You can use AI to make songs that are more or less on par with the level of quality that the pop music industry churns out recently. The reason people aren't becoming financially successful doing that, is because anyone can also generate their own unending piles of AI slop, too.

In 1996, this was an expensive, impressive shot to film, today, you could recreate the same thing (and arguably, in better quality) with consumer hardware from DJI. Where are all the success stories of people getting rich with their drones? Well, like the villain in The Incredibles said:

Buses are used by "the poors". Nobody on either side of the aisle considers this an issue worth changing their vote over. The only reason we're even hearing about it is because the libertarian and right-wing media loves to get their base stroking their egos over the massive ICE pickup trucks they have parked in their driveways.

Of course, if your point was that America is uniquely bad at public transportation - that's true, but it's because the auto industry owns all the politicians.

For a moment, let's ignore the economic elephant in the room that is inflation and pretend UBI will work as advertised. You're still stuck living on a fixed government income, which only lets you participate in capitalism in a very limited manner. UBI offers no upward mobility if you really can't find work because the robots took all the jobs you'd be qualified for.

Sure, Yang likes to imagine that UBI would free you to do some side hustle, but you have to remember, just like that inflation we're not supposed to be talking about, everyone else on UBI would have exactly the same idea. Gig work offers would go *poof* quicker than you can accept them, as 1,000s of others would also be trying to supplement their government stipend income.

Hilariously, Yang was once asked during one of his interviews a few years back about how people could afford housing on UBI, since it clearly wouldn't be enough for a mortgage payment in any market. He unironically suggested getting roommates. That alone should tell you what a joke of a concept this is, because if most people were okay with buying a house as a partnership with a bunch of strangers, we'd already be doing this now.

The music industry has always earned the majority of its revenue from a small percentage of extremely popular acts. Part of it is that the industry is gatekept to where your music won't be promoted if you're not already well connected, and the other part of it is just human nature over what becomes popular. Some stuff clicks with the masses, and some doesn't, no matter how much money you throw at promoting it (there's plenty of examples of "manufactured" pop stars flopping). It's also a safe assumption that a lot of good music goes unheard too, because it's buried under a mountain of crap and the musician just happens to be a nobody.

That's the entertainment industry for you.

According to Ashley Madison, which surprisingly is still around, the euphemism is "alternative dating experiences". *rolls eyes*

It's probably for people who like to look at NSFW content while they're on the train or standing in line.

That would require parents taking responsibility and actually being parents.

I've previously made an analogy about it being akin to parents that would just hand their kids the car keys and tell 'em to have at it. After having recently experienced a neighbor's teenage kid crashing into my parked vehicle, I think they're actually doing that, too.

We're living in some strange times where some parents actually believe every dumb thing their spawn does is somehow the fault of the adult world, and not their failure as parents to prepare them for the adult world.

Remote controlled machine fights was basically the premise behind the BattleBots series. I'm kind of surprised this is getting such a negative reception here, it's finally something that fits the "news for nerds" mantra, and so far most of the comments are that it's dystopian/lame/a waste of technology.

Sure has become a jaded crowd here. If we've collectively grown weary of technology stories, perhaps it's time to start posting about Amish barn raisings instead. /s

Until the Slate Truck is released (and there probably should be an "if" in there somewhere), the Bolt is the closest thing the USA has to a barebones EV.

No, you and several others missed the point. You're not getting a curated collection, or the specialized algorithm, or any of the things that makes Spotify, Spotify. You're just getting one big honkin', massive collection of music, with about 80% of it being content that can't find more than 50 listeners.

You. Are. Going. To. Press. "Skip". A. Lot.

I was just in a department store earlier this evening that was playing Two Princes by Spin Doctors. That's a 34-year-old song. In 1991, that'd have been like a store rockin' some early Elvis tracks, which usually wasn't done unless nostalgia specifically was a theme the establishment was going for. Next time you're out somewhere, take note of the age of the songs being played - it's mostly what would've previously been considered "oldies".

Seems someone with mod points assumed I didn't do my research first and just spouted off. Spotify claims to have over 100 million tracks, 7 million podcast titles, and 500,000 audiobooks. Now, admittedly, math has never been my strongest subject, but 2.8 million tracks seems just a teensy bit smaller than that (perhaps I misplaced a decimal somewhere - it has been known to happen).

So, my point was that the full, entire Spotify library must be quite mind-blowingly large. Probably in the order of not something you'd realistically even be able to download over a standard home broadband connection in much of the US, and your VPN provider would likely tell you to "cut it out" before you got anywhere close to being finished, anyway.

Of course, I kid. Considering what passes for popular music these days, I'd wear out my damn skip button. Still, I have to wonder how much space it would take to download all of Spotify.

The fact that more than one person was likely involved in thinking this was a good idea, is quite disturbing.

My partner has a Bolt EUV, I have a Bolt EV. The differences between the vehicle designs is almost entirely down to aesthetics. Yeah, the EUV is a few mm larger in places, but it's imperceivable when you're driving it, and makes absolutely no difference when it comes to practical cargo capacity*. Basically, the EUV looks "sportier", which is neither here nor there when you're comparing compact hatchbacks.

* One time, I actually brought home a heat pump clothes dryer from Best Buy in the back of my Bolt. It's rather surprising what will actually fit in that tiny car.

That's a matter of perspective. The ban on whaling was disastrous if you happened to be a whaler, but the petroleum industry made bank.

An "EV mandate" the likes of what the right-wing constantly fearmongered over would've been a huge boon to Tesla, and any other automakers who managed to get their EV act together. After the dust settles, there'd be winners and there'd be losers - but that's just business. How many Blockbuster Video stores you see around these days?