Weird Al vs. AI | Matt Connarton Unleashed

0:00 This is interesting because AI obviously is a subject that comes up quite a bit on the show. We talk about AI and its impact on the music industry and in entertainment and some of the other some of the other, you know, potential problems that it may raise. This is about weird Al Yankovic. By the way, I'm a weird alfan. Weird Al Yankovic abruptly pulls out of a lucrative AI ad spot, saying that he can't be the poster boy for AI and this is something new that I was not aware of, it, says. Weird Al reveals that he was offered a lucrative ad spot for productivity software, but he backed out once he realized the product involved AI.

0:41 I'm not a fan of AI. Quote unquote. Again. This is from Digital Musicnews dot Com parody king. Weird Al Yankovic sat down for an interview with Syracuse dot Com ahead of his Syracuse stop on his Bigger and Weirder tour, where he revealed that he was offered a nice pile of money to appear in a commercial for productivity focused business software, but once he realized the project involved AI, he backed out. Uh quote, I'm not going to mention any names. But they told me it was for a business. It was business software that would increase productivity.

1:17 I said, oh, well, yeah, sure I could do that. And then a week before we're supposed to shoot it, I find out this is AI, and I thought, oh no, I can't be the poster boy for AI. Forget it. So I felt bad about kind of pulling out at the last minute, but yeah, I'm not down with that. Unquote. The musician is very familiar with the weird al jokes that have cropped up on crowd on online sites since the rise of artificial intelligence, but he has made it clear that he is not a fan of AI. Oh the weird AI jokes?

1:52 Is that what it is? Meanwhile, besides his story, Yankovic is working on a Broadway musical. All Right, we won't get into that, but I'd be curious to know. Though. Here's the thing about this, and again I respect his decision, but I would just be curious to know. When he says, well, I found out the software was AI. Is there an AI component to it? Is it literally like a chat chept? Like? What are we talking about here? Because you know AI? I mean, we can pretend it's like this brand new thing, but it's not.

2:34 Lots of things have been using you know, we talk about this when we talk about how you know, these platforms are now trying to like Spotify, they're now trying to flag AI generated music, and it's like, okay, cool, but some people are gonna get caught up in the net because you know, every major recording studio with with you know, advanced software. You know, some of those programs have AI components in them. If you interacted with a chatbot online, maybe you're trying to get service from a company and you're talking to a chatbot.

3:07 You know, that's been going on for at least twenty years, maybe longer. That's that's an example of AI. So it's not like it's a new thing. I'm just curious, like when when he says, well I found out the software was AI, what does that mean exactly? I would like to know more about that. Again, I'm not you know, I'm certainly not criticizing him or his decision or anything like that. I respect it, but I just I'm I would be curious to know more. And I wonder if if any of you might feel the same way about that.

3:38 I just would be I just would be curious, curious to know more about that