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The most unsettling part of the video isn’t the AI-approximation of James Talarico’s head floating and jerking on top of a too-small neck. It’s not the plastered-on smile threatening to warp through a pair of non-existent lips. It’s not the guessing machine’s best approximation of an alpine woman’s dress held up against a backdrop of infill apartments in Cleveland. No, the worst part of a recent AI-generated attack ad against the Texas Democrat comes when the Talarico tulpa opens his mouth to sing.

Per conservative outlet The Daily Caller, the Citizens for Sanity ad is meant to be a play on Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “My Favorite Things.” The bedrock showtune/nursery rhyme famously sung by Julie Andrews is not complex. It’s not hard to recall, either. You’re probably humming it right now. But an AI trained on endless datasets of “Sound of Music” cast recordings (and who knows how many covers) couldn't keep time when asked to rewrite the song to be about right-wing gender panic.

Whenever you hear a Silicon Valley bigwig arguing why they just have to put up a data center the size of Rhode Island, whenever a small town is complaining about rising electricity costs and potable water scarcity, whenever you hear about downsizing in anticipation of jobs LLMs supposed generative abilities, you should think about “Talarico” singing “FAVORIIIITE… things.”

These souped-up chatbots have an ability to scan massive data sets that is genuinely impressive. Twisting that information into anything useful, exciting or interesting — you know, the rub of almost any creative human endeavor — is not something these overblown spreadsheets have proven they can do.

What do you think? Is there a future in AI pessimism? Should generative AI be immediately banned from political advertising? Sound off in the comments.

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