Weird Al Yankovic Pulled Out of AI Ad Deal: 'I Can't Be the Poster Boy for AI'

arjie•6 minutes ago

The name in a sans serif font, the fact that he’s parodying in the style of something, etc. His entire deal requires him to not be related to generative AI.

“Do X in the style of Y” was one of the most memey things when open access to a GPT first came out.

olivierestsage•about 1 hour ago

Best possible ad for Weird Al.

How did we get here? Why am I, a lifelong tech enthusiast, on a tech enthusiast board championing someone for resisting technology? I’ve been on HN for years but it’s starting to feel absurd ever since I’ve been out of sync with the whole AI thing. Thanks for listening to my Ted talk.

bitwize•34 minutes ago

There's a meme that goes:

Person A: I'm a tech enthusiast! I have the latest smartphone, smartwatch, smart car, smart TV, smart home... all networked together and automated to make my daily life easier.

Person B: I work in tech. The last piece of tech I bought is a printer from 2004, and I keep a loaded gun nearby in case it starts acting funny.

Once you understand how the sausage is made and what the incentives are, you become very suspicious of every hot new tech integration that comes along.

But humans just don't write commercial software anymore. Don't expect to keep doing that for a living.

altairprime•9 minutes ago

[delayed]

ares623•about 1 hour ago

As is often repeated here, "technology is a force multiplier".

AI has been multiplying the wrong things (for the common people) at an amazing rate, while the good things it multiplies have been few, arguable, and lagging behind.

Usually to be enthusiastic about new tech, it needs to be the reverse. New tech that multiplies the "good things" first while the wrong things catch up later (see Internet, cars, commercial aviation, smartphones).

Sure, fellow software engineers who spend 8+ hours a day writing code see it as the opposite, since AI _is_ seen as doing the "good things" (i.e. writing code). But eventually the bad things will catch up with us too.

solenoid0937•23 minutes ago

The general public has never been enthusiastic about new tech until well after the benefits start rolling in and are undeniably obvious. https://pessimistsarchive.org/

AI is no different. People like to think they have some special new insight as to why "it's bad this time!" but the average person has always reacted to change with FUD.

Ar-Curunir•14 minutes ago

Usually this happens after the naysayers have been forcibly evicted from economic and social life

qsxfthnkp2322•10 minutes ago

Take the money while it’s still there.

emsign•about 3 hours ago

Good on him. He saved his dignity.

ButlerianJihad•about 2 hours ago

My personal meme is to occasionally weigh in with a comment about one of his videos being "Al-generated content".

It is not my fault if people using sans-serif fonts get mad about it.

jfengel•about 1 hour ago

I had noted a few weeks ago that Hacker News used a font without serifs, causing confusion. I'm not sure when they changed that, but there are now serifs on the capital I and lower case "l".

This headline is much less confusing for the change. Thanks.

bitwize•32 minutes ago

There was a guy on TikTok whose daughter (~10 yo) had discovered a "Weird A.I." that could "take any song and make it funny".

dwroberts•about 2 hours ago

Wonder if this was Salesforce

bombcar•about 1 hour ago

"Say Al" force.

triceratops•about 3 hours ago

They should've gone to Larry David.

mjhay•about 2 hours ago

He’s such a good guy

steve_adams_86•about 1 hour ago

Genuinely one of the most fun performances I've ever been to, as well! The small venue accentuated Al's insanely huge personality.

Weird Al Yankovic Pulled Out of AI Ad Deal: 'I Can't Be the Poster Boy for AI'

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