Mind Matters Natural and Artificial Intelligence News and Analysis

TagTed Gioia

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A realistic dollhouse living room with furniture and window at night. Artwork table decoration with handmade realistic dollhouse.

The Artist is Stronger than the Censor

Salman Rushdie and standing up for free speech
Talking about censorship, for Rushdie, is a conscious choice. We must talk about it too or we will find we can no longer take free speech for granted. Read More ›
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In the last seconds of the sunset, the sunlight touched a bold, red bush and it's created some gorgeous colors and contrast with the white road.

Smartphone: The “Experience Blocker”

Experience is the key to emotional development and a fully human life

Smartphones are distracting and addicting, but according to Jonathan Haidt, and supported by our common experience, they can also keep us from a basic ingredient of human life: Experience. Sometimes I wonder if the worst aspect of the “dopamine culture,” as culture critic Ted Gioia calls it, is not that we no longer have the attention spans to focus on our work, but that we no longer seem able to enjoy activities that aren’t based on screens. Simple pleasures like a good meal, meant to savor and digest at a slow pace, or going through a rich and complicated novel that yields real insight and literary joy, or even kissing an actual person in an affectionate way are all “old-school” Read More ›

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Hand holdign a joker card

Another Autumn Season of Cinematic Remakes

The state of our culture is set on negativity and reruns. Can we shift direction?
It’s the TV shows, the music, the broader culture that sways public assumptions more than a cut-and-dried public policy. Read More ›
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A talented musician serenades the crowd with his guitar under the warm sun, as the vibrant backlighting adds to the electrifying atmosphere of the outdoor rock concert

Live Music is Making a Comeback, and So is Bob Dylan

People still want to experience music in person.

This past summer, 110,000 people convened for a George Strait concert in College Station, TX, the biggest crowd ever recorded to hear live music. Taylor Swift’s “Eras Tour” has amassed over a billion dollars in revenue, with the pop star traveling the world to sold-out amphitheaters. Coldplay, another massive musical act, is gearing up for the release of their tenth studio album, Moon Music, set to drop on October 4th. They plan a world tour for the album and are also known to fill up stadiums far and wide. So, whatever plights the world of arts and culture might be facing, and given AI’s incursion into the creator economy, one thing remains evident: people still want to experience music in Read More ›

Old Trumpet Brick Wall

Fan Tries Programming AI Jazz, Gets Lots and Lots of AI…

Jazz is spontaneous, but spontaneous noise is not jazz

As Gioia says, jazz depends on the “personality of the individual musician.” And the blindspot of AI creativity is: There’s no one home.

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Jazz Chris Bair on Unsplash A10y2Eq7OHY

AI Can’t Do Jazz Because Spontaneity Is at Jazz’s Core

AI “artists”—in all the forms presently available — merely replay their programming

As Ted Gioia makes clear in his discussion of jazz, swirling a bit of randomness into the mix will not help.

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