Will Douglas Heaven, a prominent figure in the tech world, recently shared three areas of interest that are currently capturing his attention. These include the drumming of El Estepario Siberiano, the exploration of AI-generated content within the uncanny valley, and the potential of AI models like Sora.
Heaven expressed particular enthusiasm for El Estepario Siberiano, the YouTube channel of Spanish drummer Jorge Garrido. Garrido's covers of popular tracks, characterized by exceptional speed and technique, have garnered significant attention, including reaction videos from fellow musicians. Heaven noted Garrido's dedication to his craft, emphasizing the countless hours spent honing his skills. "At a time when machines appear to do it all, there's a kind of defiance in that level of human effort," Heaven stated. He specifically highlighted Garrido's covers of electronic music, such as his version of Skrillex and Missy Elliott's "Ra Ta Ta," as examples where the drummer surpasses the capabilities of a drum machine.
Another area of interest for Heaven is the exploration of AI-generated content that resides within the uncanny valley. He cited examples of Sora videos, such as those depicting Michael Jackson stealing chicken nuggets or Sam Altman interacting with a Pikachu, as triggering a sense of familiarity mixed with unease. Sora, OpenAI's text-to-video model, generates realistic and imaginative scenes from text instructions. The uncanny valley refers to the feeling of unease or revulsion that people experience when encountering artificial representations of humans that are almost, but not quite, realistic.
Heaven's interest in these areas reflects a broader trend within the tech industry of exploring the boundaries of human creativity and artificial intelligence. The technical skill displayed by El Estepario Siberiano serves as a counterpoint to the increasing capabilities of AI in generating music and art. Meanwhile, the exploration of the uncanny valley raises questions about the ethical and psychological implications of increasingly realistic AI-generated content. The development of AI models like Sora continues to push the boundaries of what is possible, prompting both excitement and concern about the future of creativity and technology.
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