And now for something completely different — and if that phrase didn't date me, my attempt to cover this next story will.
The world has its first AI rapper. FN Meka is an artificial intelligence-powered rap artist that has produced just three songs, yet raked in millions of views online.
The robot recently released its third track, "Speed Demon," and curse me if I haven't already listened to it a dozen times — it is only about 2.5 minutes long.
Most of the song is the relentless chanting of the track's title, as well as lyrics like “when you hear the engines screaming,” “body flawless,” and “livin' lawless” — it's easy to be flawless and lawless when you're not real. The lyrics are still somehow superior to those created by Shimon, the singer/songwriter robot created by Georgia Tech researchers that we covered back in February 2020, a mere two weeks before ... well, you're living it, too.
FN Meka, a self-described robot rapper not accepted by this Earth, has also released “Moonwalkin” and “Internet.” The body of work has been described as creepy, but catchy and of little consequence.
As noted by WFPK, FN Meka has energetic but passionless lyrics that seem to strictly be about consumerism. Still, the AI has more than a billion views and nine million TikTok followers and — perhaps the best compliment — it could be mistaken for a bad human rap artist.
As machine learning and AI advances, so will attempts to recreate art — though we are far from replacing any human of consequence.
