How to create an engaging AI generated podcast (in 3 easy steps)
Eric Shanfelt,
Media Makers Meet | What's new in media,
2023/10/19
This article offers some gee whiz numbers on podcasting ("Globally, podcasting will be worth $23.5 Bn in 2023 and this is expected to increase at a compound growth rate of 28% over the next seven years") and argues it will be easy for anyone to produce them, as follows:
- Use ChatGPT to ingest your website's RSS feed and create a podcast script summarizing the stories from the past day or week.
- Copy/paste the script into an AI text-to-speech tool to create an audio file.
- Upload the audio file into your favorite podcasting platform for distribution to Apple, Spotify, Google, other podcast networks, or even embed it on your own website.
Sounds great - except that this is the opposite of what people want from a podcast. From what I would observe, what people want most of all is personality or what Terry Anderson used to call 'presence'. It's not just a summary (I've seen so many automated newsletters come and go over the years) but a personal perspective. (Now you could make something like that with ChatGPT, but it would have to be infused with a personality (for example, by running all the summaries through an interpretation informed by the full Stephen Downes body of thought) but that would not be simple and easy to produce).
Web: [Direct Link] [This Post]
The Brains Blog
The Brains Blog,
2023/10/19
This is an interesting approach to the study of consciousness: "'refutation by implementation.' If a model implements a theory of consciousness, that theory is wrong: 'the ability to encode the core principles of a theory of consciousness within a computational model provides evidence that the theory is incomplete.'" In other words, "Whatever consciousness turns out to be, you can't grant it to a machine by writing a program alone in your room on a Wednesday afternoon." This would seem to challenge my own views on consciousness, whereby I suggest that there is nothing over and above the process of perceptual experience; I imagine it would be pretty easy to implement 'nothing'. But the discussion here is interesting; "Bridewell & Isaac ultimately hold that computational functionalism could be correct: 'The apophatic scientist systematically chips away at the cognitive, intentional, and functional roles assigned to consciousness until all that remains is either an empty set or a circumscribed core that cannot be reduced to computational implementation.'" I'm betting on the empty set.
Web: [Direct Link] [This Post]
Acquisitions
Wouter Groeneveld,
Brain Baking,
2023/10/19
As this story reports, "Microsoft now officially closes its $69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard." I haven't really covered this because its's peripheral to online learning, but the trend of 'innovation by acquisition' is worth noting. We've certainly seen its impact in ed-tech. From where I sit, it's troubling, because an acquisition essentially converts an asset (say, a $69 billion company) to a liability ($69 billion worth of debt) which must now be recovered through reduced services and increased prices. And of course there is the issue of the concentration of wealth and ownership. "Where does this end?" asks Wouter Groeneveld, "When one of those companies owns everything?"
Web: [Direct Link] [This Post]
2023 Protocol Roadmap
AT Protocol,
2023/10/19
Though a bit technical and most relevant for developers, "This post lays out the current AT Protocol (atproto) development plan" that will be used by the BlueSky social media app "through to a 'version one' release." Highlights: "We are pushing towards federation on the production network early next year (2024)"; "We plan to submit future governance and formalization of the core protocol to an independent standards body." I don't see why they can't use ActivityPub like everybody else, but it seems like they want to be the 'Apple of the fediverse'. Though one thing we all want, I think, is "seamless migration of both identity and public content from one PDS instance to another." They also note, "Anti-spam efforts will be a crucial part of opening federation. It is not a protocol-level change per-say, but we expect to deploy automated systems to combat spam by labeling posts and accounts at scale." Also important: "The plan is to bring development and governance of the protocol itself to an established standards body around the time the network opens to federation."
Web: [Direct Link] [This Post]
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