[Article] Built In Obsolescence

This post contains and links to (clearly-identified) AI-generated content. As remains the case, none of my writing on this blog was generated by AI. Imagine my excitement to learn that Pagan Wander Lu just dropped a new EP, Built In Obsolescence. And then imagine my horror to discover that it’s actually produced by P-AI-gan Wanderer Lu; an AI that’s been given PWL lyrics and some artistic direction. Wot. The album art’s clearly also AI-generated, and that’s… well… you know. At least this robot hand has got the correct number of fingers. Nothingness is what silicon dreams My younger child’s been getting into PWL in a big way lately. As a result of this, I ended up making time for a careful re-listen to a lot of the back catalogue. This in turn inspired a blog post last year in which I mentioned that Checker Charlie‘s observations about humans replacing their work with machine effort feels increasingly prophetic in the age of generative AI. That’s something I didn’t see in it when I…