Episode
Deepfake Drake + HatGPT + Ben Smith on the End of the BuzzFeed Era
1:01:26
Published: Fri Apr 28 2023
Description
A song featuring A.I.-generated versions of Drake and the Weeknd went viral — before being taken down by streaming services. Is censorship of A.I.-generated songs the way forward? Or can singers benefit from synthetic voices, as some artists like Grimes are suggesting?Then, HatGPT: Kevin and Casey pull headlines out of a hat and generate their own takes on the news.And Ben Smith, the former BuzzFeed News editor, discusses the end of the 2010s digital media era.On today’s episode:Ben Smith is a journalist and co-founder of the digital media company Semafor. He was a New York Times media columnist and the first editor in chief of BuzzFeed News.Additional reading:An A.I.-generated song made to sound like Drake and the Weeknd went viral before being taken down by streaming services.Grimes invited fans to make songs using A.I.-generated versions of her voice.Snapchat saw a spike in one-star reviews after users criticized its “My AI” feature.Taylor Swift did not invest in FTX, the collapsed cryptocurrency exchange company.Researchers turned a goldfish into a cyborg.The Republican National Committee released an A.I.-generated ad slamming President Biden.The U.K. blocked Microsoft’s $69 billion bid for the video game company Activision.Ben Smith’s book, “Traffic: Genius, Rivalry, and Delusion in the Billion-Dollar Race to Go Viral,” is an origin story of digital media.A BuzzFeed article set off a viral debate on the color of a dress.
Chapters
Bird Duck is an AI chatbot that responds to whatever you type with duck language, and some people may use it to communicate with AI duck during a war, while others just use it for fun.
00:00 - 01:53 (01:53)
Summary
Bird Duck is an AI chatbot that responds to whatever you type with duck language, and some people may use it to communicate with AI duck during a war, while others just use it for fun.
EpisodeDeepfake Drake + HatGPT + Ben Smith on the End of the BuzzFeed Era
PodcastHard Fork
A music group called Ghostwriter uses AI to create songs that don't actually exist by asking people to submit their phone numbers so they could get a text with a link to the full song.
01:53 - 05:00 (03:07)
Summary
A music group called Ghostwriter uses AI to create songs that don't actually exist by asking people to submit their phone numbers so they could get a text with a link to the full song. The AI-generated song has the voices of Drake and The Weeknd, but the lyrics are not theirs.
EpisodeDeepfake Drake + HatGPT + Ben Smith on the End of the BuzzFeed Era
PodcastHard Fork
As AI technology becomes more advanced, artists are beginning to ask for financial compensation and control over their voices if they're being used to train models.
05:00 - 12:08 (07:08)
Summary
As AI technology becomes more advanced, artists are beginning to ask for financial compensation and control over their voices if they're being used to train models. The copyright violations come from the training process, which involves uploading songs, rather than the creation of the AI-generated music itself.
EpisodeDeepfake Drake + HatGPT + Ben Smith on the End of the BuzzFeed Era
PodcastHard Fork
The hosting duo discusses the potential of using AI-generated speech in creative endeavors and how it compares to licensing human voices.
12:08 - 19:29 (07:21)
Summary
The hosting duo discusses the potential of using AI-generated speech in creative endeavors and how it compares to licensing human voices.
EpisodeDeepfake Drake + HatGPT + Ben Smith on the End of the BuzzFeed Era
PodcastHard Fork
In their new segment, the hosts present recent tech news stories in a "lightning round" format, assisted by a chat bot inside the Snapchat app.
19:29 - 21:57 (02:28)
Summary
In their new segment, the hosts present recent tech news stories in a "lightning round" format, assisted by a chat bot inside the Snapchat app.
EpisodeDeepfake Drake + HatGPT + Ben Smith on the End of the BuzzFeed Era
PodcastHard Fork
Summary
The need to start exploring A.I. models to become literate in the ways to talk to chatbots is discussed as people try to jailbreak celebrity chatbots. Endorsement deals are also being made by celebrities like Tom Brady and Giselle using these chatbots.
EpisodeDeepfake Drake + HatGPT + Ben Smith on the End of the BuzzFeed Era
PodcastHard Fork
The use of AI for political attack ads is expected to increase quickly, and brain-monitoring devices are now being tested in the fishing industry, potentially revealing a new level of information about fish behavior.
25:21 - 30:27 (05:06)
Summary
The use of AI for political attack ads is expected to increase quickly, and brain-monitoring devices are now being tested in the fishing industry, potentially revealing a new level of information about fish behavior.
EpisodeDeepfake Drake + HatGPT + Ben Smith on the End of the BuzzFeed Era
PodcastHard Fork
The decisions made by big tech companies about what to put in people's feeds and how to rank their algorithms can have consequences for journalists, media companies, and ultimately media consumers.
30:27 - 36:05 (05:38)
Summary
The decisions made by big tech companies about what to put in people's feeds and how to rank their algorithms can have consequences for journalists, media companies, and ultimately media consumers. There is a growing assumption that even the top three tech companies in the world may not be allowed to buy anything due to regulatory concerns.
EpisodeDeepfake Drake + HatGPT + Ben Smith on the End of the BuzzFeed Era
PodcastHard Fork
The emergence of social media transformed news and journalism and caused a shift in the media industry.
36:05 - 48:00 (11:55)
Summary
The emergence of social media transformed news and journalism and caused a shift in the media industry. Journalists and digital media companies felt like they were living on the back of giants and struggling to keep up with the fast pace of social media trends.
EpisodeDeepfake Drake + HatGPT + Ben Smith on the End of the BuzzFeed Era
PodcastHard Fork
ByteDance and Semaphore founder Sam Shafner discusses the state of digital journalism, the promise of AI and the risks posed by platforms like TikTok.
48:00 - 54:28 (06:28)
Summary
ByteDance and Semaphore founder Sam Shafner discusses the state of digital journalism, the promise of AI and the risks posed by platforms like TikTok.
EpisodeDeepfake Drake + HatGPT + Ben Smith on the End of the BuzzFeed Era
PodcastHard Fork
The conversation discusses the current state of media reporting, the potential of returning to the fundamentals of journalism, and the fun nature of the industry.
54:28 - 59:47 (05:19)
Summary
The conversation discusses the current state of media reporting, the potential of returning to the fundamentals of journalism, and the fun nature of the industry.
EpisodeDeepfake Drake + HatGPT + Ben Smith on the End of the BuzzFeed Era
PodcastHard Fork
The credits for the Hard Fork podcast are given, including thanks to several individuals and a call to check out more of their videos.
59:47 - 1:00:49 (01:02)
Summary
The credits for the Hard Fork podcast are given, including thanks to several individuals and a call to check out more of their videos.