âArtificial Intelligence?â No, Collective Intelligence.
Listen to this episode from The Ezra Klein Show on Spotify. A.I.-generated art has flooded the internet, and a lot of it is derivative, even boring or offensive. But what could it look like for artists to collaborate with A.I. systems in making art that is actually generative, challenging, transcendent?Holly Herndon offered one answer with her 2019 album âPROTO.â Along with Mathew Dryhurst and the programmer Jules LaPlace, she built an A.I. called âSpawnâ trained on human voices that adds an uncanny yet oddly personal layer to the music. Beyond her music and visual art, Herndon is trying to solve a problem that many creative people are encountering as A.I. becomes more prominent: How do you encourage experimentation without stealing othersâ work to train A.I. models? Along with Dryhurst, Jordan Meyer and Patrick Hoepner, she co-founded Spawning, a company figuring out how to allow artists â and all of us creating content on the internet â to âconsentâ to our work being used as training data.In this conversation, we discuss how Herndon collaborated with a human chorus and her âA.I. baby,â Spawn, on âPROTOâ; how A.I. voice imitators grew out of electronic music and other musical genres; why Herndon prefers the term âcollective intelligenceâ to âartificial intelligenceâ; why an âopt-inâ model could help us retain more control of our work as A.I. trawls the internet for data; and much more.Mentioned:âFear, Uncertainty, Doubtâ by Holly Herndonâxhairymutantxâ by Holly Herndon and Mat Dryhurst, for the Whitney Museum of ArtâFadeâ by Holly HerndonâSwimâ by Holly HerndonâJoleneâ by Holly Herndon and Holly+âMovementâ by Holly HerndonâChorusâ by Holly HerndonâGodmotherâ by Holly HerndonâThe Precision of Infinityâ by Jlin and Philip GlassHolly+Book Recommendations:Intelligence and Spirit by Reza NegarestaniChildren of Time by Adrian TchaikovskyPlurality by E. Glen Weyl, Audrey Tang and âż» CommunityThoughts? Guest suggestions? Email us at
[email protected] can find transcripts (posted midday) and more episodes of âThe Ezra Klein Showâ at nytimes.com/ezra-klein-podcast. Book recommendations from all our guests are listed at https://www.nytimes.com/article/ezra-klein-show-book-recs.This episode of âThe Ezra Klein Showâ was produced by Annie Galvin. Fact-checking by Michelle Harris. Our senior engineer is Jeff Geld, with additional mixing by Aman Sahota. Our senior editor is Claire Gordon. The showâs production team also includes Rollin Hu, Elias Isquith and Kristin Lin. Original music by Isaac Jones. Audience strategy by Kristina Samulewski and Shannon Busta. The executive producer of New York Times Opinion Audio is Annie-Rose Strasser. And special thanks to Sonia Herrero and Jack Hamilton.
events
projects
watch
tools
listen
education/learn
read
people/practitioners
organizations
opportunities/open calls
