In this episode We all use AI. We use it here at the Lens. But AI is no longer just helping us work—it may already be creating the very music, voices, and personalities we trust. In our Season 5 premiere, we unpack the unsettling experience of discovering AI-generated musicians and influencers masquerading as real people, debate whether authenticity can survive in an age of synthetic media, and ask who should be responsible when technology crosses into deeply human spaces. We also introduce Picks to Click, our new recurring feature spotlighting one book, one TV show, one movie, one album, and one podcast we think deserve your attention. This episode's picks include The Constitution by Melissa Murray, Man on Fire, Michael, Sonny Rollins' The Bridge, and Carlos Watson's Carlos. Thought-provoking conversation, cultural recommendations, and 100% human curation. How we use AI. Every episode is completely recorded and curated by the hosts. AI helps us with production, transcription, and publishing. Transcript Jason: [00:00:00] Yo, this is The Rhythmic Lens, a podcast that explores arts and life by ciphering on the events, new releases, and issues of the day by the editors of The New Obsidian. You can find us at thenewobsidian.com. I’m Jason. Kim: I’m Kim. Ron: I’m Ron. Jason: Hey, hey, hey, y’all. It’s good to see you. Good to hear your voices, man. This is The Rhythmic Lens 5.1, right? Season five- Ron: Yay ... episode Jason: one. How y’all doing? Feel- Feels good. Feels good to be here, man. Yeah, it Ron: feels good to be here. Jason: Fantastic. Missed you guys. I missed you too. I missed you too. Kim: Yeah. Jason: And, uh, this is what we have on tap tonight, all right? Our main topic is when AI crosses into spaces you expect to be organic. All right? Okay. And [00:01:00] after this main topic, after we chop this up, we’re going to do a new feature called Picks to Click. And Ron, give us a little rundown on that. Ron: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Actually, you know, this is something that we’ve done in one form or the other since we started the pod, and it’s also something that we did on the online version of The New Obsidian. But essentially, what we wanna do for you every episode is, you know, kind of go over some, introduce you to or just talk about one book, one TV show, one movie, one music release, and one podcast that we think y’all need to be up on according to the editors of The Obsidian and the hosts of The Lens. So that’s all that’s gonna be, you know, and, uh, we should have some fun with that. And if anything is coming up, we’ll also let you know about that too, you know, to, to keep an eye out [00:02:00] on. So that’s Picks to Click Jason: Fantastic, man. Hey, is this all human generated? I mean, are human beings clicking and picking and stuff like that? Is that something that’s happening here? Are there humans behind it is my question. 100%, Ron: 100% organic. Kim: Yay. Ron: 100%. 100%. Kim: All right, y’all. So at school, I hear my students talking about AI all the time, whether it’s ChatGPT or they’re repeating some phrases or they’re just ... They’re, they’re in there, locked in there. And I’m curious, what are your kids saying about AI? Jason: Well, my kids, they say plenty. I’ve got a, I’ve got a freshman in high school and a graduating senior in high school. And, you know, first of all, they both see it as a tool. I think it’s, it’s a lot closer to them just as a, as a new introduction, as a tool, as, versus honestly as a threat, [00:03:00] right? But they both feel that there should be no place for AI in media, entertainment- Mm-hmm arts. They feel that is a breach of ... Maybe to say is like the interconnection of feelings that are shared between humans when you understand somebody maybe, for example, um, writes a song, and it’s based off of an ex- an emotional experience that that person had, and the listener connects with the experience shared through the song. Mm-hmm. Almost like the song is the conduit. And so- You know, they look at AI-produced media to a degree, or quote unquote art, and think, “What’s the purpose? Where’s the connection?” [00:04:00] So a l- a lot of it has to do with that, that organic piece, right? What are feelings? W- you know, why would I care about something that somebody didn’t put the effort or the hours or life years into for a particular expertise to express themselves, but they did in five minutes. Why should I care about what they produced? Kim: So your kids, they have that kind of, like, in them already. Jason: They... Yeah, I mean, a- and I was asking multiple questions. I mean, they’ve said more than this, but I’ve asked multiple questions, and there was a clear line in the sand for them on when it came to media, entertainment, art, stuff like that. Mm. When it came to other things, it’s a tool. Yeah. Here it was a breach. Kim: Yeah. Ron: That’s [00:05:00] interesting. Yeah. Yeah. I’m actually... I’m glad to hear that. Kim: Sure. Ron: My... I did chat with my son about it. He’s a junior in high school. Mm. And I think, like your kids, Jason, he is not concerned with AI whatsoever. He does see it as, “Hey, it’s just tech,” right? And I think that he and his friends are very comfortable with it, which is probably where we’re probably all gonna end up with it even- eventually. But I did ask him specifically what he thought about, like, fake stuff- Mm-hmm ... with regards to, like, songs or video clips of actors and that sort of thing. Yeah. And he said, “Well, you know, those things, you just know that they’re fake.” And I was like, “Well, how do you [00:06:00] know?” Kim: Good question. Ron: I mean, they’re getting really good at it, and he’s like, “No, you just know. You just know. There’s just, there’s something that’s just off about it.” Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. And I said, “Well, what do you mean? Like, how do you know if something’s just off?” He- and he said, “Do you know what it’s like, you know, like how you can read somebody’s, like, signature, and it doesn’t look like any letters at all, but you know what that thing says?” NPC: Yeah. Ron: That’s how it, that’s how it is with AI. Like, you can just tell what it is just by what... how it presents. And I thought to myself, “Man, that’s really cool, and I’m really glad to hear that.” Like- Yeah ... and so maybe that is actually the case. Like, maybe as humans, we’re always gonna be able to tell on some level- Kim: Mm-hmm ... “ Ron: Hey, this is not quite right.” Kim: And maybe because kids grew up with more of [00:07:00] it, they are more attuned- Yeah to it because they’re used to that on a more regular basis than us Gen Xers. Ron: Yes. Yeah. I think so. I think so, yeah, yeah. Kim: Yeah. Ron: But I do have to say this, Kim. That clip that you, that you sent to us. Kim: Ooh. Ron: I don’t know if I would’ve known. Kim: All right. I Ron: don’t Jason: know. What are you ta- what are you talking about? What clip? Yeah. Kim: Okay. Ron: Hold on. Should Kim: I tell you about it? Jason: Tell me about it. Yeah, Kim: might as well. Okay. It’s embarrassing, but- Jason: Okay. Kim: I’m embarrassed by Jason: it. Is it a clip of you? Kim: No. No. Jason: All right. Go ahead. Okay. Go ahead. I will Kim: te- I’ll tell you what happened. So, you know, I think how I really love YouTube, and YouTube feeds me music. I’m walking to school every day. I’m listening. I got my headphones in. I’m listening to music, and it showed me some of my favorite artists to this date, people like Yola, Hermanos Gutierrez, my favorite, favorite. I found them through [00:08:00] YouTube suggestions, right? Black Pumas, Leon Bridges, Khruangbin, Gregory Alan Isakov. And Jason: YouTube, YouTube this? Kim: YouTube will just be like, “Hey, you might like da-da.” Okay. They don’t say that, but in my mind, like, it just shows up. I’m like, “Oh, okay.” Jason: I haven’t tried that. Kim: Yeah. Jason: I... That’s interesting. Okay. Kim: And that’s one of the things I love about the YouTube feature, is that I found some of my favorite... Okay. So walking to school the other day, and I hear this new song, and I really like it. I’m... It’s kind of not like what is in my feed right now. It’s more, like, bluesy. Jason: Mm-hmm. Kim: I really, really like it, so I’m, like, grooving to it. I’m listening to the lyric. I’m li- I’m just listening to it, and I think, “Wow, this is really tight. This is really, really, really good.” And I’m listening to it, and I’m enjoying it. Uh, fast-forward a couple, like, hours more th- into the day. I’m checking out a couple of their songs, and then there’s just some- I don’t even like, kinda like RJ was saying, like I’m not even sure what it is, [00:09:00] but there was something about it and I was just like, “Wait a minute.” And I wish I could remember what it was, but I looked in a little bit further and I looked it up on Google, and I found out that this man, his name is Benny R- wait a minute, not even man. This- ... song came from Benny Rivers’ blues compilation, and Benny Rivers is an AI. So the whole song was created with the AI. I got duped, I got bamboozled, I got fooled by AI, and it really f****d me up because I have so reliably been able to count on YouTube. This is the first time that has ever happened to me with music. Hmm. And it really, really pissed me off. And it’s already kinda like what we talked about. And I felt, then I felt [00:10:00] stupid. I felt like, how could I not know? And then, and you look at it again and you’re like, “Oh, yeah.” I mean, they don’t show him sing- it singing, but you look the face and oh, maybe, like the, there’s a little bit too, too perfect of a- Hmm ... image of a, like an el- elder Black man and, and then the, the maybe the sound of the voice is a litt
