I was sitting at a fancy upscale Indian restaurant the other day, in Danville CA, and my ears suddenly perked up when I heard what I thought was the signature sound of Jerry Garcia/Grateful dead waft though the speakers. I was immediately impressed at the restaurant's taste in music, but at the same time confused - because I just couldn't recognize the actual song, god knows I have listened to most of Jerry's impeccable output. Like 1000s of hours. Before I could resolve my inner tension, the song warped into something that sounded like Beatles. Then a minute later it burst into the inimitable Hendrix Wah Wah riff. Each variation teased the original artist, but there was something eerie in the air. It felt like a word that was almost at the tip of the tongue, but not quite there yet. It felt eerie. Then that it hit me - this was some generative AI crap. Chimera in the Desert. A monster that tried to be everything but turned out to be a damp squib. Tech bros who slept soundly on their piles of cash, not more than 20 miles from where I was situated, were looting our collective past, and poisoning the well of our cultural future at the same time. I hear even Netflix is moving in the same direction as Spotify - create soul sucking "background pink/white noise" that doomscrollers can doomscroll to. I came here via a referral from Glen Mcdonald, and having read some of his posts as well, it is now clear as to why he was laid off from Spotify. His vision is starkly antithetical to "tech bro vision" when it comes to shaping culture. Surely, He must have said something to piss off the overlords, and they were like - off with hiss head. It's sad. But then i am hopeful too - cause life always finds a way, and art is the process of said finding. Those who know, know. Jerry Garcia is currently weeping in heaven for all future artists, though. I left without eating cause I didn't want to support these monsters.
Brilliant piece - funnily enough, I've made a similar point in conversation about how "content" is a term that serves the tech giants but not the musicians, artists, comedians etc etc who have all their material lumped together, put through an algorithmic blender, and then served up as generic "content" to the world. This really put a lot more meat on the bones of an intuition I'd had, thank you!
This fucked me up a bit, in the best and worst way. You’re a clever man.
Init mate. It's a long road ahead.
Ouch! Ouch! Ouch!
There is nothing left for the big techs to devalue and break.
I was sitting at a fancy upscale Indian restaurant the other day, in Danville CA, and my ears suddenly perked up when I heard what I thought was the signature sound of Jerry Garcia/Grateful dead waft though the speakers. I was immediately impressed at the restaurant's taste in music, but at the same time confused - because I just couldn't recognize the actual song, god knows I have listened to most of Jerry's impeccable output. Like 1000s of hours. Before I could resolve my inner tension, the song warped into something that sounded like Beatles. Then a minute later it burst into the inimitable Hendrix Wah Wah riff. Each variation teased the original artist, but there was something eerie in the air. It felt like a word that was almost at the tip of the tongue, but not quite there yet. It felt eerie. Then that it hit me - this was some generative AI crap. Chimera in the Desert. A monster that tried to be everything but turned out to be a damp squib. Tech bros who slept soundly on their piles of cash, not more than 20 miles from where I was situated, were looting our collective past, and poisoning the well of our cultural future at the same time. I hear even Netflix is moving in the same direction as Spotify - create soul sucking "background pink/white noise" that doomscrollers can doomscroll to. I came here via a referral from Glen Mcdonald, and having read some of his posts as well, it is now clear as to why he was laid off from Spotify. His vision is starkly antithetical to "tech bro vision" when it comes to shaping culture. Surely, He must have said something to piss off the overlords, and they were like - off with hiss head. It's sad. But then i am hopeful too - cause life always finds a way, and art is the process of said finding. Those who know, know. Jerry Garcia is currently weeping in heaven for all future artists, though. I left without eating cause I didn't want to support these monsters.
Brilliant piece - funnily enough, I've made a similar point in conversation about how "content" is a term that serves the tech giants but not the musicians, artists, comedians etc etc who have all their material lumped together, put through an algorithmic blender, and then served up as generic "content" to the world. This really put a lot more meat on the bones of an intuition I'd had, thank you!