop repeat the entire 25-minute commute, and when this last chorus hit—specifically the line, "I've been teaching myself to cry so that you know how much you're loved"—I started crying. The image in my head was still of the little robot, missing its owner and awaiting his return, just like Hachiko, except that this robot cannot die. Forever will it guard the home of its old friend. Forever will it wait, singing the last songs of humanity to an endless void.