Welcome to the dumbest timeline.
We go through the dumbest timeline.
Is this truly the dumbest timeline?
Welcome back to another
edition of the Dumbest
Timeline Series 2 AI.
This week we have a
fantastic conversation with
one of my favorite producers,
Slakah the BeatChild.
He was nice enough to take
some time to talk to me about AI,
AI in music.
Funny enough,
this is a first of a two-parter.
We originally started having
such a great conversation
about AI in general.
It was nice to find out that
Slaka is similarly just as
interested in it as I am,
that we didn't even get to
the music conversation
until 20 something minutes in.
So this is the first part.
This first part is just us
talking about AI in general.
And then the second part
next week will be a
conversation about AI as it
relates to music.
So jump on in now.
Enjoy the show.
We'll be back with more.
Hey, what's up, everyone?
Welcome to another edition.
You probably already heard the intro,
but this is the intro intro
to talking with Slakah the BeatChild.
I am pretty excited about
this because I've been
listening to Slakah the
BeatChild for years, something forever.
Probably one of the... I've
played that track in...
So at so many places,
so many spaces over and over,
listen to it ad nauseum to
a point where people are
probably just like, we get it.
You love the track.
We understand.
But it's kind of a crazy
moment to be able to talk
to someone whose music you
love and connect with.
And so Saka,
thank you so much for taking the time.
This is really fun for me.
I appreciate the support.
Like truly I do.
And it's, you know,
Pleasure to speak with you.
I look forward to chopping it up.
Yeah.
So, I mean,
I gave you a little bit of
background before we started.
And everyone who's listening
to this already knows I'm
talking about AI in this
limited run series of The
Dumbest Timeline Part 2 or Series 2,
however you want to approach it.
And we're talking about AI.
So I thought I would talk to...
We've already interviewed
someone who is studying in
school to make music right now.
That was Samara last week.
And then I want to talk to
someone who's been making
music for a moment,
for like a good number of years.
Over 20.
Yeah.
Yeah, man.
So what was your first
impression of AI in general
when you heard about it?
Okay.
So I remember the day that I
was introduced to generative AI.
Okay.
It was chat GPT.
And you know,
I had been seeing things
online here and there.
This is, I think, 2022.
Right.
It wasn't even that long ago.
It's crazy to think where
it's come in that small period of time.
But so it was chat GPT.
And I went on to this thing.
And
I started just challenging it.
First or second version of chat GPT.
And the way I was getting these responses,
the last time I had had
that mind blow experience
is when I discovered the
internet or when it was
presented to us in elementary school.
Right, right.
Right?
I would say we're about the same age.
I'm in my early 40s.
Yeah.
We're definitely the same age, right?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So I think I was in grade
four when our teacher said, guys,
come in.
We're going to show you this
thing called the internet.
And I was like, what is the internet?
And so he sat us down in
front of the screen, black screen.
Right.
And it was like, like DOS style.
Oh, right.
Right.
And he's like,
I'm going to send a message
to somebody in Los Angeles.
So he typed a message, hit enter.
It took like 30 seconds for
the message to send.
And then we were just
sitting there waiting.
And like 10 minutes later,
he gets a message back.
And we were like, mind blown.
Yeah.
It was like, wow, you can send somebody.
words on a computer and they
can send a message back and
like what yeah my mind was
blown and we at that point
you don't even realize the
potential of the internet
You know?
Yeah.
And my second mind blow with
the original internet was
when I received the MP3.
Right.
Sound.
Because, you know, it was cassette tapes.
Right.
And then maybe CDs were
coming around as well, right?
But cassette tapes is all we knew.
So to be able to go on a computer...
get a song and hear it like
that was a mind blow yeah
yeah so fast forward you
know the internet's doing
all these crazy things now
we don't even think about
it we're so used to it now
we're so used to it but
it's it's like such an
integral part of our lives
right you know the fact
that we're doing this right now
Yeah, over the internet.
You're not in Montreal, you know, like,
yeah.
Totally.
And we're doing it in the browser.
We're not even doing it in
like a program we
downloaded or anything like that.
Right.
So it's just a regular part of life.
And so the most recent time
I had this similar mind
blow feeling is with ChatGPT.
Yeah.
Because never have I
experienced a technology like this.
And by the way, November 30th,
2022 was when it launched the first one,
is from what I'm seeing.
Got it.
So not even like,
not even when we say 2022,
we're not talking the
beginning of the year.
We're talking,
this isn't even two years ago then.
Because it's not like,
that's crazy when you think about it.
It's very crazy.
And I think that we're going
to very soon have a hard
time comprehending
the technological advance,
the speed of advancement,
because even us right now, like it was,
was it 2021?
No, it was 2022.
Right.
And then you're telling me
it was the end of the year.
Yeah.
And progress is crazy.
But going back to my discovery of it,
it was ChatGPT and it blew my mind.
It made me so, I love tech.
And so I was just so excited.
I was using it for everything.
And, you know,
I have a pro subscription to
GPT and cloud, you know.
Oh, wow.
Okay.
Yeah,
I'm really... It terrifies me and
excites me at the same time.
And I'm so happy you said
that because that's exactly my thing.
I am... So at my work,
I'm one of the people on
the team and even on my other podcast,
Geek Siphon,
people are always saying like, yo, Brian,
you're a little obsessive.
I'm like...
But the fact that it does
intimidate me is the reason
I want to learn about it more,
because I feel like if I won, if I don't,
I'll be left behind because
there are younger people.
The same way you talked
about the Internet when we
were in elementary school
and we were introduced to
it the first time.
Anyone who said,
I'm not messing with that
Internet thing is was left behind.
Because here we are in 2024
and the Internet is what
you use every single day of your life,
whether it's social media,
whether it's your banking,
whether all the things that we do in life,
things have changed and the
Internet is a major part of our lives.
So, yes.
And we always joke about you
and I are the same age.
One of the things that
people joke about for our
generation is we were the
last generation who got to play outside,
but then also live through
that intense experience.
internet and computer boom
the way it is right because
even a mixture of both yeah
because even gen x was
slightly older by the time
the internet comes out so
they weren't really kids
playing but we were still
in elementary school we
were literally children so
we played outside but also
had computers that could do
all that stuff
And that kind of feeling
that I when I look at it now, I'm like,
that's going to be the next
generation when it comes to AI stuff.
AI.
Yes, absolutely.
I look at my kids and how
they view AI and to them,
it's just like this normal thing,
you know,
it's just integrated because
their brains are a lot more.
Life is all brand new.
Right.
This is going to be such a
normal part of their everyday life.
Every day.
And if we, and if you and I,
if we don't pay attention,
then we're going to be, like you said,
we're going to be left
behind because it advances,
changes so quickly.
Exponential speed.
Exponential, yeah.
What's it called?
There's a... Oh, that curve?
There's a... The curve,
the Kurzweil something.
Hold on.
Technological, technological...
I like that we're both, case in point,
we're both such nerds that we're like,
let's look up this term online.
I should just ask GPT.
Oh yeah, true.
You know what?
Yes, please do ask chat GPT.
Let's take a moment.
Yeah, yeah, exactly.
Let's use the tools we are
supposed to use now, right?
My friends are going to be
so mad when they listen to
this episode because they
know how much I love using
ChatGPT or like Gemini and all of them.
And they're going to be like, well,
you found someone else who
agrees with you.
That's not really fair.
I'm like, well, guys, you know,
he's a great music producer
and he also finds this stuff interesting.
What am I supposed to do?
Right.
Moore's Law.
That's it.
Moore's Law.
OK, perfect.
Right.
So another related to Moore's Law,
which specifically refers
to the observation that the
number of transistors on a
microchip doubles.
approximately every two years,
leading to a corresponding
increase in computing powder.
Yeah.
This concept also
contributes to the idea of accelerating,
of course, technological progress.
That's an exponential thing, right?
Yeah.
I think that Moore's Law... Yeah.
is such a, we're seeing it in action.
We're seeing it unfold in
front of our eyes.
The thing is,
looking back at a couple of years,
how much it's made progress,
we're only at the beginning of the curve.
Yeah,
that's the thing that blows my mind
when I think about it,
because this is so early in
the curve for AI.
And of course,
there's going to be that
thing that you and I are
going to find out years from now,
where similarly with the internet, oh,
the military was already
using it for this much time.
Yeah.
and I don't doubt for a
second when it comes to ai
because I think even just
today I saw and obviously
these episodes are being
I'm I'm banking these so
you're hearing this now
probably september maybe
but this we're recording
this now in august and at
uh I just saw on the news
the head of chat gpt
mentioned that the military
will see and let me try and
look up that article the
military will see gpt5 before the public
Oh, I believe that.
Of course.
And my whole thing is like, um, open AI,
you know,
when I first heard about that company,
it was like a non-profit.
Right.
Yeah.
Right.
And so I'm like, okay, but, uh,
how does that work?
How does that even work?
Right.
But not for profit.
Because they're not open source, right?
No.
So they're not open source.
From what I understand,
Meta has an open source one called LAM.
LAM, yeah.
Because I saw that the... I
don't know if you've seen
that new tech that's going
to be coming out.
The guy who's... Schifferman, I think.
He calls it Friend.
It's friend.com.
It's like a big story right
now where you can press
this little Tamagotchi type thing.
And he said he built his off
of using Meta's open source AI.
Got it.
That's very interesting.
So I just made a comment on
something about a friend, actually,
like literally before we
popped on the call.
I love new tech.
But my problem with this
product is it forces you to
look at your phone.
Right.
You talk to it and it
replies to your phone every time.
To your phone.
I think that's the biggest
flaw in design because I
personally believe that
society is going to move
towards... You know how
we're moving towards green,
eco-friendly because of the environment?
Right.
I think there's going to be
a movement of tech,
social etiquette in tech where...
where looking at your phone
or bringing your phone to
certain social things is
going to be like... Gauche.
Yeah.
Exactly.
Like the next generation, right?
There's going to be,
and that's going to be the
kind of tech eco...
societal norm of a next
generation you know like oh
yeah my parents they were
always on their phone they
never paid attention oh
that's such a good point
right yeah that's a good
point when I see ads like
that I'm like oh they don't
they're they're not in
touch with the progression
of old technology and how
it's going to be like
because no one no one
really likes that you know like yeah
When you're with your
partner and you're both on your phone,
it doesn't feel right.
I know.
I feel so bad.
I do that.
I do that to my partner all the time.
She'll be talking to me and
I'll be looking at my phone
and I'll realize I'm
looking at my phone and
I'll feel guilty for doing it.
Guilty.
But you still do it.
I'm still.
Yeah.
And I still just.
Yeah.
Agreed.
So I. Yeah.
And I've been seeing a lot
of futurists talk about the
fact that we're going to be
moving away from handheld tech.
and moving more towards...
And I'm hoping that this
friend.com tech will turn
into an earpiece, a small earpiece,
I imagine,
where you talk and it
translates the text.
Right.
Which, you know,
next... But for $99...
Because I think the price
is $99 USD for... To pre-order.
To pre-order.
I'm like,
I'm sure he's keeping costs low for now.
I also am a little worried
about this being a scam,
if I'm being honest,
because what I saw...
When I saw it, I was like,
you're going to give me a
Tamagotchi that talks to my phone.
And how do I know how secure this is?
Who's keeping track of the
database and all the
information that it's storing?
If you get enough people on this service,
how are you going to manage all of that?
The bandwidth needed for
constant communication that
people are going to be doing?
There's so many factors that I'm just like,
how does this work?
Yeah.
Yeah, I think a lot of these startups,
Silicon Valley has become
kind of this toxic place
that no one really talks about.
I think I'm trying to think
of a comparison in
industries where there was
a boom and they kind of
take advantage of a
population who don't know
how to code and don't
really understand tech.
Right.
You know what I mean?
If you know how to do that,
it's easy to sell to a
bunch of people who don't
really understand tech.
And my thing is,
I agree with you in that
the risks and also the
upselling features that
might not actually be legit.
Like at one point in the ad,
she spills her falafel
sauce on the thing.
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
And she says, sorry, I got you messy.
And then it replies, yum.
Like, how would it know?
How did it know she was
referring to the sauce that
fell onto the thing, right?
Yeah.
Like,
what sensors does it have that it can
tell that this was food?
Like, you know, like, yeah.
Why are we playing?
Yeah,
that's such a good point because
you're selling us the idea
that this thing is going to
be so intelligent.
Right.
That when I spill sauce from food,
it will know that I've
spilled food on you.
Yeah.
Yeah, exactly.
So as I think there's a lot of like, uh,
snake oil in the tech world.
Yeah, there's concern.
And if anything,
I think that leads back to
the main point we're
talking about where AI is
so advanced or not so advanced,
but the curve is advancing
so quickly that if you
don't pay attention to these things,
someone who has always been
interested in the idea of
AI or wearable tech because
they grew up watching Star
Trek and all this other
science fiction now gets this pitch of,
oh,
you're going to have a wearable tech
that you just tap
And you can talk to or it's
always listening.
And here you are.
It's finally here.
And because you've been excited for this,
you are willing to put the
money down because it's also so cheap.
$99 USD for a friend that
talks to me all the time.
This is Star Trek.
This is all I ever wanted.
But then you have to start to question,
how are you building it?
What is it being built with?
Where are the security features?
Who's building it?
Who's actually building it?
Yes.
No.
Because when you think of it,
not to get all conspiracy or whatnot,
but in this world of warfare too,
that's the perfect front
for a foreign whatever to be like,
everybody's talking to this
thing and it's collecting data.
All the time.
Yeah.
I don't know.
And no, but again,
these are all things that
we should be aware of.
When people are worried
about TikTok and how TikTok
has to divest from their
Chinese partners because
people are concerned about security.
But once again, like you're saying,
and you're pointing out
something we all should think about,
not that I'm concerned about it,
but just think about it.
Who's building the tech?
Where is the work being done?
And in that place that's doing it,
is there an advantage for
them to build a backdoor?
Is there an advantage for
them to build the tech that
they can collect information from?
Who are the partners?
These are all things that
only the business is going to know.
Right.
And the other thing is,
it's not regulated at all.
I mean, in Europe,
they have the European Union,
which is a lot more on top of tech,
which is crazy how on top of it they are,
to the point where big
companies like Apple and
Google can't release certain...
Yeah,
because I don't know if you know this,
but Apple products are all
switching to USB-C because
the European Union forced
everyone to fall in line.
And now that's probably
going to be an
international decision for
Apple because it's like,
why would we do it two different ways?
And those are decisions that
I find interesting because
those are decisions that I feel bearable.
benefit us as users so that
we like when my co-worker
says do you have a plug we
all have the same plug now
for once yeah which is like
it's like electricity
though like honestly
imagine going to like
someone's house with your
like boombox or whatever
and be buying an appliance
and you're like oh my
goodness the appliance
doesn't plug into the electrical yeah
Yeah, that's crazy.
That's such a crazy thought.
Yeah,
it's like electricity and tech are
becoming things that are
just such commonplace that
it needs to be universally
connected to our lives.
And accessible.
And accessible, you know?
I think of the International
Space Station.
When different countries send up vehicles,
they all have the same
mechanisms for certain things, right?
Different countries, because like
It's such a critical
operation that there needs
to be standards in operation, right?
Yeah.
But going back to AI and how
it's not regulated in North America,
right?
It's like we're in the Wild West.
And what it kind of reminds me of,
I don't know if you've ever
seen Popular Mechanics
magazines from the 70s.
Oh, yeah.
And they had the show back in the day,
too.
Yeah.
the back of the the popular
mechanics or popular
science it's like a catalog
things you can buy oh cool
it's like but the products
it was like it was wild the
things they were trying to
sell on the back of it
because they weren't legit
things but you know it'd be
like rocket rocket kit
build your own rocket kit
you know for like two two
dollars and 99 cents
And you're like, no.
Yeah.
Yeah, your own satellite system, you know,
$5.99.
I'm just like...
No,
I find that stuff interesting because I
do think regulations is one
of the things that we are
taking almost the most for
granted with this situation.
There's an assumption that
the people who are building the tech,
and that leads me into my next question,
the people who are building
the tech are doing so with
good intentions, right?
especially when you hear
something is not for profit initially.
You're just like, oh, well,
they're not looking to make money.
They're looking to do this
for the betterment of humankind.
And then you have to start to wonder,
and again, pay attention,
is that the direction?
That's the end of the first
part of our conversation
with Slack of the Beach Child.
Once again,
we want to thank him so much
for jumping on and speaking
with me about AI.
You know,
as I mentioned at the top of the show,
this is just the first of a two-parter.
This conversation
specifically was about AI.
We get into more about AI
and music in the second part.
He also has some really
great ideas that I don't want to spoil.
So I'll let you hear them in
the second one.
We'll be back with another one soon.
Peace, everybody.
Dumbest Timeline, Series 2, AI,
hosted by Brian Holidae.
Produced by Brian Holidae
for Brian Holidae Productions.
Co-produced in partnership
with Free X Agents Media.
Theme song by Jasper Q. Jonze.
Mixing by Brian Holidae.
Enjoyed the show?
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Lastly,
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Thanks for listening.