An AI Probably Didn't Write This
Or... did I? I mean, did it?
Every other day there’s another creepy, disturbing story about artificial intelligence doing something unethical and/or taking somebody’s job. Today I’m mulling over two such stories at once.
Do you notice anything odd about these posters for Alex Garland’s new film Civil War? (A movie I appreciated and never want to see again.)
If you said, “Hey, that looks like the work of a robot,” you nailed it. Good eye, Sarah Connor.
Apparently A24 decided to use AI to promote the movie, instead of hiring artists and photographers. And now they’re catching hell for it.
So is Netflix, for this.
They’re using AI in true-crime documentaries now. They can make it look like anybody is doing anything. It’s fast, it’s cheap, and it’s wrong.
A lot of unscrupulous people are already using this technology to do things that would’ve been unimaginable just a year ago. We are not ready for this as a society.
Now I’m starting to wonder if I’ve been messing around with this AI crap too much myself. I’ve been treating it as a novelty: “Hey, this thing can ‘draw’ a kinda funny picture in seconds. It can ‘write’ a hit song in less time than it takes to listen to it. Pretty neat, eh?”
But am I contributing to the problem? Am I just helping train these addictive automatons to take over the world from us flawed, farting humans? All this stuff is giving me pause.
Hell, the robots will probably learn to do that too. Fart, I mean. All the entertainment, none of the smell.
Once again, I make this pledge to you: I will never use any AI-generated content in this newsletter without disclaiming it as such. And I’ll only do it if it makes me laugh.
You should read words from humans instead! Click here and subscribe to the Stiles Section, written by Andrew Stiles at the Washington Free Beacon. He’s funny.
Taylor Swift just released a double album at 2 in the morning, so I’m listening to this instead:
Yes, that’s the late, great Glen Campbell doing some good ol’ cowpunk with the band X. It’s from his new(!) album Duets – Ghost on the Canvas Sessions, which was released today. Apparently somebody took his final album, 2011’s Ghost on the Canvas, and remixed it as a series of posthumous duets.
The guest list is amazing. Besides X, there’s:
Eric Clapton
Dolly Parton
Sting
Carole King
Brian Wilson
Daryl Hall & Dave Stewart
Elton John
Brian Setzer
And a few more names I didn’t recognize.
It was sad to see what became of Campbell in his later years. I can still remember running around the house as a tiny little kid after watching his show, yelling, “Hi, I’m Glen Campbell!” But fame really did a number on him. It’s a shame, because he was so talented.
Getting a “new” album from him in 2024 is a nice surprise in an otherwise grim year so far. Even if they did need to dig him up to do it.
Graham Linehan is a British TV screenwriter and occasional actor. You might know him from his work on Father Ted and The IT Crowd. He also had a small acting role on Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace.
I’ve been a fan of his writing since Black Books, back in 2000. That show was sort of like a British Seinfeld, except led by a drunken Irishman who runs a used bookstore and hates absolutely everybody.
So when Twitter started and I saw Linehan was tweeting away on it, I started following him. By which I mean, heckling him. We got into some fights, because he’s a big lefty and I’m not. I think he blocked me at one point, and I know he’s been banned and reinstated at least once. But whatever, it was a long time ago.
Then, a few years back, I noticed Linehan was getting a lot of flack from his buddies on the left because he doesn’t believe in all this “gender-affirming” lunacy. Now he’s a pariah in his own industry.
Once upon a time, it wasn’t controversial to opine that children shouldn’t be sterilized for playing with the “wrong” toys. You weren’t risking social suicide by saying it’s wrong to cut off a little boy’s genitals for telling a therapist he wants to be Taylor Swift when he grows up.
Now Linehan is in the same boat as fellow gender-pariah J.K. Rowling. Well, I guess he’s in a separate, much smaller boat. Unlike her, he doesn’t have literally $1 billion to insulate him from the people who want to destroy him. He can’t sit on a big pile of cash with two middle fingers in the air while a pack of freaks with purple hair scream threats up at him. He’s a working man, and now he can’t find work in the U.K.
What you’re about to read is Linehan’s description of the latest attempt to ruin his life for blaspheming against the Church of Gender Ideology. It has to do with a Father Ted musical that he helped write, which he says is completed but has never gotten off the ground.
I encourage you to read the whole thing. It’s bonkers how quickly these bizarre ideas can infect people’s minds and become secular gospel.
“Fie, cisnormative blasphemer!”
This isn’t about criticizing someone for disagreeing about a hot-button issue. This is about insane activists destroying the careers of people who don’t want to carve up children for political reasons.
An entire generation will grow up to wonder why we allowed this to happen to them while saying nothing. Well, Graham Linehan is saying something. If you think he’s right and the Pink Mafia are wrong, help him spread the word.
TGIF (Twelve Goblins Imply Falsehoods), and thanks for reading.
Fridays are usually free here, but I’ve got bills to pay and you’ve got a conscience to salve. Subscribe now and get 20% off!
The sale ends next Tuesday, so please don’t put it off. Seriously, man, what more do I need to do here? Please stop making me beg.
And speaking of paying customers, this last item is for them only…