Goodby Easter

When Western societies were mainly a combination of Christians and their slightly different churches, having Christmas and Easter (plus some other religious milestone dates) made sense. Not anymore.

In a diverse world, following the religious pace of one type of religion is a relic.

I don't have anything against Christian beliefs. I was brought up mostly following them, and only at the advanced age of 12 did I start to question those practices and dogmas that the Sunday school tried to force me to believe. But as a whole, I saw that they worked at least in getting Christmas gifts and Easter eggs. 

But. And it is a solid and bold 'but': When those celebrations bring other people to a standstill, I have my reservations. The Spiritual Computer says "no" to movies, spirits (except the holy ones), or dancing—even if you are an atheist and you would dance, have a drink or a few, and watch movies just amongst your friends. I don't like that.

One good thing is that I have loads of work to do. For me, the whole time was full-time work. That way, it was a blessing that shops were closed for two days, and I couldn't buy my favourite Jägermeister schnaps from the local shop. Instead of watching sermons, I wrote, read, and edited videos, and when Christian folks go back to work, I will let my hair down.

So, I am glad it's over. 

One more thing came from the mandatory Easter curfew: AI discovery.

I tested new artificial intelligence platforms when churchgoers tapped into their spiritual Intelligence. One of the tools I tested is the delightfully scary (for the mediocre musicians, at least) Suno.ai. It can create your own songs out of thin air (or bytes, to be more accurate).

I spent hours crafting songs, jingles and other audio indulgence. Here is one for you :-) Enjoy. It's my Holy Newsletter Song. I wrote lyrics, and then Suno turned it into this piece of art ;-)

Here is the first song, click this one. It took less than five minutes to make. Here are the lyrics:

For example, I created a soundtrack for my customer video with Suno, saving a lot of money. I had an account with a service for copyright-free music, and now I have cancelled it, saving over NZ$300 a year. 

I have been working with composers and musicians since I was 15, and they are great people who deserve every royalty money they can get. Still, at the same time, technology can help generate eggs that do not need to be hatched from free-range cage-free henhouses of creativity. Both can exist and benefit from each other.

Every stupid AI-generated jingle can pave the way for creatives to bring real golden eggs of creativity to life. 

I believe Artificial Intelligence should not be understood as artificial but augmented. We humans (creative creatures as we are) can greatly benefit from it if we augment our Intelligence with it. So, from now on, in my vocabulary, AI = Augmented Intelligence.

Here is another version. This time, it's a bit more sea-shanty style. No chickens were harmed while harvesting it. Click this one.

So, what would you do with AI? How would you augment your Intelligence with these beautiful tools that we can now access regardless of religion, race, sexual orientation or social standing?

Ngā mihi

Jussi

A podcast to listen to

BBC has a brilliant and thought-provoking ten-episode podcast called Hollywood Exiles. In the podcast, Oona Chaplin, the granddaughter of Charlie Chaplin, takes us back to the American paranoia after WWII when they saw communists lurking behind every movie and script.

It is a thriller, and even though I knew about the horrible anti-American investigations, it gives an even more atrocious picture of what took place in the US. And indeed, I didn't realise how early (from 1922!) the FBI's Hoover hunted Chaplin with all his might.

Listen to this podcast because it gives an exciting backdrop to current US events. 

Listen to it here.

A quote to think about

Success in creating AI would be the biggest event in human history. Unfortunately, it might also be the last, unless we learn how to avoid the risks.

Stephen Hawking