WFMU: Techtonic with Mark Hurst: Playlist from February 6, 2023

Listener comments!
	🤖 6:00pm Handy Haversack: Mark and the Techyons! Been asking K8 to hype this episode up for a bunch of very nervous HS teachers. Looking forward to it! I thought this piece in the Mark-Up was good, too: themarkup.org...
	6:00pm ultradamno: Mark! Techtonplicants!
	6:01pm chresti: Hi mark and techtoniciacs!
	🤖 6:01pm Will thee Sound Guy: Hi Mark Hurst and all!!!
	🤖 6:02pm Handy Haversack: I also just saw a headline that the Nothing Forever show was taken down because it generated antitrans content. So the violence inherent in the system is revealed.
	6:02pm listener james from westwood: Evening, Mark and all!
	🤖 6:02pm Webhamster Henry: Let's run all the chat posts through the ChatGPT detector!
	🤖 6:02pm Handy Haversack: Headline's body: www.theguardian.com...
	6:02pm Rolando: Present - good morning all
	6:02pm David in London: Evening Mark and all Technoids.
	6:03pm Franco Twinkie: Howdy Mark and discontented!
	🤖 6:03pm herb.nyc: Hola. While this show is on, ChatGPT and I are doing Sunday nytimes kenken (kenandy?)
	🤖 6:03pm Handy Haversack: ↳ David in London @6:02 David! Joe McG played "Reynardine" this morning, and I was hoping it would summon you.
	6:04pm LiXiviated Life: hello electronic friends
	6:05pm David in London: Hello Handles. Sadly I was unavoidably detained elsewhere. As my theme tune. I heartily approve, natch.
	6:05pm listener james from westwood: This is no worse than the babble the yambags in my last office job would utter in the coffee room. Which says a lot about 2000s-era TV.
	🤖 6:05pm Ken From Hyde Park: AI song lyrics ... where to send royalty checks?
	6:06pm Rich in Washington: This new Porest is lit
	🤖 6:06pm DjLorraine: MASINT stands for measurement & signature intelligence
	6:06pm ?: Oh thank god that’s over
	6:06pm D Rok: ↳ Handy Haversack @6:02 Shame they had to pull it already. I had just heard about it this morning, and was looking forward to checking it out.
	🤖 6:06pm Handy Haversack: ↳ Rich in Washington @6:06 Zing! In your FACE, stupid AI!
	6:07pm The Butterman: That was worse than Andy.
	6:07pm P.Welles: I mad as hell, and I will take it.
	🤖 6:08pm sbw: Nothing Forever is so, so bad. Painful.
	6:09pm Mennlinn Rebarts: Needs a tad more Butlerian Jihad.
	6:09pm Ciggy: I'm lost in a forest
	6:09pm LiXiviated Life: Nothing Forever? That’s sounds like my life
	🤖 6:09pm Handy Haversack: ↳ D Rok @6:06 Good illustration of the biases built in to supposedly "neutral" tech, though. Algorithms are made by people, and people often suck.
	6:09pm Franco Twinkie: Who likes this shit?
	🤖 6:09pm Webhamster Henry: The Werner Herzog / Slavoj Zizek stream is pretty good though! infiniteconversation.com
	6:10pm David in London: Christ on a bike, this like some vision of Hell.
	6:10pm Sam: With enough canned laughter and bass guitar riffs you can make anything sound almost funny.
	6:10pm Mennlinn Rebarts: ↳ Franco Twinkie @6:09 The audience which will also be replaced by AI.
	6:10pm Franco Twinkie: ↳ Mennlinn Rebarts @6:10 I hope!
	6:11pm Sam: ↳ Franco Twinkie @6:09 I don’t understand why people are so impressed by this. It’s god awful.
	6:11pm Mennlinn Rebarts: Imagine a boot stamping on the face of humanity forever. Same level of humor.
	6:11pm Sam: The Twilight Zone?
	🤖 6:11pm Handy Haversack: ↳ Handy Haversack @6:09 But don't worry, they say the right content-moderation tool will take care of this, no problem. Trust the algorithm. "“Before going live again, we are going to implement the correct content moderation tools OpenAI provides and also investigate using a secondary content moderation system as a redundancy,” "
	6:11pm Bob in DC and/or Virginia: This reminds me a little of David Lynch's "Rabbits" short films (part of which turned up in his movie Inland Empire), although in that case the inane dialogue and inappropriate laughter manage to be disturbing and ominous.
	6:12pm Malcontent: Just tried to see it. Got this message instead: "This channel is temporarily unavailable due to a violation of Twitch's Community Guidelines or Terms of Service."
	6:12pm Fredericks: First time I spoke to Mark, Seinfeld and nothing were both mentioned.
	6:12pm bleubombersune: Watched commentary and some film clips of Nothing Forever on The National Rational last week
	6:12pm Mennlinn Rebarts: I always assumed Friends had been made by an AI.
	6:13pm paddy in matawan: linky brokey - m.twitch.tv...
	6:13pm Sam: This will never happen and neither will self-driving cars.
	6:13pm ultradamno: A Skinamarink series would be ideal
	6:13pm Fredericks: All the A.I. shows will be like Lavern and Shirley episodes. Decent but not memorable.
	6:14pm castor: Hi everyone! IMO: I doubt AI will ever be able to match human creativity unless it becomes embodied in the world just like a human.
	6:15pm P.Welles: If its commercially available, then imagine what has already been unleased and in play.
	6:15pm paddy in matawan: Oh wait it was banned today?!
	6:15pm Chris from Brooklyn: ↳ paddy in matawan @6:13 Terms violation. It was struck eleven days for crimes against transgender isming yadda Watched it More like listened. The characters were really into using the microwave oven every time while chattering nothingly
	6:15pm sophistikitsch: Good Morning from the future (in the upside-down). Can't wait for the boss to go so I can dive into this.
	6:15pm chresti: Remember when cartoon animation stopped being made by hand?
	🤖 6:16pm Webhamster Henry: News today: Google's releasing "Bard", their answer to ChatGPT, possibly able to answer questions leveraging newer info from the internet.
	6:16pm paddy in matawan: ↳ Chris from Brooklyn @6:15 Thanks Chris!
	6:16pm LiXiviated Life: I read that YouTube seems to be most people’s search engine of choice.
	6:16pm Sam: But why would anyone want this? Don’t you want to hear things that came from other conscious humans? Don’t we still want human connection? What the hell is the appeal of any of this??!!
	6:17pm Chris from Brooklyn: I really long for more of those sweet sweet Chinese animations of yore Welcome paddy
	6:18pm Chris from Brooklyn: It was oddly fun in doses. True seinfeldian generator
	6:18pm chris in the redwoods: hi, Mark and folks. i think the layoffs were all about increasing stock prices, by artificially inflating the bottom line. no?
	🤖 6:18pm Folsom: Google hired 40k last year then laid off 10k for a net 30k, don't hear journalists talk about that
	🤖 6:19pm DjLorraine: Me no likey AI.
	6:19pm P.Welles: Back to the caves
	6:19pm sophistikitsch: ↳ chresti @6:15 I remember backgrounds being used across different cartoons to save money - The classic Spiderman Revolt in the 5th dimension
	6:19pm Listener: I think Mark is overlooking the probability that, because the content is trash, won't succeed. It'll fall into the waste bin of history like the new formula of coke. Nobody will tune in... And pay for it??? HAHA! Good luck.
	6:20pm ultradamno: Wasn't Bing sued for just giving Google results? It would seem that would work in their favor in getting people to use it...
	6:22pm Sam: They’ll start charging for subscriptions to this shit…. And lo and behold everyone will turn their computers off and go to underground nightclubs to hear real comedy and illegal cinemas to see real movies. Like speakeasies. Real art and entertainment is a human need.
	6:22pm chris in the redwoods: Brazen Assault on Rational Decisions
	6:22pm ultradamno: A little ironic they would get into trouble for transphobic content, since it's transitioning the Seinfeld gang from New York people into whatever this is...
	6:22pm David in London: Bard should speak in the style of medieval England.
	🤖 6:22pm Handy Haversack: ↳ Folsom @6:18 All bards since first edition have been terrible ideas.
	🤖 6:23pm Handy Haversack: ↳ Handy Haversack @6:22 Ooops, sorry, not directed at Folsom!
	🤖 6:24pm Webhamster Henry: Relevant article: www.wired.com...
	🤖 6:24pm Will thee Sound Guy: it's literally the one feature that I've been waiting for
	🤖 6:25pm Webhamster Henry: Apple is working on AI - it doesn't have to compete with these other systems. Their AI is being integrated into their software thanks to their new ML-friendly hardware.
	6:25pm mndave: Just came up with the sole use case for AI - regurgitating big tech press releases
	6:26pm MarciB: I have wonder how much AI will be in the Apple surveillance googles coming out
	6:27pm bleubombersune: Star Trek TNG "Data the Comedian" shows you AI or even those with positronic brains will never achieve comedy as we know it today. Can't "C' AI comedian ever being like Lewis Black or Margaret Cho
	🤖 6:28pm Webhamster Henry: There are a bunch of other AI media projects, like automatic coloring of B&W photos, interpolating frames in old or damaged video, and Disney's generation of new mouth shapes for generated /translated dialog in "live action" movies.
	🤖 6:29pm Folsom: ↳ bleubombersune @6:27 Can't forget Joe Piscopo!
	6:29pm ultradamno: I suppose Curb would be the logical next AI sitcom, as the closest thing to a Seinfeld spin-off
	6:31pm Sam: Even if they came up with better material, the delivery is terrible!
	6:32pm StringOFperils: Other people's work has increasingly been riddled with inaccuracies and plagiarism over the last 30 years, as critical thought has eroded, and funding for journalism has withered, so it's not surprising that an AI emulator would produce similar results. Its original model is vapid
	6:33pm dale: without timing or inflection or personality these joke deliveries suck. imagine them doing the who's on first bit.
	6:33pm P.Welles: I would like to see Mark have an interview show on some platform, even on youtube to bring these ideas to a wider audience.
	6:33pm Listener: You get it, sam. It won't work like "they" pray it will. They're desperate.
	6:34pm mndave: ChatGPT, deliver me an episode of Techtonic by Mark Hurst on WFMU
	🤖 6:34pm Bas NL: Hi Mark & all!
	6:34pm ledzeppelinsucks: Chat GBT should place literally and actually over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over
	🤖 6:35pm Will thee Sound Guy: ↳ dale @6:33 i agree, even old drum machines had a bit of randomness to the strength of a hit, duration, and timing if you wanted it to sound more "human"
	6:35pm Bob in DC and/or Virginia: I'm sure no students will end up being falsely accused by AI's AI detectors.
	6:35pm Marie: shysters
	🤖 6:35pm Handy Haversack: And then also probably using the junk that's submitting for testing to feed the junk machine. And remember that the actual people who have to spend their labor dealing with this are teachers -- because they don't have enough work to do already. The essentially antilabor stance of Big Tech always comes through in the effects of its products.
	6:36pm Ken: Good point Mark, it’s dr Seuss’ Star-Bellied Sneetches all over again
	🤖 6:36pm Webhamster Henry: Well, technically, ChatGPT could just make signatures of everything it generates and then when you ask if this came from ChatGPT, you could check for the signature.
	6:36pm ledzeppelinsucks: They won't have to drop kick the worn out jobs to Texas in 20 years.
	6:36pm Fredericks: What you are describing sounds like a Protection Racket.
	🤖 6:37pm Bas NL: These two chat bots walk into this bar...
	6:37pm ledzeppelinsucks: Eternal ranch dressing and Led Zeppelin reruns.
	🤖 6:38pm Handy Haversack: ↳ Bas NL @6:37 ... what is this, some kind of fruit?
	6:38pm StringOFperils: These companies are influencing and altering university curricula so as to invalidate study that doesn't produce outcomes within their own purview. The arts ar disappearing. Writing and philosophy are disappearing. Coding is supplanting thinking. The juggernaut serves itself. And the world goes down the toilet.
	6:38pm MarciB: The robots are coming for your job..so maybe now we can get universal basic income?
	🤖 6:38pm Will thee Sound Guy: and another $10 on the subscription to tell you exactly when to laugh at the crappy jokes
	6:39pm dale: astral weeks? don't get irwin started!
	🤖 6:41pm Will thee Sound Guy: they even got the tape warble
	6:41pm The Butterman: That just sounded like Phish.
	6:41pm ?: most likely woke up with a Suspicious Mind
	6:42pm P.Welles: maybe AI put and end to holograms!
	6:42pm Lixiviated Life: You are on target about the intent of corporations. Left corporate world 7 months ago because I they no longer care about people. Employees or clients.
	6:42pm ultradamno: But could Elvis himself pass the Turing test, in fairness?
	6:42pm Rolando: You'll all hate me ...(sorry) but in the 80's Bill made the virus and then sold the anti-virus - then in 2020 we get the virus again and then vaccine :) and now with ChatGPT we get the plagiarism problem in schools and if you pay money they will tell you if we caused the plagiarism - lol ❤️
	6:44pm P.Welles: ↳ Rolando @6:42 i dont hate you
	🤖 6:44pm Will thee Sound Guy: ↳ Rolando @6:42 not entirely wrong tho
	🤖 6:44pm chresti: Thae "Elvis" sounded like something on music for Mind Control.
	6:44pm Franco Twinkie: ↳ dale @6:39 This is how a movement starts. Astral Weeks is not exactly on most peoples radar. But thanks to Irwin, people who missed it the first time around will wonder if it's a case the the emperors new clothes.
	6:45pm ?: Sounds like what won at the grammy's last night
	6:45pm Jules in VT: Irie!
	🤖 6:45pm DjLorraine: Micah make it stop
	🤖 6:45pm chresti: This will be played on airplanes and hold music
	🤖 6:46pm Webhamster Henry: Here's the original Robot Reggae from the Reggaebots! www.wfmu.org...
	6:46pm Listener: Is anybody here in favor of censorship? Of any kind? Just wondering.
	🤖 6:46pm Will thee Sound Guy: ↳ @6:45 Wait the G's were last night?
	🤖 6:47pm Bas NL: Future: Oh, yes, that's Mark Hurst. He says he actually spoke on a radio talk show..
	6:47pm dale: adriano celentano made a toetapper of a nonsense song.
	6:47pm Franco Twinkie: Music that's like a Play-Doh Fun Factory?
	🤖 6:48pm chresti: Can you direct me to the Extruded Music section?
	6:48pm The Butterman: ↳ Franco Twinkie @6:47 Goo Extruder!
	6:49pm ?: sounds like Bad Marmot..
	6:49pm Deano de los Muertos: It almost reminds me of the guy in the beginning of the Weekly World Blues intro that basically said “the Blues is easy to play, here’s how you play it.”
	6:49pm ledzeppelinsucks: Can this thing make rice burner cars sound cool?
	6:49pm The Butterman: WTF Mark, you hate birthday parties now?
	6:49pm Colleen: ugh....just got here and I'm sure "but I like it" isn't a good response
	6:50pm Feldy: ↳ Franco Twinkie @6:47 LOL Franco
	6:50pm ?: Birthdays make me feel older
	6:50pm paddy: i gotta do a trap song in it. prolly sound the same as humans.
	6:50pm MarciB: Sounds like next year's Grammy award winner!
	6:50pm Carmichael: ↳ Will thee Sound Guy @6:46 Yes, and Wet Leg was up for artist of the year.
	6:50pm ultradamno: Well, "a lot of sounds" is most of what I listen to now, so....
	6:50pm dale: ha ha!
	🤖 6:50pm Will thee Sound Guy: ↳ ledzeppelinsucks @6:49 with enough money, you can get a big enough can exhaust to really make it good
	6:50pm The Butterman: Frank O’Twinkie.
	6:50pm mazudog: I'm waiting for the human band that covers a ai songs
	🤖 6:51pm Handy Haversack: Really here mainly for the Play-Doh sounds.
	6:51pm ledzeppelinsucks: A meat screen. A Play Do screen.
	🤖 6:51pm chresti: LOL
	6:51pm Fuzzy: Fuzzypumper Music Shop!
	6:51pm Zydeco Phil: I want the next AI song to sample mark’s play doh sound effects
	6:51pm Fredericks: This pop music was creepily accurate. Most pop is essentially manufactured using similar methods as the A.I..
	6:51pm P.Welles: Milli Vanilli?
	6:52pm Franco Twinkie: No brown Play-Doe...PLEASE!
	6:52pm Carmichael: If it's not Scottish ... It's CRAP!
	6:52pm ?: ↳ mazudog @6:50 Daft Punk
	6:52pm Fuzzy: Nah -- human literature and music won't be replaced with this -- I' don't buy it.
	6:53pm Listener: ↳ Fuzzy @6:52 Yeah
	6:53pm Fredericks: Hey A. I. write a song called "Rivers of Crap."
	6:53pm Deano de los Muertos: Low 👏 priced 👏 crap! 👏 Low 👏 priced 👏 crap! 👏
	6:53pm ?: Andy Breckman?
	6:54pm crestlove: this is the plot of the Styx album, "Kilroy was Here."
	6:54pm StringOFperils: This stuff IS coming, and it will get really good; this is just its infancy. Life will change irrevocably. Is already changing. Rapidly.The outcomes of this are already being seen. Masses of people will accept anything. They'll listen to anything. They'll eat anything. They'll believe anything. It's already contributed to massive instability in world economics and politics. Unthinking numbness to crucial realities about our very survival on Earth is already endemic. War and starvation is rife, and numb insensitivity to it is too. And we wrap ourselves in moronic desensitizing comforts that are all but exclusively coordinated by algorithms, and they aren't sustainable. We are becoming unemployable and unnecessary.
	🤖 6:54pm Handy Haversack: "AI bot, please give me Scott Williams's voice talking about Techtonic so that I can be happy."
	6:54pm Fuzzy: Egg-zactly, Scott!
	6:54pm castor: Amen Scott!
	🤖 6:54pm Will thee Sound Guy: Scott Williams wit a trailer park boys like twinkle in the background
	6:54pm Scott Williams: Oh hey!
	6:54pm jessie: it’s crap. tonight’s show is outstanding!
	🤖 6:55pm Webhamster Henry: I hope you don't think there's a real soul, Scott.
	6:55pm yippie: have you ever heard the billy jones and Ernest hare song Barney Google from 1923?
	6:55pm ledzeppelinsucks: If people listen to Journey and Foreigner and Queen for 45 years they are going to listen to this stuff.
	🤖 6:55pm Handy Haversack: Well, many thanks for the rants, the Play-Doh sounds, and the Scott Williams of it all, Mark! Another blazer -- and again, crucial. Oh, hi, Scott.
	6:55pm Carmichael: ↳ ledzeppelinsucks @6:55 and Led Zeppelin ...
	6:55pm dale: tomorrows kids will probably still crash ticketmaster's website to buy tickets to an a.i. concert.
	6:55pm ultradamno: ↳ Carmichael @6:50 Won for Alternative Album
	6:55pm Deano de los Muertos: Well said, Scott
	6:55pm castor: Could Data from Startrek make music?
	6:56pm ledzeppelinsucks: AI seems to be digital ranch dressing.
	6:56pm Carmichael: ↳ ultradamno @6:55 Alternative, that's it! gracias.
	6:56pm Mennlinn Rebarts: Good coda, mark! And thanks for the words, Scott. This episode was really starting to make me feel bleak.
	6:56pm Franco Twinkie: I love you Mark.
	6:56pm P.Welles: Ken dont get any cost cutting ideas!
	6:56pm StringOFperils: Right on, Mark. You can't stop something without first taking it seriously. And THIS is as serious as your life.
	🤖 6:57pm Handy Haversack: Resistance is all we have -- do it for one another.
	🤖 6:57pm Folsom: ↳ Fredericks @6:53 That is the name of my Randy Newman / GG Allin tribute band.
	6:57pm KWilde: Great show Mark!
	6:57pm Mr. Pumpy: I like AI as an interesting tool. I don't want it to ever replace the real deal, but I like it for other reasons. I am going to use it once in a while in an overt sense. Flame away...
	6:57pm castor: Thank you Mark!
	6:57pm The Butterman: Soul shmole
	6:57pm spodiodi: thanks, Mark
	6:57pm dale: ↳ castor @6:55 the holographic doctor from voyager was an operatic singer in one episode and got a swelled head but soon found out he was yesterdays' news.
	6:57pm ledzeppelinsucks: Thanks a lot. Have a mid range Taco Tuesday.
	6:57pm Sam: Soul can be reduced to zeroes and ones. If an inanimate speaker can produce a soulful song, why couldn’t a computer compose one?
	🤖 6:57pm Will thee Sound Guy: thank you Mark Hurst, and all the crap AI bots... lol
	6:57pm Deano de los Muertos: Thanks Mark!
	6:57pm Sam: Soul can be reduced to zeroes and ones. If an inanimate speaker can produce a soulful song, why couldn’t a computer compose one?
	6:57pm Colleen: Thank God for WFMU!!!
	6:57pm MarciB: I hope you are right, Mark. Resist!
	6:57pm chris in the redwoods: thanks, Mark!
	🤖 6:58pm Bas NL: Cheers Mark! You wet our souls.
	🤖 6:58pm Will thee Sound Guy: I forgot to pay my laugh now subscription
	6:59pm Feldy: Thanks Mark! (This message was written by a human)
	6:59pm castor: ↳ dale @6:57 That's interesting! And I do remember Data said he was "fully functional"
	6:59pm dale: is the guy pretending to be an architect?
	7:00pm dday: funnier than Friends
	7:00pm Mr. Pumpy: ↳ dale @6:59 marine biologist, prolly
	🤖 7:00pm Ken From Hyde Park: Thanks, Mark. Let us AIm high!
	🤖 7:00pm chresti: Thanks Mark!
	7:00pm Sam: Maybe this thing could do Comedians in Cars getting Coffee. That’s very predictable and not very funny.
	7:01pm dale: ↳ Sam @7:00 it should be called old jewish men eating with their mouths open.
	🤖 7:01pm chresti: I think it will be used in advertising if nowhere else.
	7:02pm Sam: ↳ dale @7:01 Or Rich Assholes driving around New York in an obnoxious car to get coffee because they hate common people too much to take the subway.
	7:02pm Mark Hurst: Thanks, everyone!
	7:03pm Listener: You're welcome, Mark
	8:06pm Edward: Great show. AI is a huge threat to creatives and writers. Tech & law writers might as well work on getting their plumber's certificate now.

Techtonic with Mark Hurst: Playlist from February 6, 2023

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Conversations with creators and thinkers who are charting the way forward in a tech-saturated society. In our shift to a digital future, we need alternatives to Big Tech. Homepage: techtonic.fm

Also available as an MP3 podcast. More info at our Podcast Central page.

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Upcoming events:

Mon. Dec 23rd, 6pm - 7pm: Don Fleming guest hosts Techtonic

February 6, 2023: Our AI-generated future: Mark Hurst on AI-extruded text and music

Listen to this show: MP3 - 128K | Pop-up listen Pop-up player!

(Source)

Today: Our AI-generated future

AI engines like ChatGPT, DALL-E, and Midjourney promise to generate text, images, and music at the click of the button. Mark Hurst has some sample output to share – along with his opinions.

• What’s the deal with this AI Seinfeld stream? (The Verge, Feb 1, 2023)

• AI-Generated Seinfeld-Like Twitch ‘TV Show’ Is Peak Absurdity (Kotaku, Feb 1, 2023): “co-creator Skyler Hartle said he and his co-creator Brian Habersberger have been working on the ‘passion project’ part-time for the past four years with a team of between three to seven people. With all of the AI tools at their disposal, including [Microsoft-owned] Azure Cognitive Services for voice generation, Hartle thinks the team can ‘spin up new shows or formats.’”

• Nothing Forever (AI-generated Seinfeldian shorts on Amazon-owned Twitch)

• You’ll Soon Be Able to Talk to Your Dead Mom In the Metaverse Thanks to ChatGPT: “Somnium Space’s Artur Sychov said a user has started to integrate OpenAI’s chatbot into his metaverse, creating a virtual assistant that offers a faster pathway for the development of ‘Live Forever’ mode, Sychov’s project to allow people to store the way they talk, move, and sound until after they die, when they can come back from the dead as an online avatar to speak with their relatives.”

• From Google: MusicLM: Generating Music From Text. MusicLM [is] a model generating high-fidelity music from text descriptions such as “a calming violin melody backed by a distorted guitar riff”.
--> “Slow tempo, bass-and-drums-led reggae song. Sustained electric guitar. High-pitched bongos with ringing tones. Vocals are relaxed with a laid-back feel, very expressive.”
--> “This is an r&b/hip-hop music piece. There is a male vocal rapping and a female vocal singing in a rap-like manner. The beat is comprised of a piano playing the chords of the tune with an electronic drum backing. The atmosphere of the piece is playful and energetic. This piece could be used in the soundtrack of a high school drama movie/TV show. It could also be played at birthday parties or beach parties.”

• Soundraw, promising royalty-free AI-generated music. For example, this tune: "Romantic, Sentimental, Sexy, Smooth, 100 BPM."

• Recent PBS special on AI: Part 1, Part 2

Past Techtonic episodes on AI music

• June 1, 2020 Techtonic: Ryan Walsh, discussing the OpenAI Jukebox

• Oct 8, 2018 Techtonic: AI-inspired music with Jamie Brew, Botnik cofounder, including...
-> I Have to Get My Car: using a smartphone’s predictive text to write a pop hit
-> Bored With This Desire To Get Ripped: “The lyrics to this song were written using a predictive keyboard trained on half Morrissey lyrics, half Amazon customer reviews of the P90X home workout DVD system.”
-> Soviet Nights: “We combined the Beach Boys with Ronald Reagan speeches to create the greatest Cold War pop song.”

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PAST EPISODES: techtonic.fm lists recent Techtonic shows.

PODCAST: Subscribe to the Techtonic podcast

Artist	Track	Album	Label	Approx. start time
Our AI-generated future: Mark Hurst on AI-extruded text and music
Tomaš Dvořák	Game Boy Tune "Game Boy Tune" by "Tomaš Dvořák"	Machinarium Soundtrack	n/a
	Nothing Forever "Nothing Forever"
	Mark on AI generators "Mark on AI generators"			0:03:22 (MP3 \| Pop-up)
	Nothing Forever "Nothing Forever"		n/a	0:54:14 (MP3 \| Pop-up)

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Listener comments!
	🤖 6:00pm Handy Haversack: Mark and the Techyons! Been asking K8 to hype this episode up for a bunch of very nervous HS teachers. Looking forward to it! I thought this piece in the Mark-Up was good, too: themarkup.org...
	6:00pm ultradamno: Mark! Techtonplicants!
	6:01pm chresti: Hi mark and techtoniciacs!
	🤖 6:01pm Will thee Sound Guy: Hi Mark Hurst and all!!!
	🤖 6:02pm Handy Haversack: I also just saw a headline that the Nothing Forever show was taken down because it generated antitrans content. So the violence inherent in the system is revealed.
	6:02pm listener james from westwood: Evening, Mark and all!
	🤖 6:02pm Webhamster Henry: Let's run all the chat posts through the ChatGPT detector!
	🤖 6:02pm Handy Haversack: Headline's body: www.theguardian.com...
	6:02pm Rolando: Present - good morning all
	6:02pm David in London: Evening Mark and all Technoids.
	6:03pm Franco Twinkie: Howdy Mark and discontented!
	🤖 6:03pm herb.nyc: Hola. While this show is on, ChatGPT and I are doing Sunday nytimes kenken (kenandy?)
	🤖 6:03pm Handy Haversack: ↳ David in London @6:02 David! Joe McG played "Reynardine" this morning, and I was hoping it would summon you.
	6:04pm LiXiviated Life: hello electronic friends
	6:05pm David in London: Hello Handles. Sadly I was unavoidably detained elsewhere. As my theme tune. I heartily approve, natch.
	6:05pm listener james from westwood: This is no worse than the babble the yambags in my last office job would utter in the coffee room. Which says a lot about 2000s-era TV.
	🤖 6:05pm Ken From Hyde Park: AI song lyrics ... where to send royalty checks?
	6:06pm Rich in Washington: This new Porest is lit
	🤖 6:06pm DjLorraine: MASINT stands for measurement & signature intelligence
	6:06pm ?: Oh thank god that’s over
	6:06pm D Rok: ↳ Handy Haversack @6:02 Shame they had to pull it already. I had just heard about it this morning, and was looking forward to checking it out.
	🤖 6:06pm Handy Haversack: ↳ Rich in Washington @6:06 Zing! In your FACE, stupid AI!
	6:07pm The Butterman: That was worse than Andy.
	6:07pm P.Welles: I mad as hell, and I will take it.
	🤖 6:08pm sbw: Nothing Forever is so, so bad. Painful.
	6:09pm Mennlinn Rebarts: Needs a tad more Butlerian Jihad.
	6:09pm Ciggy: I'm lost in a forest
	6:09pm LiXiviated Life: Nothing Forever? That’s sounds like my life
	🤖 6:09pm Handy Haversack: ↳ D Rok @6:06 Good illustration of the biases built in to supposedly "neutral" tech, though. Algorithms are made by people, and people often suck.
	6:09pm Franco Twinkie: Who likes this shit?
	🤖 6:09pm Webhamster Henry: The Werner Herzog / Slavoj Zizek stream is pretty good though! infiniteconversation.com
	6:10pm David in London: Christ on a bike, this like some vision of Hell.
	6:10pm Sam: With enough canned laughter and bass guitar riffs you can make anything sound almost funny.
	6:10pm Mennlinn Rebarts: ↳ Franco Twinkie @6:09 The audience which will also be replaced by AI.
	6:10pm Franco Twinkie: ↳ Mennlinn Rebarts @6:10 I hope!
	6:11pm Sam: ↳ Franco Twinkie @6:09 I don’t understand why people are so impressed by this. It’s god awful.
	6:11pm Mennlinn Rebarts: Imagine a boot stamping on the face of humanity forever. Same level of humor.
	6:11pm Sam: The Twilight Zone?
	🤖 6:11pm Handy Haversack: ↳ Handy Haversack @6:09 But don't worry, they say the right content-moderation tool will take care of this, no problem. Trust the algorithm. "“Before going live again, we are going to implement the correct content moderation tools OpenAI provides and also investigate using a secondary content moderation system as a redundancy,” "
	6:11pm Bob in DC and/or Virginia: This reminds me a little of David Lynch's "Rabbits" short films (part of which turned up in his movie Inland Empire), although in that case the inane dialogue and inappropriate laughter manage to be disturbing and ominous.
	6:12pm Malcontent: Just tried to see it. Got this message instead: "This channel is temporarily unavailable due to a violation of Twitch's Community Guidelines or Terms of Service."
	6:12pm Fredericks: First time I spoke to Mark, Seinfeld and nothing were both mentioned.
	6:12pm bleubombersune: Watched commentary and some film clips of Nothing Forever on The National Rational last week
	6:12pm Mennlinn Rebarts: I always assumed Friends had been made by an AI.
	6:13pm paddy in matawan: linky brokey - m.twitch.tv...
	6:13pm Sam: This will never happen and neither will self-driving cars.
	6:13pm ultradamno: A Skinamarink series would be ideal
	6:13pm Fredericks: All the A.I. shows will be like Lavern and Shirley episodes. Decent but not memorable.
	6:14pm castor: Hi everyone! IMO: I doubt AI will ever be able to match human creativity unless it becomes embodied in the world just like a human.
	6:15pm P.Welles: If its commercially available, then imagine what has already been unleased and in play.
	6:15pm paddy in matawan: Oh wait it was banned today?!
	6:15pm Chris from Brooklyn: ↳ paddy in matawan @6:13 Terms violation. It was struck eleven days for crimes against transgender isming yadda Watched it More like listened. The characters were really into using the microwave oven every time while chattering nothingly
	6:15pm sophistikitsch: Good Morning from the future (in the upside-down). Can't wait for the boss to go so I can dive into this.
	6:15pm chresti: Remember when cartoon animation stopped being made by hand?
	🤖 6:16pm Webhamster Henry: News today: Google's releasing "Bard", their answer to ChatGPT, possibly able to answer questions leveraging newer info from the internet.
	6:16pm paddy in matawan: ↳ Chris from Brooklyn @6:15 Thanks Chris!
	6:16pm LiXiviated Life: I read that YouTube seems to be most people’s search engine of choice.
	6:16pm Sam: But why would anyone want this? Don’t you want to hear things that came from other conscious humans? Don’t we still want human connection? What the hell is the appeal of any of this??!!
	6:17pm Chris from Brooklyn: I really long for more of those sweet sweet Chinese animations of yore Welcome paddy
	6:18pm Chris from Brooklyn: It was oddly fun in doses. True seinfeldian generator
	6:18pm chris in the redwoods: hi, Mark and folks. i think the layoffs were all about increasing stock prices, by artificially inflating the bottom line. no?
	🤖 6:18pm Folsom: Google hired 40k last year then laid off 10k for a net 30k, don't hear journalists talk about that
	🤖 6:19pm DjLorraine: Me no likey AI.
	6:19pm P.Welles: Back to the caves
	6:19pm sophistikitsch: ↳ chresti @6:15 I remember backgrounds being used across different cartoons to save money - The classic Spiderman Revolt in the 5th dimension
	6:19pm Listener: I think Mark is overlooking the probability that, because the content is trash, won't succeed. It'll fall into the waste bin of history like the new formula of coke. Nobody will tune in... And pay for it??? HAHA! Good luck.
	6:20pm ultradamno: Wasn't Bing sued for just giving Google results? It would seem that would work in their favor in getting people to use it...
	6:22pm Sam: They’ll start charging for subscriptions to this shit…. And lo and behold everyone will turn their computers off and go to underground nightclubs to hear real comedy and illegal cinemas to see real movies. Like speakeasies. Real art and entertainment is a human need.
	6:22pm chris in the redwoods: Brazen Assault on Rational Decisions
	6:22pm ultradamno: A little ironic they would get into trouble for transphobic content, since it's transitioning the Seinfeld gang from New York people into whatever this is...
	6:22pm David in London: Bard should speak in the style of medieval England.
	🤖 6:22pm Handy Haversack: ↳ Folsom @6:18 All bards since first edition have been terrible ideas.
	🤖 6:23pm Handy Haversack: ↳ Handy Haversack @6:22 Ooops, sorry, not directed at Folsom!
	🤖 6:24pm Webhamster Henry: Relevant article: www.wired.com...
	🤖 6:24pm Will thee Sound Guy: it's literally the one feature that I've been waiting for
	🤖 6:25pm Webhamster Henry: Apple is working on AI - it doesn't have to compete with these other systems. Their AI is being integrated into their software thanks to their new ML-friendly hardware.
	6:25pm mndave: Just came up with the sole use case for AI - regurgitating big tech press releases
	6:26pm MarciB: I have wonder how much AI will be in the Apple surveillance googles coming out
	6:27pm bleubombersune: Star Trek TNG "Data the Comedian" shows you AI or even those with positronic brains will never achieve comedy as we know it today. Can't "C' AI comedian ever being like Lewis Black or Margaret Cho
	🤖 6:28pm Webhamster Henry: There are a bunch of other AI media projects, like automatic coloring of B&W photos, interpolating frames in old or damaged video, and Disney's generation of new mouth shapes for generated /translated dialog in "live action" movies.
	🤖 6:29pm Folsom: ↳ bleubombersune @6:27 Can't forget Joe Piscopo!
	6:29pm ultradamno: I suppose Curb would be the logical next AI sitcom, as the closest thing to a Seinfeld spin-off
	6:31pm Sam: Even if they came up with better material, the delivery is terrible!
	6:32pm StringOFperils: Other people's work has increasingly been riddled with inaccuracies and plagiarism over the last 30 years, as critical thought has eroded, and funding for journalism has withered, so it's not surprising that an AI emulator would produce similar results. Its original model is vapid
	6:33pm dale: without timing or inflection or personality these joke deliveries suck. imagine them doing the who's on first bit.
	6:33pm P.Welles: I would like to see Mark have an interview show on some platform, even on youtube to bring these ideas to a wider audience.
	6:33pm Listener: You get it, sam. It won't work like "they" pray it will. They're desperate.
	6:34pm mndave: ChatGPT, deliver me an episode of Techtonic by Mark Hurst on WFMU
	🤖 6:34pm Bas NL: Hi Mark & all!
	6:34pm ledzeppelinsucks: Chat GBT should place literally and actually over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over
	🤖 6:35pm Will thee Sound Guy: ↳ dale @6:33 i agree, even old drum machines had a bit of randomness to the strength of a hit, duration, and timing if you wanted it to sound more "human"
	6:35pm Bob in DC and/or Virginia: I'm sure no students will end up being falsely accused by AI's AI detectors.
	6:35pm Marie: shysters
	🤖 6:35pm Handy Haversack: And then also probably using the junk that's submitting for testing to feed the junk machine. And remember that the actual people who have to spend their labor dealing with this are teachers -- because they don't have enough work to do already. The essentially antilabor stance of Big Tech always comes through in the effects of its products.
	6:36pm Ken: Good point Mark, it’s dr Seuss’ Star-Bellied Sneetches all over again
	🤖 6:36pm Webhamster Henry: Well, technically, ChatGPT could just make signatures of everything it generates and then when you ask if this came from ChatGPT, you could check for the signature.
	6:36pm ledzeppelinsucks: They won't have to drop kick the worn out jobs to Texas in 20 years.
	6:36pm Fredericks: What you are describing sounds like a Protection Racket.
	🤖 6:37pm Bas NL: These two chat bots walk into this bar...
	6:37pm ledzeppelinsucks: Eternal ranch dressing and Led Zeppelin reruns.
	🤖 6:38pm Handy Haversack: ↳ Bas NL @6:37 ... what is this, some kind of fruit?
	6:38pm StringOFperils: These companies are influencing and altering university curricula so as to invalidate study that doesn't produce outcomes within their own purview. The arts ar disappearing. Writing and philosophy are disappearing. Coding is supplanting thinking. The juggernaut serves itself. And the world goes down the toilet.
	6:38pm MarciB: The robots are coming for your job..so maybe now we can get universal basic income?
	🤖 6:38pm Will thee Sound Guy: and another $10 on the subscription to tell you exactly when to laugh at the crappy jokes
	6:39pm dale: astral weeks? don't get irwin started!
	🤖 6:41pm Will thee Sound Guy: they even got the tape warble
	6:41pm The Butterman: That just sounded like Phish.
	6:41pm ?: most likely woke up with a Suspicious Mind
	6:42pm P.Welles: maybe AI put and end to holograms!
	6:42pm Lixiviated Life: You are on target about the intent of corporations. Left corporate world 7 months ago because I they no longer care about people. Employees or clients.
	6:42pm ultradamno: But could Elvis himself pass the Turing test, in fairness?
	6:42pm Rolando: You'll all hate me ...(sorry) but in the 80's Bill made the virus and then sold the anti-virus - then in 2020 we get the virus again and then vaccine :) and now with ChatGPT we get the plagiarism problem in schools and if you pay money they will tell you if we caused the plagiarism - lol ❤️
	6:44pm P.Welles: ↳ Rolando @6:42 i dont hate you
	🤖 6:44pm Will thee Sound Guy: ↳ Rolando @6:42 not entirely wrong tho
	🤖 6:44pm chresti: Thae "Elvis" sounded like something on music for Mind Control.
	6:44pm Franco Twinkie: ↳ dale @6:39 This is how a movement starts. Astral Weeks is not exactly on most peoples radar. But thanks to Irwin, people who missed it the first time around will wonder if it's a case the the emperors new clothes.
	6:45pm ?: Sounds like what won at the grammy's last night
	6:45pm Jules in VT: Irie!
	🤖 6:45pm DjLorraine: Micah make it stop
	🤖 6:45pm chresti: This will be played on airplanes and hold music
	🤖 6:46pm Webhamster Henry: Here's the original Robot Reggae from the Reggaebots! www.wfmu.org...
	6:46pm Listener: Is anybody here in favor of censorship? Of any kind? Just wondering.
	🤖 6:46pm Will thee Sound Guy: ↳ @6:45 Wait the G's were last night?
	🤖 6:47pm Bas NL: Future: Oh, yes, that's Mark Hurst. He says he actually spoke on a radio talk show..
	6:47pm dale: adriano celentano made a toetapper of a nonsense song.
	6:47pm Franco Twinkie: Music that's like a Play-Doh Fun Factory?
	🤖 6:48pm chresti: Can you direct me to the Extruded Music section?
	6:48pm The Butterman: ↳ Franco Twinkie @6:47 Goo Extruder!
	6:49pm ?: sounds like Bad Marmot..
	6:49pm Deano de los Muertos: It almost reminds me of the guy in the beginning of the Weekly World Blues intro that basically said “the Blues is easy to play, here’s how you play it.”
	6:49pm ledzeppelinsucks: Can this thing make rice burner cars sound cool?
	6:49pm The Butterman: WTF Mark, you hate birthday parties now?
	6:49pm Colleen: ugh....just got here and I'm sure "but I like it" isn't a good response
	6:50pm Feldy: ↳ Franco Twinkie @6:47 LOL Franco
	6:50pm ?: Birthdays make me feel older
	6:50pm paddy: i gotta do a trap song in it. prolly sound the same as humans.
	6:50pm MarciB: Sounds like next year's Grammy award winner!
	6:50pm Carmichael: ↳ Will thee Sound Guy @6:46 Yes, and Wet Leg was up for artist of the year.
	6:50pm ultradamno: Well, "a lot of sounds" is most of what I listen to now, so....
	6:50pm dale: ha ha!
	🤖 6:50pm Will thee Sound Guy: ↳ ledzeppelinsucks @6:49 with enough money, you can get a big enough can exhaust to really make it good
	6:50pm The Butterman: Frank O’Twinkie.
	6:50pm mazudog: I'm waiting for the human band that covers a ai songs
	🤖 6:51pm Handy Haversack: Really here mainly for the Play-Doh sounds.
	6:51pm ledzeppelinsucks: A meat screen. A Play Do screen.
	🤖 6:51pm chresti: LOL
	6:51pm Fuzzy: Fuzzypumper Music Shop!
	6:51pm Zydeco Phil: I want the next AI song to sample mark’s play doh sound effects
	6:51pm Fredericks: This pop music was creepily accurate. Most pop is essentially manufactured using similar methods as the A.I..
	6:51pm P.Welles: Milli Vanilli?
	6:52pm Franco Twinkie: No brown Play-Doe...PLEASE!
	6:52pm Carmichael: If it's not Scottish ... It's CRAP!
	6:52pm ?: ↳ mazudog @6:50 Daft Punk
	6:52pm Fuzzy: Nah -- human literature and music won't be replaced with this -- I' don't buy it.
	6:53pm Listener: ↳ Fuzzy @6:52 Yeah
	6:53pm Fredericks: Hey A. I. write a song called "Rivers of Crap."
	6:53pm Deano de los Muertos: Low 👏 priced 👏 crap! 👏 Low 👏 priced 👏 crap! 👏
	6:53pm ?: Andy Breckman?
	6:54pm crestlove: this is the plot of the Styx album, "Kilroy was Here."
	6:54pm StringOFperils: This stuff IS coming, and it will get really good; this is just its infancy. Life will change irrevocably. Is already changing. Rapidly.The outcomes of this are already being seen. Masses of people will accept anything. They'll listen to anything. They'll eat anything. They'll believe anything. It's already contributed to massive instability in world economics and politics. Unthinking numbness to crucial realities about our very survival on Earth is already endemic. War and starvation is rife, and numb insensitivity to it is too. And we wrap ourselves in moronic desensitizing comforts that are all but exclusively coordinated by algorithms, and they aren't sustainable. We are becoming unemployable and unnecessary.
	🤖 6:54pm Handy Haversack: "AI bot, please give me Scott Williams's voice talking about Techtonic so that I can be happy."
	6:54pm Fuzzy: Egg-zactly, Scott!
	6:54pm castor: Amen Scott!
	🤖 6:54pm Will thee Sound Guy: Scott Williams wit a trailer park boys like twinkle in the background
	6:54pm Scott Williams: Oh hey!
	6:54pm jessie: it’s crap. tonight’s show is outstanding!
	🤖 6:55pm Webhamster Henry: I hope you don't think there's a real soul, Scott.
	6:55pm yippie: have you ever heard the billy jones and Ernest hare song Barney Google from 1923?
	6:55pm ledzeppelinsucks: If people listen to Journey and Foreigner and Queen for 45 years they are going to listen to this stuff.
	🤖 6:55pm Handy Haversack: Well, many thanks for the rants, the Play-Doh sounds, and the Scott Williams of it all, Mark! Another blazer -- and again, crucial. Oh, hi, Scott.
	6:55pm Carmichael: ↳ ledzeppelinsucks @6:55 and Led Zeppelin ...
	6:55pm dale: tomorrows kids will probably still crash ticketmaster's website to buy tickets to an a.i. concert.
	6:55pm ultradamno: ↳ Carmichael @6:50 Won for Alternative Album
	6:55pm Deano de los Muertos: Well said, Scott
	6:55pm castor: Could Data from Startrek make music?
	6:56pm ledzeppelinsucks: AI seems to be digital ranch dressing.
	6:56pm Carmichael: ↳ ultradamno @6:55 Alternative, that's it! gracias.
	6:56pm Mennlinn Rebarts: Good coda, mark! And thanks for the words, Scott. This episode was really starting to make me feel bleak.
	6:56pm Franco Twinkie: I love you Mark.
	6:56pm P.Welles: Ken dont get any cost cutting ideas!
	6:56pm StringOFperils: Right on, Mark. You can't stop something without first taking it seriously. And THIS is as serious as your life.
	🤖 6:57pm Handy Haversack: Resistance is all we have -- do it for one another.
	🤖 6:57pm Folsom: ↳ Fredericks @6:53 That is the name of my Randy Newman / GG Allin tribute band.
	6:57pm KWilde: Great show Mark!
	6:57pm Mr. Pumpy: I like AI as an interesting tool. I don't want it to ever replace the real deal, but I like it for other reasons. I am going to use it once in a while in an overt sense. Flame away...
	6:57pm castor: Thank you Mark!
	6:57pm The Butterman: Soul shmole
	6:57pm spodiodi: thanks, Mark
	6:57pm dale: ↳ castor @6:55 the holographic doctor from voyager was an operatic singer in one episode and got a swelled head but soon found out he was yesterdays' news.
	6:57pm ledzeppelinsucks: Thanks a lot. Have a mid range Taco Tuesday.
	6:57pm Sam: Soul can be reduced to zeroes and ones. If an inanimate speaker can produce a soulful song, why couldn’t a computer compose one?
	🤖 6:57pm Will thee Sound Guy: thank you Mark Hurst, and all the crap AI bots... lol
	6:57pm Deano de los Muertos: Thanks Mark!
	6:57pm Sam: Soul can be reduced to zeroes and ones. If an inanimate speaker can produce a soulful song, why couldn’t a computer compose one?
	6:57pm Colleen: Thank God for WFMU!!!
	6:57pm MarciB: I hope you are right, Mark. Resist!
	6:57pm chris in the redwoods: thanks, Mark!
	🤖 6:58pm Bas NL: Cheers Mark! You wet our souls.
	🤖 6:58pm Will thee Sound Guy: I forgot to pay my laugh now subscription
	6:59pm Feldy: Thanks Mark! (This message was written by a human)
	6:59pm castor: ↳ dale @6:57 That's interesting! And I do remember Data said he was "fully functional"
	6:59pm dale: is the guy pretending to be an architect?
	7:00pm dday: funnier than Friends
	7:00pm Mr. Pumpy: ↳ dale @6:59 marine biologist, prolly
	🤖 7:00pm Ken From Hyde Park: Thanks, Mark. Let us AIm high!
	🤖 7:00pm chresti: Thanks Mark!
	7:00pm Sam: Maybe this thing could do Comedians in Cars getting Coffee. That’s very predictable and not very funny.
	7:01pm dale: ↳ Sam @7:00 it should be called old jewish men eating with their mouths open.
	🤖 7:01pm chresti: I think it will be used in advertising if nowhere else.
	7:02pm Sam: ↳ dale @7:01 Or Rich Assholes driving around New York in an obnoxious car to get coffee because they hate common people too much to take the subway.
	7:02pm Mark Hurst: Thanks, everyone!
	7:03pm Listener: You're welcome, Mark
	8:06pm Edward: Great show. AI is a huge threat to creatives and writers. Tech & law writers might as well work on getting their plumber's certificate now.

Techtonic with Mark Hurst: Playlist from February 6, 2023

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