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Would you miss me if Im gone?
The AI-generated episode isnt great … but it isnt bad, either.
More importantly, the thing isnearlypassable.
I would also have thought,Wait, Robert Smith is back?
Why does he sound so blitzed?
What you heard was kind of the best we could do, said Malone.
On the other hand, he continues to be bothered by just how annoying the tools were to use.
The prompt had contained no such idea.
Generative AI tools are generally talked about as systems that trade in patterns.
What does the automated replicability of a house style illuminate about that style?
Whats the line between exercising a house style and being a parody of yourself?
Is it unfair to feel that the successful AI automation of a house style somehow … cheapens its value?
What is style but just a set of rules you follow?
said Malone, staring blankly into the Zoom screen.
And does that make us special?
Its probably less interesting than we think.
In the way that the anxious mind does, Malones existential spiral has only metastasized over time.
The technology will only get better, he said.
Some portion of listeners already function that way, so presumably theyll drift away.
If you cant already tell, Malone doesnt quite know what to think.
Of course, neither do I.
All I have are childish, fantastical abstractions.
Thats the optimistic sci-fi best-case scenario, probably.
Its cognitively impossible to wrap ones head around whats to come.
The persistent experience offuture shockhas become so exponentially shocking it barely registers as anything other than background noise.
He calls ittechno-impostor syndrome.
he said, by way of definition.
Lately, Ive been going through a very human stretch of writers block.
All I see is work thats merely passable.
Or at the very least, that it wont do a good enough job thats merely passable.
It makes me wonder this: Once everything shakes out, would anyone even notice if Im gone?
Gimlet had just won aPeabodyand aPulitzer, but lets be real: Spotifys not in the awards business.
Its a depressing development, but one thats ultimately unsurprising given how the broader story remains the same.
Everything else is just collateral damage.
Sadly, the majority of these employees lost the jobs they toiled at so tirelessly.
Meanwhile, didnt I hear somewhere recently that the company flew the Ringers staff out to Sweden …?
