The Chaser Report - A Silent Protest Podcast

Episode Date: February 27, 2025

This description has been left blank, intentionally, out of protest.Watch OPTICS on ABC iview here:https://iview.abc.net.au/show/opticsCheck out more Chaser headlines here:https://www.instagram.com/chaserwar/?hl=enChatGPT generate me a funny sentence for the support link:https://chaser.com.au/support/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Thank you for your patience. Your call is important. Can't take being on hold anymore. FIS is 100% online, so you can make the switch in minutes. Mobile plans start at $15 a month. Certain conditions apply. Details at FIS.ca. The Chaser Report is recorded on Gatigall Land.

Striving for mediocrity in a world of excellence, this is the Chaser Report. Hello and welcome to The Chaser Report with Dom and Charles. Thank you, Charles. Look, we've talked a lot about AI on this podcast, and it's a favorite subject of ours. And can I say, I think we're a little bit ahead of the curve there. Oh, really? Yeah.

You think we were the first to get onto the idea that AI could be a bit of a thing? Yeah. Well, I feel like now, AI jokes have gone mainstream, but when we were doing them, they were sort of still a bit off-Broadway. Oh, really? And I feel like we've actually stopped talking about AI as it's become... As it's become more interesting, because we're like, oh, I've been there. Yeah, yeah.

That's the problem with listening to the Chase Report. is you're just too far ahead of the curve sometimes. That's right. But no, there is plenty to talk about at the moment. There's always heaps of AI news around. And one of the stories from this week is, look, a very powerful protest that's been taken by many British artists, including Kate Bush, Damon Arbarn, Damon Albarn from Blur and in Lennox.

What they've done is they've released a special album with more than a thousand people involved. It's called Is This What We Want? and it's an album that is completely silent and they've actually they've recorded empty music studios and performance spaces they've hit record and got the nothing that's been performed in them

and released that and the reason is because they're very lazy yeah well Cape Bush isn't I don't know if it's a long time it's just a normal Kate Bush a day for Kate Bush they're too busy counting their royalties

The reason is because the UK government are proposing or considering the idea that in the UK, AI firms could train their algorithms on creative work under a copyright exemption. So there would be no pay whatsoever given for using recordings or books or whatever it was. Isn't the whole point that copyright protects artists, obviously, but also is in the interests of firms? So what I don't understand is why are big companies starting to get behind the bandwagon of, well, let's just abandon the idea that people should be involved at all in the process. And I suppose the point is that they see an opportunity to just completely cut artists out of the entertainment industry entirely. Well, this is the opportunity here, Charles.

But look, so you literally, all you need is the capital to be able to invest in a machine that steals people's works. It is a bit odd Because at the same time We've seen other major companies Buying up the rights to lots of artists And lots of musicians have been selling the rights To their own back catalogs I don't know to various hedge funds and other investors

Which is fine Yeah so exactly And so they now down their money Why would a hedge fund Who owns the Beatles catalogue Go Oh yeah That's fine

Like I don't understand When you can just train Yeah Or is it because it's such an et an inevitability. It's a bit like Napster or something like that, where people are going to train it on Kate Bush anyway,

so you might as well make it technically legal. Well, I mean, the important point. What's going on? It doesn't make any sense to me. Why the AI, well, look, I mean, I presume what's actually happening is that the main copyright exemption is for, you know, books and so on, being able to train AI. I'm not entirely sure what the point of, you know,

training AI on all the music of Kate Bush would do, except to produce bad pastishes of Kate Bush. But what it is, philosophically what it points to is there's obviously a segment of capital who honestly believe that they can cut people out of the equation when it comes to producing new content. Like essentially in the same way that, you know, automation has cut factory workers out of manufacturing and, you know, a lot of farmers out of farming. It would be a lot easier to produce Kate Bush's music without Kate Bush.

Yeah, and cheaper. And much cheaper. That's a thing. And good enough. I'm going to play. So I've got this album here. is this what we want by 1,000 UK artists? Oh, you're going to play it?

Oh, hang on, and you're going to get copyright struck if you play it? Well, I don't know if they're going to recognise it. But so the track names are, I'll read them to you in order. Yeah. The, that's the first track. Oh, no. British. Oh, no.

Government. Oh, no. Track four is must. Oh. Five is north. Is Kate Bush a 17-year-old? Legalise music theft to benefit AI and the last one's called companies. Which how much like to hear?

Oh, well, AI. AI, all right, let's give this one a go. And apparently, like, one of them was recorded in Kate Bush's actual studio. Oh, right, okay. It's not nothing. It's kind of fitting that we're violating the copyright at this point. You know what I would do? What's that?

We've heard enough. You know what I would do? And what I reckon we should do, we should download that album and train an AI. We should. To make our own silent album. To make other boring political stuff. But I guess what this means, Charles, is that in the future, and this is the great thing, you know how people like you and me are in our 40s, we feel bad because we aren't across new

music anymore, we don't care. And so we just listen to music from, I don't know, the 80s and 90s or whatever. We're not interested in anything new. No, exactly. The great thing is that we'll have what we've always wanted. New music by our favorite artists. From the 90s. Even if they're dead. Grand drop. And no one else will make any new. album. So new artists coming through are screwed. And young people and one of your children just walked in the room. They won't have any new music. They're stuff.

But for us, it's going to be like everyone's a middle-aged person like us who never gets any new music except by the bands we grew up with. But I feel like this is good because they don't need as much money. Young people don't need as much money as us because they can't afford to buy a house anyway. That's right. They don't have mortgages to pay because no, no, I'll get them one. Yeah. So we're the victims in all this, our generation.

Yes, exactly. So we might as well get some good music while we pay off our mortgage. I mean, everyone thought Nirvana would never record again because of the whole thing where Cobain died. Yeah. But what if we just used that? He did, yeah. It was a thing. But what if we just used AI to generate more, admittedly inferior, but good enough, Nirvana music,

why would you bother listening to a new band? If you could just have more Nirvana, more Beatles. Didn't the Beatles do everything already? You can basically stop in 1970. Can't you? Yeah, and also it would continue current trends where, you know, the songs released by the Beatles get worse and worse and worse over time. Because what they're doing is, they've got it all wrong, haven't they, the Beatles?

They're trying to get like every little recording where John Lennon for five seconds, like, you know, essentially left a voicemail. Actually, I'm surprised they haven't released a blank recording of the Beatles studio. I'm sure they will. The white noise album. The white noise album. Yeah. Thank you for your patience.

Your call is important. Can't take being on hold anymore. FIS is 100% online so you can make the switch in minutes. Mobile plans start at $15 a month. Certain conditions apply. Details at FIS.ca. The Chaser Report. Now with extra whispers.

This is encouraging, but it also raises, I suppose, for us. And we take a lot of time to make a new podcast every day. That's clearly stupid Well how do our listeners know that we're not already I think we've already made this joke But Charles maybe what we should do Yes Oh no but we should release a podcast

Of us being silent As a protest I think we should address this episode Yes Let's just record this Let's do what Kate Bush would do And Damon Albin and all the other legends Yeah

And just basically record nothing I think that's a great idea That's a great idea Don Let's turn the microphones off Let's just, um, let's just see. So what did you get up to on the weekend? I had it quite a nice weekend, actually.

Yeah, a bit of family time. Went to the swimming pool. Just sort of the kids are swimming lessons, you know. Just kind of relax. Have I shown you the rash that I've got? Really? Yeah, so it's pretty chunky. Oh, God. That's it.

Have you said? See? Yeah. It's enormous. Do you think I should go to the doctor? I think you should go to the emergency. Really? But, yeah.

No, that's, I think it's alive. I think it's actually Is that a lot? It's actually a separate organism. I don't know what that is. Oh, fuck, okay. Yeah, because I just, I've been putting, you know, um, like, antifungal cream on it.

But I think, I think it actually is, like, is getting bigger off the, feeding it, feed it, feed it eats the antifungal cream. Is that, maybe it's a mammal? Is that a mammal? I think you're in endangered species. Maybe that thing's growing on. Oh, Kate Bush doesn't have to deal with this.

I shouldn't have gone to Tarongazoo the other day. You shouldn't have been, you shouldn't. And AI couldn't possibly duplicate this. No, see, this is where you go. This is why, by the way, have you finished counting all the money that we made yesterday from the podcast? On the podcast? Yeah. It didn't take very long, surprisingly enough.

I've been, I just went and bought a house on the Gold Coast. Oh, yeah? I paid it up and give you the financial advice With the podcast money With the podcast money I've just been able to buy copies of this album That's blank apparently It's very very cheap to buy this topic

Yeah anyway Should we perhaps Go back onto the mics And wrap it up I suppose Yeah Well there you go Solidarity

A resounding protest Take that big AI firms. I'm sure nobody overheard what we were saying. Nah, what do you thought so? Those microphones. There's very directional. Yeah, these are very directional. So I think we've solved that problem.

AI companies won't know what to do now. They'll slink off and violate someone else's creativity. Yes. I mean, Donald Trump did this week threaten to take on any government that tries to regulate AI companies in any way, pretty much. And so essentially firing a shot across

the bow of Europeans or Australians or anyone who wants to do anything to, you know, make sure AI is ethical. But this is before the UK music industry came on board and really... Yeah. Oh, no, they'll be really. And, you know, Elon Musk is a big AI proponent. And you know how the other day I predicted on this podcast that he would use AI to read all the emails that he asked for people to see about their thing?

Guess what he did? Their little minions admitted that they were using AI. Like, Elon Musk boasted about how he used AI to go through all the emails that he got back. Isn't that? So, that's like, head of the curve. You gropped it. I predicted that. You did.

Yeah. Did you ask AI what Elon Musk would do with the emails? Oh, what did you figure out for yourself? No, but let's do that right now and find out. Actually, you know what we should do? We should ask the AI how to end this bloody episode. I'll just get GROC going. What are five great?

ways to end a fairly meandering podcast episode. Okay, so I've got here, I've asked chat GPT, what would Elon do? Are we doing about Elon Musk what he says he'll do or what he thinks he's doing or what does he actually do? Because those are three very different things. But generally speaking, here are some possible muskin responses. The bold promise, an ounce on X that he's about to revolutionise an industry with a totally new concept that somebody's already else has invented.

This is quite a cynical AI now, yeah. The over-engineering approach, build a massively complicated overly hyphen solution that doesn't quite work but looks cool in renders. This AI really doesn't like Elon Musk. You know why? Because it's ingested all the other webpages don't like Elon Musk from out of it. The PR move, call a press conference,

claim it was his idea all along, then shift blame if it fails. Oh my God, this is perfect. The unhinged tweet, respond with a mean, bizarre joke or challenged someone to a cage file. Disruptive layoffs Fire half the staff

Then panic When things fall apart And quietly rehire some That's exactly what he would do That's very good It was just based on past performance I'm very impressed And then make it a subscription plan

Whatever it is They should do that with the US government Oh yes Well that's I suppose what they are Government plus They're making a blue tick The rest of the world pay up They're putting America on a subscription plan

Indeed That's what Orcas is It's what the Ukraine thing is. It's that 800 million a month with the rare earth metals. OK, GROC 3, beta, I've asked Elon's AI. What a five great ways to end a fairly meandering podcast episode. GROC 3 says, wrapping up a podcast episode that's wanted a bit can feel tricky.

But it's all about bringing it home with purpose and energy. Here are five solid ways to do it. And Charles, again, surprisingly, these are genuinely quite good. One, circle back to the start. Revisit something you mentioned early on, even if it was a smaller side. Did we have a smaller side? We paid out, Kate. Bush, maybe we'll come back to Kate Bush

not doing anything useful. Drop a big question. Leave the audience with something to chew on. Yes. So after all this is the example, are we just chaos machines? Or is there a method to the madness? What do you reckon? Hit us up next time.

Quick recap with a twist. Here's what it is. Sum up the wild ride in a couple of sentences, but throwing a play of spin. Today we zigzagged from sourdough starters to quantum physics. Turns out yeast and quarks might just be the same. vibe. It's pretty good.

Call to action. Actually, this is a genuinely good idea. I give you a listener something to do that fits the meandering vibe. We've wandered all over, so I don't wander with us again next week. Drop us a voice note with your own random thoughts. We might just feature you. Get the listeners to do the work. All right.

Land on a strong note and deliver it with a punch. We've roamed far and wide, but here's the gem no matter. The topic, it's the tangents that make life interesting. Not true of this podcast. See you next time. So there you go. But loose but purposeful chance. Look, I think the lesson here is

Kathy really did love Heathcliff. Wuthering, Wuthering, Wuthering Heights. We're part of the Iconiclass Network. Have a good weekend. Thank you for your patience. Your call is important. Can't take being on hold anymore? Fizz is 100% online, so you can make the switch in minutes.

Mobile plans start at first. $15 a month. Certain conditions apply. Details at fizz.ca.