Nobody in this world is a perfect individual, but “Weird” Al Yankovic may possibly be the best of humanity. Weird Al has provided the world with laughter and merriment for decades. He’s also, by all accounts, a damn nice guy. You’d be hard-pressed to find anyone to say a bad thing about the guy. Even Coolio‘s beef with him ended with respect. Yes, Al may be weird, but he’s also pretty awesome. In fact, his awesomeness has improved even further in our eyes with his stance on Artificial Intelligence.
Weird AI Is Not Down With Artificial Intelligence
The singing accordionist recently did an interview with Syracuse.com, ahead of a concert he’ll be performing at in the central New York city. Part of his being a successful artist is his keeping up with the cultural zeitgeist. In interviews, Weird Al regularly shows a knowledge of pop culture and recent happenings. Artificial Intelligence is also one of those things he’s informed about. We’re happy to say he is not a fan. So much so that he turned down advertising money so as not to be involved with it.
As Weird Al puts it, “I’m not going to mention any names, but they told me it was for a business. It was business software that would increase productivity.” Here’s where the twist comes in. “And then a week before we’re supposed to shoot it, I find out this is AI. And I thought, ‘Oh no, I can’t be the poster boy for AI, forget it.’” The singer goes on to mention that he felt bad about having to pull out of the ad, “But yeah, I’m not down with that.” That makes us happy to hear, considering we’re not really down with it either.
Weird Al and File Sharing Had Issues Too
This wouldn’t be the first time that technological advances tried to get the better of Weird Al, so to speak. Back in the early days of file-sharing networks like Napster and Limewire, Weird Al’s name kept popping up. Unfortunately, it was popping up on songs he had nothing to do with. Parody or comical songs would get made by random artists and attributed to Al without his knowledge. For a time, his website even had a list of popular songs being shared around that he didn’t do. Of course, the funniest thing about it was that they clearly weren’t him, but the internet was full of silly, silly people back then.
It’s kind of funny how that ridiculousness is preferable to the AI issues of today. Sure, “I Ran Over the Taco Bell Dog” was a horrible song, but at least it wasn’t artificially generated crap.
