HOCKEY MOMS ❤️ SARAH

April 26, 2023 10:27 AM

Sarah Palin Forever: A short film by AI researcher Eryk Salvaggio, made with Midjourney and AI-generated voice narration, and based on a short story he wrote -- which itself was based on his real-life experience covering a 2008 Sarah Palin rally as a college journalist. As he explains in his newsletter, it is somewhere between a "horror story" and a "joke that goes on too long".
posted by Cash4Lead (10 comments total)

It's fitting that that's based on a rally in Bangor, Maine; Bangor is often identified as Stephen King's home (although I believe that he hasn't actually lived there for quite some time), and King started comparing Palin to the predatory populist politician Greg Stillson from The Dead Zone pretty early on after Palin emerged onto the national stage. And the endless loop of the rally syncs up with Palin's now-defunct (I think?) post-election career of recycling the same canned speech over and over for up to $100K a pop.
posted by Halloween Jack at 10:41 AM on April 26, 2023 [3 favorites]

I feel like this is a good place to post my very favorite four minutes of US political rally surrealism, a video directed by the creators of Max Headroom and the original Super Mario Bros. movie, on behalf of the Talking Heads, Blind.
posted by eschatfische at 10:58 AM on April 26, 2023 [7 favorites]

Sorry but I still really, really do not approve of anything related to LAION (which Midjourney is) or AI voice generation, even things that are supposed to be ~ironic~ about its ethical problems, knowing that artists and voice actors still are struggling to get any kind of compensation for their work being stolen for profit, increasingly being suckered into contracts--or just straight up retroactively shoved in-- that claim total rights to their work, and then getting harassed just for wanting their stuff removed from these databases.
posted by picklenickle at 2:58 PM on April 26, 2023 [13 favorites]

there was no John McCain, and there never would be
posted by BungaDunga at 2:59 PM on April 26, 2023

knowing that artists and voice actors still are struggling to get any kind of compensation for their work being stolen for profit

No one is winning under capitalism except those at the top.

If the choice in life is less political satire which has no path to profitability and would need a rich patron who's into the Powell memo ideas or having to go the AI route and avoid the effect of what Powell laid down I'm OK with the AI.

Besides the corrosive effect of social media and the resource use of high speed networking means for the good of humans wouldn't it be best to just turn this all off?
posted by rough ashlar at 6:28 PM on April 26, 2023

literally, this is no different than when any other group of workers go on strike or have other labor rights demands and complaints. I don't know why when artists specifically have a problem that this gets dismissed with "ah, but ALL capitalism is bad!" Try that argument the next time anyone complains of low wages.

It isn't even an inherently capitalistic problem--people deserve credit for the things they do. I already commented on this. I don't feel like repeating it or going too off topic. I just cannot support this video, or the normalization of AI posts on metafilter, and need to say something about it.
posted by picklenickle at 7:28 PM on April 26, 2023 [7 favorites]

Yeah, I really think the picklenickle has a point - a lot of AI posts are low effort, ‘look what this guy made in three hours with [corporate AI product]!’. I don’t find them very deep or engaging; this piece is a little more thought-out, but it’s hardly black mirror.

Also, just because artists are having a shitty time doesn’t mean you should go and give them a wedgie.
posted by The River Ivel at 12:01 AM on April 27, 2023 [2 favorites]

This was fantastic. I'm eager to see more ai content like this.
posted by rebent at 5:53 AM on April 27, 2023

ChatGPT may have consumed as much electricity as 175,000 people in January 2023. and more of the same AI Power Consumption Exploding
posted by rough ashlar at 6:45 AM on April 27, 2023 [3 favorites]

A request that might help preserve the post while also shutting out the AI -

So this is supposedly based on a short story. Is that short story online and linkable?
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 3:32 PM on April 27, 2023 [1 favorite]