SingAiBore uses Generative AI as a tool of critique and resistance, instead of wallowing in current debates on creativity, economy, privacy etc. by using the oft-critiqued generic outputs from Generative AI as implicit critique of National Day songs in Singapore – modern patriotic songs composed since 1985. The song for each year is usually broadcast on radio and television starting from a month before Singapore’s National Day, drilled into schoolchildren, and is given prominence during the Parade itself culminating in mass singing and displays not unlike those in N. Korea and China.
Using the lyrics of these songs as inputs for a LLM (Large Language Model), Stephen prompted the AI to generate song lyrics based on the themes of those songs. Two sets of song lyrics consistently came up across multiple generations, UNITED WE STAND and SINGAPOREAN DREAM. Taking the best variation of those two generated song lyrics as new inputs for the LLM, the AI came up with lyrics for DREAMS OF TOMORROW.
These song lyrics are then fed into an AI music generator and given different prompt combinations i.e. UNITED WE STAND (e.g. pop, male voice, nostalgic, ballad, cantopop etc.), SINGAPOREAN DREAM (e.g. pop, female voice, sentimental, ballad, cantopop etc.), DREAMS OF TOMORROW aka SingAiBore (e.g. pop, rock, patriotic, rousing, inspirational etc.). Stephen then selected the first 4 that fit the lyrics/theme and matched the feel of previous NDP songs from the multiple songs generated from each lyric/prompt combo. The resulting songs may not sound like Billboard pop that Western ears are accustomed to, that is due to the historical influence of pop music from Hong Kong and Taiwan in the region (hence the inclusion of “cantopop”, “mandarin pop” in prompt combinations).
The viability and fidelity of these new National Day songs and their variations point to the tedium of such songs and the predictable repetitive nature of propaganda. It also highlights the potential peril of AI exploitation by propaganda / misinformation personnel who no longer need to carefully craft their message, but can generate and inundate multiple variations to crowd out competing thoughts and messages; this underscores why controlled regimes are so invested in creating their own AI models, as such models (which will be trained on their “curated” and censored data), will perpetuate and amplify their echo chambers.
CREATED BY: Stephen Chen | COMPLETED: 07/04/2024
UNITED WE STAND
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SINGAPOREAN DREAM
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DREAMS OF TOMORROW (aka SingAiBore)
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