This week my eldest daughter came home excited because one of our favourite ranty political folk singers, Beans on Toast, had just released a music track about AI (aka Artificial Intelligence) . For those who are unfamiliar with the british-folk-festival-ranty-political-singer-circuit Beans on Toast is a tireless ranty political folk singer a bit in the tradition of Billy Bragg or Attila the Stockbroker. We love him and the kids and I even went to see him perform in person this year.. He has lots of stuff online, at spotify etc.. I particularly recommend his song ‘The Great American Novel’ - pure genius … but he’s also written great pieces about a modern-day Robin Hood stealing money from banks and this one mocking Amazon’s Alexa..
So we were pretty shocked to discover that his new AI song was pretty rubbish. He’d done the tired old trick of asking an AI to write his lyrics and then used an AI image generator for his music video. It explained how Chat GPT works and combines this with some vague hand-waving about how AI will ‘change everything’’ and how its ‘terrifying and exciting in equal measure’. While Beans is usually great at direct and clear lyrics there was nothing specific in there.. just a generalised sense of fear, shock, excitement and awe - which as many AI critics have pointed out is exactly what the AI bro’s want people to feel right now in order to drive through a meaningless fig leaf governance regime that they are authoring and determining.
Yet there is very specific and pointed critique of why Ai is a problem, grounded in real things right now. There are brilliant writers and activists Such as Timnit Gebru, Paris Marx, Emily Bender, Dan McQuillan etc who are speaking out and others who are striking and even smashing up robocars on the streets of san francisco! There are names behind the AI putsch (of well known billionairres) - exactly the sort of people I would have expected Beans on Toast to call out in his usual direct, political ,ranty, sweary way.
So I decided to rewrite his song. Since an AI wrote it in the first place (badly) - it was time to give it the ‘human intelligence’ treatment.
Attached below are my new lyrics. I tried to make them ranty and sweary enough to be like a Beans on Toast song.. So fair warning in advance about the sweariness…
Also here I have uploaded a version of me singing it - so you can listen to it.
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“Singing” is a bit of an over description - I’m a humble word poet not a singer - but you’ll get the gist. if anyone who really knows how to sing and make music wants to take it and re-record it , put it to music, create a video or whatever.. I’m hereby giving you permission - copyleft. Just don’t change the meaning - and credit the original. And let me know (jim@scanthehorizon.org)
And please do share this page. I did send my new version by email to Beans on Toast - but he’s touring the US right now so I guess he’s pretty preoccupied.
Enjoy!
—
A-I Song!
Response to Beans on Toast AI song.
——
I got a text from my daughter
Theres a new Beans on Toast song!
So we fired up the Spotify
ready to sing along.
Well, Beans on Toast’s an activist
who calls out corporate bullshit
but this was written by machines
and was absolutely full-of-it!
chorus:
A-I!
oh why
do you try
to thrill and scare us?
When the details are straightforward
and much more nefarious.
It’s a corporate grab on everything
by supremacist tech bros.
Lets not lose social justice to
algorithmic control.
So you’ve probably heard of AI
thanks to ChatGPT which
was built by the same billionaires
who used your data to get rich.
They profiled you and nudged you
to buy crap or vote for fools.
Now they say that they’ll replace you
with their algorithmic tools.
Sam Altman, Mark Zuckerberg,
and Elon fucking Musk,
They know that what they’re doing
is abusing all our trust.
But to stop us from looking closely
or regulate their type
they flood the zone with blah blah blah
distraction, thrills and hype.
about
A-I!
oh why
do you try
to thrill and scare us?
When the details are straightforward
and much more nefarious.
Its a corporate grab on everything
by supremacist tech bros.
Lets not lose social justice to
algorithmic control.
So let me break it down for you
don’t be cowed or vexed.
Ai is just some clever maths
behind extreme predictive text.
It’s computers cataloguing stuff
to make associations
then guessing what you want to hear
using statistical predictions.
Theres no shred of “intelligence”
just a lot of mindless sorting
Theres hardly any cleverness
except from those whose work they’re shorting
by stealing other peoples stuff
to make a remix with’ em -
to funnel profits to the boys
of data-capitalism.
A-I!
oh why
do you try
to thrill and scare us?
When the details are straightforward
and much more nefarious.
Its a corporate grab on everything
by supremacist tech bros.
Lets not lose social justice to
algorithmic control.
Its not just in ChatGPT.
AI’s got social roles.
its deciding who’s in prison
and whether you can get the dole.
It locks in social biases
of those that it is built for
which means that you’re in trouble
if you are black or queer or poor.
And once they’ve AI-d the water
and the traffic, food and prison
and the healthcare and police state is
running AI-feudalism
And the movies and the stories
and AI runs the schools
they’ll be be no choice but to buy more crap
and vote again for fools.
A-I!
oh why
do you try
to thrill and scare us?
When the details are straightforward
and much more nefarious
Its a corporate grab on everything
by supremacist tech bros
Lets not lose social justice to
algorithmic control.
But Molly and her mates won’t let
the AI surrender start
They’ve taken tech bros to the courts
for ripping off their art. On the picket line in Hollywood
