Latest / Mini Scroll / MINI TECH SCROLL: The Life of a Showgirl AI promo, viral Jake Paul deepfakes + "Me and my husband" TikTok trend

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MINI TECH SCROLL: The Life of a Showgirl AI promo, viral Jake Paul deepfakes + "Me and my husband" TikTok trend · Mini Scroll

• 0:00
  This episode of Mini Tech Scroll is brought to you by Blackbird,
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  a venture capital firm investing in Aussie and Kiwi startups.
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  From the very beginning, Blackbird invests in all kinds
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  of technology. So if you have a big idea but
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  need to raise investment to turn it into reality, learn more and
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  connect with the Black Bad team through the link in our show
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  notes. Hey everyone, and welcome to
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  Mini Scroll, the daily Internet culture podcast.
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  Bring me the biggest stories from social media, the creator
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  economy, and the digital space every Monday through Thursday
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  and sometimes Fridays. My name is Annabelle and I am
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  your Wednesday Mini Tech Scroll host and also the deputy editor
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  of the youth digital media brand Centennial World.
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  Welcome back to Mini Tech Scroll everyone.
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  Before we get into the content for this week, I wanted to thank
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  you guys so much. For those of you who filled out
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  the fan fiction form that Lauren included in yesterday's episode
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  of Mini Scroll, if you guys missed it, we are working on a
• 0:57
  deep dive all about fan fiction and I wanted to get some of your
• 1:02
  anecdotes and personal experiences with fan fiction so
• 1:06
  we could potentially include it in the episode.
• 1:08
  So I'm really excited to read your responses if you want to
• 1:12
  fill it out as well. If you read fan fiction at any
• 1:15
  point, even wrote fan fiction or were adjacent to these
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  communities, I am definitely interested to hear from you.
• 1:22
  So the form is in the description of this episode, so
• 1:26
  feel free to fill it out. I'll probably close it maybe
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  tomorrow or the next day. So if you want to fill it out,
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  fill it out before then. Other than that, Please remember
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  to rate, review and subscribe and star rate US on Spotify.
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  We also have a buy me a coffee link in our description if you
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  want to check that out. OK, so let's get into the
• 1:46
  content where last week's episode should have actually
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  been called Mini TikTok Band Scroll.
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  This episode is Mini AI Scroll. Literally every story is about
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  AI and we have quite a few stories to get through, so let's
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  get right into it. So yesterday, Lauren broke down
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  all the discourse around Taylor Swift's latest album release,
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  The Life of a Showgirl. But there is one piece of the
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  conversation that she left for Mini Tech Scroll today, and that
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  is how Taylor Swift is copying backlash after allegedly using
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  AI in album visuals. Obviously this is a little bit
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  more culture first or mainstream culture than we usually talk
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  about here at Mini Tech Scroll, but obviously AI usage falls
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  into our usual conversations. I will say though Swifties, you
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  guys scare me and please know that I am not coming at this
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  story from a position of hate or trying to be hateful in any way
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  from fangirl to fangirl. I know it can be hard and
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  difficult to hear negative discourse about your fave, so
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  I'm doing my best to just break down everything that's been
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  happening online for you guys. As we all know by this point,
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  The Life of a Showgirl, Taylor Swift's 12th album, was released
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  last week and it has been met with quite a lot of conversation
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  online. And this conversation ramped up
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  over the weekend, where a suite of YouTube shorts were posted
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  promoting the life of a showgirl and the lead single, The Fate of
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  Ophelia. Swifties were directed to these
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  shorts in typical Taylor Swift Easter egg fashion, through a
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  sort of online scavenger hunt. I didn't actually take part in
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  this hunt, so I can't explain it from a first hand perspective,
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  but as it was reported by the Cut quote, if you search Taylor
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  Swift on Google, you were greeted with a banning heart
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  emoji and a clue. 12 cities, 12 doors, 1 video to unlock, the
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  message read. If you click that emoji, letters
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  appeared on the screen like shards of a shattered mirror
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  waiting to be deciphered. Those letters spelled out 12
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  cities around the world in which orange doors bearing the number
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  12 and a QR code suddenly appeared.
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  Fans who scanned the QR code were then led to videos on
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  YouTube short which contained a new set of clues to be decoded
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  so that fans could quote UN quote unlock the lyric video for
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  Swift's lead single, The Fate of Ophelia.
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  If you want to see these videos for yourself and didn't
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  participate in the scavenger hunt, people have reposted them
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  all over social media. You can pretty much just search
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  it up on TikTok or X. But they were basically a number
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  of different scenes. 1 scene, for example, showed a showgirl
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  costume hanging up in a dark lit room with candles and rose
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  petals all over the ground. In another a, the bartender is
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  placing down a bright orange napkin, which is obviously the
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  signature color of this era. While it was meant to drum up
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  some kind of excitement, viewers were not entirely happy with
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  what they found. The videos, according to the
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  Swifties who first saw them, had that perfectly smooth and
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  uncanny look to them. And obviously that look we have
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  all come to associate with AI generated visuals.
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  And it wasn't just the look, they also pointed out various
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  inconsistencies or mistakes in the videos.
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  One of these mistakes included a coat hanger completely
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  disappearing as the video zoomed in to the label of a outfit.
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  Other mistakes included very obvious spelling errors, and
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  I'll insert some of them on the screen if you're watching.
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  Soon, viewers started accusing Taylor and her team of using AI
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  to create these promotional videos.
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  And I would just like to add here that like I said, I didn't
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  participate in the scavenger hunt and we didn't see the
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  videos when they were live. But there were also screenshots
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  floating around on Reddit saying that there was a disclaimer
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  under these videos that they were made with quote altered or
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  synthetic content, which many take as confirmation that this
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  indeed was generated with some kind of AI tool.
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  Obviously, using AI in creative endeavors like music videos or
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  film is a very controversial and a topic that we talk about quite
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  often here at Mini Tech Scroll. There are so many issues that we
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  have been through with this, from stealing existing work
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  without crediting artists, to undermining the creative
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  industries and ultimately instigating problems and
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  changing expectations around pay for artists.
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  All of these points have come up in this conversation, but Taylor
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  is cupping particular backlash. Partly because I feel like she
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  always does, but mostly because she's been so vocal over the
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  years about the importance of owning your art so much so, as
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  we would all know by this point that she purchased the masters
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  to her music and obviously did all of the Taylor's versions re
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  recording before that. With this being a big part of
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  her career over the past few years, many viewers feel that
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  using AI for promo feels very hypocritical, where it kind of
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  feeds into the quote UN quote out of touch criticism that has
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  been leveled at Taylor and the album, which Lauren did go a bit
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  into yesterday. And also since then #swifty's
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  Against AI has also started making the rounds on social
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  media. So it's not just people who
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  aren't fans of Taylor Swift, it is in the Swifty community as
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  well. I thought I would read some of
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  the tweets that I came across reacting to these promotional
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  videos as one tweet. Read quote.
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  Imagine spending half a decade defending an artist's right to
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  own their art, only to do AI slot promo when you're rich
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  enough to buy your art back. Another interesting post Read
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  quote. Capitalism is the enemy of art.
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  Capitalism works with art when profitable, but won't hesitate
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  to club art over the head for a chance of more money.
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  I think this last week really gets to the reason why so many
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  fans are upset with the prospect of Taylor Swift using AI.
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  Taylor is obviously extremely rich, where arguably the Taylor
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  Swift brand as a whole would have had enough money to pay for
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  a director, a videographer, or other crew members to create
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  these videos. So using AI seemingly as a cost
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  cutting measure doesn't exactly land well.
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  In a similar vein, Taylor has also spoken out against the
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  dangers of using AI before. It wasn't a little bit of a
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  different context, but this has also LED social media users to
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  see these AI videos as hypocritical.
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  In her famous and arguably now iconic childless Cat Lady post
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  where she expressed her support for Kamala Harris and Tim Walls
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  last year, she spoke about how there was an AI generated clip
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  of her endorsing Trump and how this was dangerous as the
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  caption read quote. Recently, I was made aware that
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  AI of me falsely endorsing Donald Trump's presidential run
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  was posted to his side. It really conjured up my fears
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  around AI and the dangers of spreading misinformation.
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  It brought me to the conclusion that I need to be very
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  transparent about my actual plans for the selection as a
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  voter. The simplest way to combat
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  misinformation is with the truth.
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  Obviously this is a different use and outcome of AI compared
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  to these promotional videos, but I do think it is something to
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  note that she has spoken out against AI before.
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  Taylor has also famously had deep fake pornography made of
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  her last year. For example, sexually explicit
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  images of Taylor spread across X, racking up 47 million views
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  before being removed a day later.
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  At the time, four O 4 Media reported that the images likely
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  originated from a Telegram channel that produced similar
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  content. Swifty's obviously came to the
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  singer's defense, mass reporting the imagery and posting protect
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  Taylor Swift all over social media to drown out the searches.
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  And in response, several US senators actually introduced a
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  bill to criminalize the distribution of sexually
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  explicit deep fake images. Having been a victim of AI
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  generated content, even though it is a very different
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  environment and use and setting, many fans have noted the
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  disconnect that makes them uncomfortable that her team or
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  Taylor would use or approve AI in promotional materials.
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  Speaking of approval though, I do think there is a conversation
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  to be had around the fact that I guess many of us don't know the
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  behind the scenes and how much would go through Taylor when it
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  comes to the promotional material around the album.
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  And many fans have noted that there does seem to be some
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  disconnect between Taylor's team AKA Taylor Nation and the roll
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  out of the scavenger hunt. Swifty's have noted that the
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  scavenger hunt or videos haven't been posted by any official
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  Taylor Swift accounts where these fans have come to believe
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  that the campaign may have been led by Google or YouTube given
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  that the music video for the lead single was a YouTube
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  exclusive. But at the end of the day,
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  Taylor is arguably the most famous pop star in the world and
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  is setting the tone for what is and what isn't acceptable in the
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  industry. So I can totally understand why
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  it's unsettling for viewers and fans and social media users to
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  see the use of AI in this setting and it being associated
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  with her, whether she okayed it or not, as upsetting and
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  concerning for the future of creative industries and work.
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  I will also add though, like I said, there has been no posts
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  about the scavenger hunt or the videos from Taylor or her team,
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  and they have not addressed the backlash at the time of research
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  and recording. Since then though, the videos
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  have all been privated, but the sentiment has not changed and
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  many Swifties are still upset that Taylor potentially, I'm not
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  saying she did, could have given the green light or at the very
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  least she is associated with AI content of this sort.
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  I'm definitely curious to hear what you guys think about all of
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  this. Swifties, please, I'm so sorry,
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  I'm scared. I don't mean to come for your
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  girl. OK, let's move on because if I
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  think about that too much, I will spiral.
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  The next story though is kind of A2 in one, but we need to talk
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  about some of the latest AI slop flooding the online space.
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  Apart from these Taylor Swift promotional videos where some of
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  the most popular ones have been videos of Jake Paul and clips of
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  women on the subway. Let's first start with Jake
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  Paul, which is not someone we really like to talk about too
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  much across mini scroll. But you may have noticed
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  scrolling through TikTok recently that there seems to be
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  an influx of videos of Jake Paul, but not exactly the Jake
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  Paul that we have become familiar with over the years.
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  Obviously it is unclear who exactly is making these AI
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  generated videos of Jake Paul as many of them are just being
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  reposted to social media platforms, but I will explain
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  some of the most viral AI clips. In some of them he's doing a fit
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  check, wearing clothes that Jake Paul wouldn't wear on a regular
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  day. In others he's doing a full glam
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  makeup look, and in arguably one of the most popular ones, he has
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  come out as gay. I will say, the kind of weird
• 12:44
  and icky undertones of making an AI Jake Paul do these activities
• 12:50
  is not exactly lost on me. While some people may argue that
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  it's just a joke or it's amusing to see Jake Paul do activities
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  that he would never do otherwise or make videos that he would
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  never do otherwise, it feels like the people making these
• 13:04
  videos are poking fun, to put it lightly, at the LGBTQIA plus
• 13:10
  community. While that may not be the
• 13:12
  intention, that is definitely the undertone slash messaging
• 13:16
  that is coming across in my opinion.
• 13:18
  Especially when you think of Jake Paul's regular content and
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  fan base, it does feel somewhat homophobic and I haven't really
• 13:25
  seen too many media outlets or creators take this position when
• 13:30
  reporting on these videos, which is honestly very surprising to
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  me. I do think this kind of
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  undertone is fathered by Jake Paul's response to the videos.
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  He has stitched 2 of them on TikTok at the time of recording.
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  In one of them he was talking about how his fiance did not
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  like the content. In another, he started off by
• 13:49
  saying the AI is getting too out of hand before acting like one
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  of the AI videos in real life. I'll insert it here for you so
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  you can hear it all. Watch it.
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  Hey babes. First piece Look at this little
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  card again. She's pastel pink, ribbed and so
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  soft. You know this AI is getting out
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  of hand. It's honestly not even you want
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  to Celsius, Celsius, you have Peach.
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  Whatever you think of that, let's move away from the types
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  of content that is being produced.
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  I think the question here is also why and what started the
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  fixation with Jake Paul. We all know AI slop and brain
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  rot likes to be self referential.
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  Italian brain rot is very much an example of that.
• 14:30
  But the Jake Paul fixation actually comes from Sora or Sora
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  actually. I don't know how to pronounce
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  it, but if you haven't heard of it, it is the text to video
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  model developed by Open AI just a week ago.
• 14:42
  The second model was rolled out with an iOS app as well.
• 14:46
  The app is currently only available in the US and Canada,
• 14:49
  so unfortunately I wasn't able to download it myself and check
• 14:52
  it out. But if you were outside the US
• 14:55
  and Canada, you may have heard of Sora because there is a lot
• 14:57
  of conversation around managing copyrighted characters on a text
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  to video generator. Something that we've touched on
• 15:04
  before when it comes to image generation.
• 15:07
  I remember in one of my earliest episodes we spoke about it when
• 15:09
  there was a flood of AI generated images in the style of
• 15:13
  Studio Ghibli. Anyway though, it seems like
• 15:15
  Jake Pulsora account is allowing users to take his likeness and
• 15:20
  use it to make a deep fake of him pretty much doing anything.
• 15:23
  And this seems to be part of the Cameo feature of the app, as the
• 15:27
  feature is described from a blog post from Open AI Quote.
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  With cameos, you can drop yourself straight into to any
• 15:34
  scene with remarkable fidelity after a short one time video and
• 15:38
  audio recording in the app to verify your identity and capture
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  your likeness. With cameos, you're in control
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  of your likeness end to end. With Sora.
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  Only you decide who can use your Cameo, and you can revoke access
• 15:49
  or remove any video that includes it at any time.
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  Videos containing cameos of you, including drafts created by
• 15:55
  other people, are viewable by you at any time.
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  While there are clearly some security and safety measures in
• 16:01
  place, I do have my doubts about how effective this will be.
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  And aside from Jake Paul, there are other celebrities on the
• 16:08
  app. On the Open AI subreddit they
• 16:11
  are keeping a list and so far Sam Altman obviously.
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  And I just seen some of the other celebrities that are
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  listed. I will say this obviously does
• 16:20
  feel extremely dystopian, especially with people like Jake
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  Paul using these deep fakes for clout.
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  I find this extremely unsettling, especially because
• 16:31
  so many women have been personally victimized by deep
• 16:34
  fake pornography against that consent.
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  We've already spoken about it today in reference to Taylor
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  Swift. This is something that just
• 16:40
  feels very concerning to normalize, even if it is just
• 16:45
  for fun. I know I've recommended this
• 16:46
  book before, but I'm recommending it once again.
• 16:49
  I am even holding it as a prop for you guys who are listening,
• 16:53
  but this book called The New Age of Sexism, How the AI Revolution
• 16:57
  is Reinventing Misogyny by Laura Bates I think is an extremely
• 17:01
  important read for the current era we are in and why we can't
• 17:06
  take these type of things lightly.
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  In the book she has a whole chapter about deepfakes.
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  I think I've mentioned this before and I fear I'm probably
• 17:12
  going to have to mention it again at some point on this
• 17:15
  podcast, but she speaks about the experience of having a
• 17:19
  deepfake made of her and then also just goes into the research
• 17:23
  and reflecting on her experience about how deepfakes are
• 17:27
  affecting women. Sorry, I feel like they got a
• 17:29
  little bit riled up there, but rightfully so.
• 17:31
  But there is another piece of AI slop that we should talk about,
• 17:35
  and that is this a viral video of a woman on the subway.
• 17:39
  The video appears fairly normal. It's two people sitting on the
• 17:43
  train or the subway and the woman is recording herself in a
• 17:47
  face to camera video along with the man next to her and in it
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  she calls the man her husband. He takes this as a surprise
• 17:55
  because he is not her husband. But then they have a short
• 17:58
  conversation and it just seems like a quick little moment.
• 18:02
  Soon after this video other similar clips started popping
• 18:05
  up. This mage seem like a regular
• 18:07
  video or start to a trend cycle. But the catch is that many of
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  these videos are actually AI, and this has left so many social
• 18:15
  media users in absolute shock, with many claiming that they
• 18:19
  didn't realize the initial clip was AI generated.
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  Oh my gosh, that video of that girl on the subway being like me
• 18:24
  and my husband was. AI it was.
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  AI, Let's just gather here in silence and think about how that
• 18:32
  was AI and we couldn't tell. Guys, AI is the worst it's ever
• 18:36
  going to be right now, and we could not tell that that was AI.
• 18:40
  We're so cooked. We're cooked, bro.
• 18:43
  We're so cooked. When I first saw this clip I did
• 18:46
  clock on that it was AI because it doesn't look entirely
• 18:49
  natural, but I can so see how if you're scrolling mindlessly
• 18:53
  through your TikTok for you page that you wouldn't immediately
• 18:56
  clock it. And unfortunately there seems to
• 18:58
  be more and more instances of AI generated viral content that
• 19:01
  people are not realizing to be AI.
• 19:04
  Of course, the bunnies on the trampoline is probably the most
• 19:07
  famous example so far from memory.
• 19:09
  And while these examples and videos aren't exactly harmful
• 19:13
  doesn't bode well for us and our ability to identify AI clips,
• 19:17
  especially as AI technology improves.
• 19:21
  I fear I never have good news to report in mini text scroll.
• 19:24
  OK and the last thing I wanted to mention because I thought it
• 19:27
  was interesting. It isn't really a full story,
• 19:30
  but Deutsche Bank recently published a report about the AI
• 19:33
  bubble and whether it is a bubble and bursting.
• 19:37
  We have spoken about the AI bubble before, specifically in
• 19:40
  times of a new version of the.com bubble.
• 19:44
  This was basically a phenomenon that took place in two thousand
• 19:46
  2001 when there was all this investment into dot com
• 19:50
  companies that ended up going bust because investors didn't
• 19:53
  have enough of an understanding around the digital world where
• 19:57
  many of these companies were ultimately overvalued and had
• 20:00
  unsustainable business models. Many commentators and experts
• 20:04
  are questioning whether that is something we are going to
• 20:06
  witness with the AI boom and the rush to invest in many of these
• 20:10
  companies. In this report for Deutsche
• 20:12
  Bank, the researchers spoke about how, quote, one AI bubble
• 20:16
  has already burst the bubble in saying that there's a bubble and
• 20:19
  the report. Then goes on to examine how this
• 20:21
  fits into previous bubbles that have quote UN quote best.
• 20:25
  And I just thought this was interesting.
• 20:26
  So I have it LinkedIn the description for today's episode.
• 20:30
  I feel like I'm giving you guys homework.
• 20:32
  I'm giving you homework to read this report and then also read
• 20:34
  the Laura Bates book. But also we will be talking
• 20:38
  about this a little more in the upcoming newsletter this week.
• 20:42
  If you're interested. I'm also plugging the newsletter
• 20:44
  now. I'm just giving you a lot of
• 20:45
  tasks, but but yeah, definitely tune into that if you're
• 20:48
  interested. Well, that is everything from
• 20:50
  Mini Tech scroll today. I hope you guys enjoyed and
• 20:54
  Lauren will speak to you guys as usual tomorrow.
• 20:58
  And before I forget, Please remember to fill out the form if
• 21:02
  you are interested. If you have experience in fan
• 21:05
  fiction in any way, it will be much appreciated by me.
• 21:09
  But yes, thanks for listening. Bye.