Cursed Napster

If you haven't looked at the Napster website lately, get ready for some major AI-related indigestion. The former music-sharing rebel is now peddling AI digital twins of teachers and serving the Saudi market.I’m a strong advocate for doing things to keep historically relevant websites and companies online. But not like this.Recently, word broke that Napster, a company that you once knew as your primary method for downloading mislabeled Phish covers, had pivoted to AI educational tools. Which is bad and weird enough on its own. But it’s also bad and weird in lots of other ways, too. The company, once a prime example of rebellious college students taking technology and bending it to their will, is now being used to subvert the educational process in a completely new way, according to a recent Wired article.You might be wondering, “wait, wasn’t Napster a music streaming service?” And yes, it was, until late last year, when it was acquired by a firm called Infinite Reality, which promised…

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