Wonka Immersive Experience Explained

[music] Hello, and welcome to another episode of Basin's Network. My name is Sophie, aka Johnavarca, and I'm here with Kaya, aka punk revolution now. Say hi, Kaya. Hi, Sophie. What is up today? Actually, you got to tell us about something really cool you just did. Oh, the music video, right? Yeah, yes. All right, well, so yesterday, my band Fireman released a music video for my song "Rain of Terror" that came out in January with R.E.P. Territory of Conquest 2024. And the thing that's cool about this music video is that Sophie and I, our friends in Ukraine, actually made this music video. Shut up, shut up to Vlad, he's love. Shut up to Vlad, aka. Very cute, cute princess, well, omg, fairy dot q, dot wow, dot princess dot omg. Yes, so yeah, because you know, obviously a lot of the themes in the EPR about war, and you know, this EP was written in 2022, early 2023, so before like, you know, a lot of it was inspired, especially by like the the war in Ukraine, obviously critical of the critical of war. This is not a pro war EP, obviously. So, and you know, I just, I felt like, you know, they, the music was inspired by, you know, I'm not saying like all the war is so awesome. I'm inspired by it. I'm saying like, very emotionally impacted, like, many people were by the, the destruction of the invasion. And the music, very, very much resonated with the Ukrainian friends over there, and that made me really, really happy. And this was an opportunity for them to make, well, they made a music video for it with them hanging out in Kiev, showing, um, kind of their day-to-day lives as the war rages on and how they're coping with the war, which is kind of not very well. I mean, I think that was kind of it that, yeah. There are kind of rely, a lot of young people are, you know, relying on alcohol and, uh, drugs, uh, being reckless or, you know, going to the gym, you know, good and bad things. Uh, that's how they're coping. So they kind of wanted to show that, that, how, that side of it. Yeah. So I, you know, I'm really, really happy with the music video, because one, I think it's a good music video. Two, I, I'm really happy that they were able to kind of share this, kind of glimpse into their day-to-day lives of coping with the war in this music video. And obviously, it's really like an honor that they, they, they're doing that with the music, my band put together. And three, I'm also really happy, because they were really happy. The, you know, the Ukrainians who made this music video were really happy for the opportunity to get to, to show that and express that and also feel seen and heard with the music that we put together in Brooklyn. So go check out the music video. It's a Rain of Terror's name was song by Fireman. Just search Fireman Rain of Terror on YouTube. It's my punk revolution now YouTube channel. You'll find it. And yeah, listen to the EP if you haven't either. So yeah, the EP is really great. And obviously very relevant because of what's going on in Gaza too. And the Ukraine Wars is continuing on. So yeah. And I think that's, you know, it's like a lot of the, a lot of the EP is just kind of like this frustration and devastation and anger and sadness over like war. And just how, you know, even though the EP was written before the Gaza crisis, the Gaza invasion, it kind of a, and I think it really applies to all of it. You know, it's, it's about, you know, that's so. And it was partially inspired by Vietnam too, right? Yeah, yeah, Vietnam, Ukraine. I think those are the two big ones, but I think it was really just, like it's all the same, it's all the same shit. It's all the same shit of frustration, sadness, and like why on earth is this happening? You know what I mean? Yeah. Yeah. Well, yeah, everyone go check out the music video. It's really cool. It's really well made. The cinematography is really cool. Yeah. And shout out to Vlad and all the, all of the, because it was Vlad and like a, you know, a crew of a bunch of, of their friends that put it together. So they did an awesome job. So it's shout out to all of them. Thank you, Sophie, for calling that out. What about you? What's going on with you? I'm good. I, um, I've just been lately. I've been working on Dream Baby Press stuff, which is my friend and Matt and Zach's, uh, literary club. They do readings and they kind of, they like to celebrate literature, celebrity, erotic, uh, fun. It's, it's, it's, it's just kind of like making reading fun, but for adults, I guess. And that really resonates with me for some reason, probably because I'm a nerd and I like fanfiction. So I've been working with them to find archival stuff and just cool videos. And I've also been writing some stuff. I've been working on my writing, which is, you know, something I always wanted to do. I always enjoyed writing in school, but I never really practiced creative writing or personal narrative. That stuff was really hard for me. I, I, I'm very, it's hard for me to like talk about my abilities. I feel really narcissistic, but I do think I'm a good writer when it comes to analysis. I'm like, I've always been good at that. And yeah, like analysis commentary, especially when it comes to literature and, and film and stuff like, like, I don't know, like writing an essay for school. I was always good at that, you know? She gets straight A's, all right? Let's just, let's just cut the crap. So if he's a straight A student who's a good, who's good at academic writing. Thank you. Yeah, academic writing. I, that, it was always, came naturally to me. He's, it's sort of cut and dry, straight forward. I've been practicing that writing in more fun ways, which has been interesting. And it's, it's been a struggle for me, but I think, you know, someday I do want to write a book about something, mostly because I just don't want to leave the world without anything to show for it, you know? So that's my ultimate goal. But I feel like my life isn't interesting enough yet to do that, but we'll see. But I'm definitely going to be writing a lot more. I'm going to try to take some of the stuff I do with Joan of Arc, which is, you know, typically pretty spontaneous and fun and crazy and transferring it to, to writing. And we'll see, we'll see how that goes, but that's just something I've always wanted to do. So I hope it turns out okay. I think whatever you're going to do with the writing, I think it's a good, I think it's going to work well because I feel like, first, personally, I feel like writing in a formal academic sense is like harder than creative writing. Like, I think if you can do the academic writing, you can do the fun writing. And then like also given that you're good at doing like the spontaneous kind of Instagram posts, like you obviously have that like creative side. So like, I know you don't want to be, you said you don't want to like talk about your talents or whatever, because it makes, it feels narcissistic, whatever. But as an outsider looking in, I'm sure whatever you want to do with writing, creative writing, whatever, formal writing, whatever, you are a hundred percent, thousand percent more, more than capable of it. So that's my opinion. Thank you. And I hope like people listening to this, we'll check it out once I have start releasing stuff because, you know, that would mean a lot to me. Yes. I will, I will check, I promise you I will check it out. Thank you, Kaya. I would hope so unless you don't want me to read it. No, you can read it. Uh oh. What if it's, what if it's a, I'm afraid you're going to release it, and it's going to be fan fiction where it's you fall, you falling in love with the beast from beauty and the beast and talking about handsome he is. And then the beast kills me. That's what that's what you wish it was. Yeah, true. Sounds like AI, AI generated fan fiction, which is basically what we're going to talk about soon. But okay. Let's talk about it. Yeah. Yeah. Speaking of AI, every single person listening to this now knows about the Willy Wonka immersive experience disaster in Glasgow. And obviously we're going to talk about it because it's right up our alley. Basically, there was a, a quote, immersive experience that took on the theme of Willy Wonka probably because the, probably because the Wonka movie starring Timothy Shalame came out. It's a musical. Haven't seen it, but it's coming to HBO Maxon. So we will probably watch it and review it. But yeah, it took the theme of that. - That didn't say "Wonka," it said Willis. - No, no, no, no. We're definitely gonna be watching Williwanka. - I know, I know. - That's not a mate, it's not a problem we're gonna watch, it's, I am counting down. Sophie, why can't, Sophie, can we see in theaters together? - I think it's, I don't know if it's, I don't think it's still in theaters at this point. - How long do movies last in theaters? - It really depends, it depends how profitable it is, but I would say one to two months, and I don't know if it's, it might still be in theaters in some select areas, but we will see. - Okay, I know you were, I'm sorry to interrupt your train of thought 'cause you had a really good thing going while you were about to get into the new segment, but I need us to pause, not the recording. I just need to Google if it's still in theaters. - Okay. - Okay, so, okay, so, so, it does look like it's still in theaters, it looks like it's like a little sparse, like it's kind of like, it's kind of pedering out, pedering out, so we might be able to see it though, 'cause we're gonna be in Florida. - If it's playing anywhere, it's probably playing in Florida. - All right, so, let's add that to the agenda of, of important, 'cause we're doing, so if you and I have some field journalism, fieldwork, we're gonna be going to Florida for some journal, what's it reported? - We're going to be, yeah, we're gonna be reporting, we're going to be investigating like Lady Gaga on January 6th, we're gonna be investigating. - Mar-a-Lago. - We'll be at Mar-a-Lago investigating. We will be investigating suburban, Florida. See what clues we can find. - Oh, oh, oh, Sophie. - What? - I wanna get a giant, a gigantic magnifying glass and walk around, and walk around Mar-a-Lago, looking at everything with it. - Yeah, looking for footsteps for footprints. - Least competent member of the Biden administration. - Yeah. - Pierence the type of guy to taste the mud of a footprint to see what kind of animal it is. - To see what it tells me. - Oh, that's a Donald Trump. - Oh, that's a Donald Trump's foot, 'cause it tastes like Cheetos. - Oh god, ew. Sorry. - Sorry. - Okay, so maybe we should, I'm sorry. Let's go back to the news. What was the news again? - Oh, it's okay. The news is that there was a flop, Willy Wonka, immersive experience. First, I wanna talk about what is an immersive experience? An immersive experience is kind of this word, is this buzzword that's being used to describe what are essentially selfie museums? Selfie museums, here's another buzzword. Selfie museums are like some museums you may have seen online on Instagram, they're also called Instagram museums. One of them is called the Museum of Ice Cream. And it's famous for just people taking pictures in these quote art installations of ice cream. There's also the Museum of Sex in New York. I think the Museum of Ice Cream's in New York, too. There are other ones, but they're basically quote, experiences created to be posted on Instagram. They're literally just photo ops. That's all it is, like photo ops in these like Instagram, friendly, colorful backdrops. And they make a lot of money. - That what? Is that for real? You never heard of this? - I mean, like when I hear immersive experience, like what I think about is like I'm gonna go and it's gonna make me think that I'm like kind of there. - It is, that is some immersive experiences are like that, like sleep no more in New York is an immersive experience, but unfortunately a lot of quote immersive experience. I mean, you could call a haunted house an immersive experience, you know? There's basically how I would define an immersive experience these days is a combination of some sort of haunted house or like tour when you're with actors, like acting out stuff, combined with like the selfie museum. You're supposed to be like, 'cause the selfie museum makes you feel like you're inside of this world. Do you know what I mean? That you're like taking pictures in this place? - Well, but this was for, this is really one good though. Like I feel like this is for kids. - It is for kids. - I guess kids take selfies nowadays, too. - Well, it's not as, I mean, selfies, it's just like the term for it, but it doesn't have to be selfies. Like this is for kids, but it's also for parents to post pictures of their kids, you know what I mean? In these like, whimsical places. - All right, I just wanna say real quick, like I think everything you're saying is correct. But I have to say, it's really sad. Like this is a whole other thing we can go. I don't wanna go down too many rabbit holes. This is really sad that like this is something nowadays that when people are putting events together, like they have to kind of keep top of mind. Like these selfie compatibility with the event they're putting together. Because that's kind of like how we live. That's how we live now is like posting selfies on the internet and like that's. - Well, think about why some people go to museums now in general and why these museums are now becoming more popular. People go to museums to signal that they go to museums. Not, okay, not everyone. But a lot, some people go to museums just so that they can take pictures in the museum for this aesthetic, you know what I mean? - Oh, Sophie, can we go to the museum of natural history? And you can take a picture of me looking really closely at a panel about evolution. And I'll be reading it really focused. So everyone knows that I'm educated. - Pierre and the type of guy to read every single little thing at a museum. Which I, I'm actually in real life. I'm the type of girl to do that. - Oh, Sophie, oh. - What? - I wanna go to more museums now. - I know, me too. - I feel like you and I have a lot of fun at museums. - We do, we do go to a lot of museums. I don't really take many photos. (laughs) I literally sound like I'll hipster. I'm like, I don't take photos of museums. I'm there for the to see and appreciate. But it makes sense that I like museums because I studied history, you know, and I like arts. I think a lot of, obviously a lot of people like museums, but I really do like museums. And I don't think I've been to any of these immersive, like, selfie museums before, but they are very popular. Oh, okay, do you know in Midtown, the like, Manhattan, there's that one, I cannot remember what it's called. Like the sugar, like candy museum experience thing. - No. - It's, you'll recognize it. - It's by the third, it's by the 30 seconds. - I did go to this pop-up immersive experience that was in like literally an warehouse in Bushwick that was an ASMR immersive experience. - Oh my God, what is it? - Yeah, and it was like kind of like, you'd go, you kind of walk through this path and like kind of stop at these sort of like, little different stands where there would be like a volunteer there or some sort of exhibit there that would, they would like play with clay with you or like show you some audio thingy or whatever. - Oh my God. - And I have to say, it reminds me a lot of this really one good thing where we're talking about now, but it was free and it was fun and well done. And I couldn't help but stop thinking like, okay, so like all the volunteers there, everyone there were like college students. Like it was obviously something that was done by like art students, you know? And I'm just thinking like, what, what the, who is this rich college student in New York City who is literally renting out a warehouse for like two weeks to put on and like hiring all these people and stuff and paying for all these props to put them off? It's like, well, I mean seriously, and it was free too. It's like, this is literally like, even though it was like a cool experience, I was so angry that like, this was such a grotesque waste of money. Like, and like, you know what I'm saying? This is such like a flex. Like, okay, now this art student is gonna put on their resume that they did like an immersive ASMR experience. And it's like, no, this is not, like creativity isn't the magic behind this experience. It's just a ton of money is the magic behind the experience. - Well, that's the point though. Like these quote museums and experiences, some of them are definitely like, sleep no more is more, I would call them more of an immersive theater. That's kind of different than an immersive experience. 'Cause now everything's like, you know what? This is those subway ads for friends, the experience. Like for the friends TV show, it's like crazy. - I don't so be honest. - You can go in the sets. - I haven't been outside in a long time. I don't know, I don't know. I don't know what's advertising on the subways right now. - I paid too much attention to the subway ads. I'm like, they're ideal. I'm the ideal ad agency. - I haven't showered in like four weeks. Not just kidding. - We can tell, just kidding. - Yeah, can you tell from the, can you hear through the microphone, my faithful hair brushing up against the mic? - I can, that's amazing, Mara, for you. - Okay. - Anyway, this was, by the way, this was in Scotland. - It was in Glasgow, but you're right though, as far as like, these are just gross displays of wealth. Even though that was free, a lot of these aim to get your money, they charge. high prices and it's it's really not about the art like there's no artistry it's just stuff that looks good in a picture but I think when it comes to like kids stuff that gets a little different you know I mean I feel like these kind of things are more acceptable for children because they're young and it's probably really fun for them and you get some nice photos out of it too but I feel like it's acceptable for a little kid to be amused with shiny pretty colors but when adults start doing that for like Instagram posts then it then to me it becomes an issue. Yeah, facts. Anyhoo so there was a quote this is what it was called. It was called Willie's Chocolate Experience and they can't it's not affiliated with Willy Wonka in any way because obviously they can't they can't they can't just quote there's no way as you can see that that that that um the Willy Wonka franchise would actually associate themselves with it anyway so it's called Willie's Chocolate Experience it was supposed to be this like candy land experience with chocolate and candy and drinks and they advertise this using AI art and this this I do feel bad for the parents because the parents who went to this by the way they paid 35 euro which is about like $40 USD per person per person so if you're a family of like four for example that's like you know you're pushing like $160 USD you know like you're that's a lot of money you know what you're paying a lot of money for something you think is going to be very fun and immersive. Oh that's just sinking in sinking in now because like you're right because you're gonna show up with your family and if you drove all the way there with your family there are a lot of people who traveled very far apparently like they want their like they want their like transportation cost reimbursement. Yeah oh man I mean but as some as bad as I feel for them. Wait wait wait did you mention yet though like just for the audience listening if they haven't seen the story that the warehouse was like basically empty. Yeah I didn't I did not get to that yet but if you haven't seen it it was basically a flop like there was no chocolate. Each kid got a half cup of lemonade and a single jelly bean. They were all they were like these candy props that would have been cool if there was like a bunch of stuff surrounding them but there was nothing like it was super sparse dirty warehouse. It looked terrible. There was like a little tiny AI art printed tapestry that was supposed to be like covering the wall but it was too small. Yeah Google image. Yeah Google image. If you haven't seen it already which like I said I think almost everyone listening to this has already seen it but anyway yeah so the first red flag here one reason I don't feel as bad for the parents is that the AI Facebook promotions you they used AI to generate the words used on the flyer and if you actually didn't bother to read this or you read it and you didn't think anything was wrong first of all I guess that maybe the older generation isn't able to discern if AI art is AI art or not but to me AI art has a very distinct look but that's not the worst of it. This is this is just an excerpt from the poster of things that were at the at the event cat gacketing live performances karchie tunes extra third-degree lollipops a passadise of sweet treats like teats like breast you know you know there's there's when I first saw that when I first saw that I didn't even realize it was AI because I thought that's just how Scottish people talk oh no I was like oh yeah this of course Scottish people are gonna call candy teats but okay well okay but yeah I think you're right though I think everybody okay I think like 50% of people I don't know how to put this like I think a lot of people don't are not are not able to to like are just kind of disconnected from reality yeah and maybe like Scottish people who are in their 40s no they're probably third in their 30s they should know better I'm sorry they should know better but I guess not and and I kind of want to get into this later like the world is not ready for AI yet but anyway so if you really read this and thought I'm gonna spend $40 per person to go to this there's an issue there here's an excerpt from their website oh the second rag flag is that they're the production companies called House of Illuminati like you come on anyway their website says for this the experience says captivating entertainment experience captivating life performances featuring charming characters singing singing original catchy tunes marvel extraordinary props oversized lollipops and the paradise of sweet treats I think that's kind of what they meant to put on this flyer like Facebook flyer about the AI I've got it wrong this event guarantees an immersive and delightful entertainment experience suitable for ages three plus years old so clearly they I feel like they used AI to write this description and then they used the AI generated description then put it into the like mid-journey right now AI isn't very good at writing text it's getting better but it's not very good yet it's good at writing text but just not in good writing text and images no I can't do that yet so but also like how did House House of Illuminati actually just like how did they see that and said okay let's just post that well so okay so two things one House of Illuminati like I when I hear House of Illuminati I picture like the doucheous group of people from New Jersey trying to like throw like club events in New York that are just like the trashiest events you could possibly imagine it sounds like like anonymous yeah it sounds like the anonymous yeah it is actually scary like this of when this event first happened and we saw in the news was a little creepy and then seeing it was called hosted by House of Illuminati was like that was like oh my goodness like Russia is doing their damage right now that's what's going on well I have some conspiracy theories about it that I'll I want to get into later okay but the second thing I was going to say is House of Illuminati or the person who like owned up to this event and like did like an apology statement for it he did say that some last minute components of the event fell through and he should have just canceled the event but he tried to just kind of power through and keep the event on sounds like that sounds like that sounds like a like a little bit of bullshit like but I do think there might be some truth that sounds like you know maybe he just like was like oh my goodness I only have five days to finish this event I don't have time to write a script I'm just gonna just churn out everything with AI as fast as I can right but how hard would it be to go in Photoshop or even not even Photoshop like just some rent free photo editor app and cut out the AI generated text and then just write the text on there on the flyer like how hard would that be hmm and that's definitely a big part of what makes it so weird is like if you're gonna take the effort to rent a warehouse and market this these days yeah for real how are you not gonna take the very minimal effort to just look at the damn image that you made with AI and realize that like it looks like horrible you know yeah so it's on the House of Illuminati but it's partially on the the parents who read that and thought okay this is not a scam at all but but yes yes but maybe the parents didn't realize when they were going there that it was gonna be 40 dollars maybe the marketing didn't say the press I think they paid for it in advance oh okay yeah all right that's a different story yeah but anyway so that is that clearly all this is AI generated it looks terrible mistakes remain on both on both parties so people show up to this event and it's this dilapidated dirty warehouse with like sparsely distributed props I actually saw tic-tac from Jordan Electra Jordan Electra made a video about this saying like oh yeah I was gonna rent some of these same props for a music video and they cost like some of them cost like 400 euro which is probably like $500 you know I mean like around like 400 something euro so they were it's not like they'd cheap down on these props like the props that they did have were actually very expensive to rent so that's another just really weird thing you know that yeah exactly it's like it's I feel like it's in the warehouse rental yeah it's so weird it's just like it's not necessarily like they put zero money and effort into this. It's just, they put it in the worst way possible. So it does, yeah, it's, you know, I know like people call the cops right on this event. People did call the cops, it's just very funny. Yeah, I mean, it does kind of, it's so hard to say if it's just a genuine effort that fell flat or if it's just a complete, it might just be a complete scam. It could just be a scam. It really could, it could be a scam, but why did they bother to spend that much money on the warehouse and the, maybe they thought they'd make a return on investment and they'd just be get away with it. Maybe they will, you know? Yeah, I mean, they claim that they're going to give reflow refunds to everyone, but they said that it might take like up to 10 days or something. So we'll see if they actually get their money back, but the actors that participated in this didn't get paid at all. So that's something. Even though they were promised that they were going to pay, yeah, they were each promised like 500 euro. And one of them, the one who played the umpulgumpa wench who's gone viral, she apparently found the job on indeed dot, which is like LinkedIn, another type of LinkedIn type web job website, which I thought was funny. Anyway, so yeah, that's, it was a crazy experience. And I want to get into now like, okay, so it looks horrible in there. What about the actual, what about the acting, like, what is the immersive experience? So they hired this comedian guy. He seems really chill. He made some videos about his experience and he basically just tried to make it as fun as possible for the kids as he could because he knew it was going to be horrible and he felt really bad. And he didn't, he didn't know like he got the script the night before and he showed up and he knew he looked terrible and he was like worried because he's like, oh my god, this is a scam. But he tried to, you know, make do with what they had. I just want to read, can I read some of the script, the AI, the script was completely AI generated and it has serviced online and it makes literally, it's gibberish. It makes no sense. And for some reason, Willie Wonka is named Willie McDuff. I don't know if that's in any way canon. But yeah, his name is Willie McDuff. Okay. Here we go. This is this is okay. It's called scene in the twilight tunnel with Willie McDuff, the unknown and the anti-graffiti gobstopper. And it says scene colon. Deep within the serpentine pathways of the twilight tunnel, the atmosphere grows tense as Willie McDuff gathers the audience in a semi-circle. His face is illuminated by the flickering light of his lantern, casting long shadows on the walls. The groups laughter and whispers fade as Willie begins to speak in a grave tone. Willie McDuff with a serious expression. My dear adventurers, we stand on the precipice of a discovery most wondrous and perilous. For within these ancient walls looks a tale not yet told of an evil chocolate maker known only as the unknown. The audience leans in captivated by Willie's words. Willie McDuff, this fiendish foe has long coveted one of my most cherished creations, the anti-graffiti gobstopper. A marvel of confectionary science designed to aid, oh not just any soul, but the tireless guardians of cleanliness are beloved mums and yes dads too, but especially mums from their endless scourge of dirty socks strewn about by youthful adventurers. A murmur of amusement and agreement ripples through the audience. Willie McDuff suddenly freezing mid-sentence, his expression locked in shock. Silence develops the group, the tension palpable, then from the shadows a figure emerges cloaked in mystery and malice, the unknown, the unknown, with a voice both smooth and sinister. Oh Willie McDuff and his band of intrepid explorers. You have something I desire and with your unwitting aid it shall be mine. The anti-graffiti gobstopper will no longer clean your worlds. It will turn them into a chaos at my command. The audience gasps some shifting nervously as the unknown scans the crowd. His gaze lending on a chosen audience member, the unknown. You there. Yes, you will assist me in acquiring the precious sweet together. We shall rewrite the rules of cleanliness and order. This is just one page. It's 15 pages long. Can I just jump in and say to me this sounds like a blast. Oh yeah and I wanted to say that too. I would pay so much to go to this. It sounds amazing and fun. Even if it was it was obviously horrible, but it would have been really fun for me. I have to say I have a lot of respect for the actor for because like this is gotta be terrifying to get this 15 page really like bizarre convoluted scripts the night before. And then he was probably panicking trying to memorize it. And then like also you know like it's a kids event so you're trying to you know I respect that like it sounds like he's trying to actually make sure that the kids have a good experience even though it's clearly a a cluster fudge. Yeah he really tried his best. I do feel bad for him but I think like the people involved now are obviously getting a lot of media attention. He's a comedian so I hope this helps his career. Anyway he yeah he earnestly tried to make it the best it could be but as you can tell from that script. I'm honestly surprised that chat GPT even did that because it feels way too incoherent for chat GPT. And why is there some magic thing called an anti graffiti gop stopper and it keeps the world clean. I get that like anti but why graffiti? Why is there a candy that keeps the world? It doesn't make any sense. It's complete gibberish. Well I'm glad that you chose to read the part of the script that was gonna touch on the unknown because there's a viral video of the unknown like popping up from behind a desk or something like that. It's like a mere it's a it's like a shitty mere from like fifteen dollar mere from Target that you like I literally have one in my room I'm looking at it directly right now like those full body mirrors that are like fifteen dollars from Target. She's like I think the act there's like well I think there may have been multiple actors for like different like shifts but one of the confirmed actors I believe is a woman and she she said like like she she pops out from behind a shitty mere and said and like wearing a like insane silver like face mask and like black crazy wig like looks insane. Everyone go look at the video I think this is one of the most entered videos. We'll post it on the Instagram. So if you're already posted it but we'll post it again because it's so funny because the unknown pops up and it's really funny because it's like this is literally nothing at all that has anything to do with Willy Wonka and to some random us insane scary character. You can hear the kids when the because obviously it's like the kids are like terrified. Howling was months ago. There's like one there's one kid who's like and and and and and and and and and and Willie Wonka's like sorry Willie McDuff. Willie McDuff is like what is that it's the unknown and then the kids are like it's so cute it's really funny. It's adorable but also like really disturbing because it's like this has got to be the almost horrifying thing for kids to ever witness. Oh my goodness. Yeah it's not like they think it's gonna be a haunted house like they thought you know they thought they were gonna go get to go to candy land and frolic and candy and eat a bunch of candy and chocolate like. Did you say that each kid got one jelly bean? They got a single jelly bean maybe two. Oh my goodness that is that they were promised candy. That's more insulting than just getting no candy. I would rather get no candy because then you're gonna want more once you have one jelly bean you're gonna be like a single who in the history of life itself has had a single jelly bean just one like that is unheard of. Oh do you like jelly beans? I do do. I do but do you have ever seen those jelly beans that like are like bad. The gross ones? Yeah yeah we used to do that so gross. That was probably got those they probably buffed those like yeah. I was gonna say before the vomit yeah the vomit and they actually taste like it too. I mean not that I've tried poop but the vomit one tastes like acidic and disgusting. That was crazy too. Wait that is actually one of the coolest things Ted has ever been sold. They actually sold vomit flavored stuff and kids are eating it. Oh my god wait. Oh my god it was kind of fun because it would be like Russian roulette because some of them would be actually good you know like there be two flavors like one would they would look the same but one would be the gross flavor and one would be the good flavor and then it'd be like Russian roulette and which one you get. Yo honestly that era that was like that was the peak of society. Peak capitalist. That was peak that was the the best that capitalism had to offer and it's been downhill. Ever since. Was that they let kids eat like dirt and vomit and poop boogers and boogers on it. Was that because I remember the marketing for the ones that I had at camp. I was at summer camp was it was specifically marketed as like Harry Potter. Yes they were Harry Potter. They were Harry Potter. Okay so that to me. JK Rowling. That's that's what I associate JK Rowling with now. It's like shit flavored jelly beans. That's that's JK Rowling to me now. That's so true. Anyway so they got to like like maybe even maybe a couple maybe a few jelly beans and a little I think it was Tesco's lemonade they got like a three-fourths of a cup of like shitty lemonade in a plastic cup when they were promised treats and stuff so that was obviously a fail and that's where this other viral character there's like a shitty picture of this woman dressed as a umpa lupa like but she looks like a bar wench so it's like a common it's like a umpa lupa wench and she honestly did a really good job trying to make the kids happy and I feel bad for her because it was kind of an unflattering picture and she felt like kind of hurt that people were making fun of her but a lot of people like think she's a lot of people are now comparing her to Princess Diana you know for helping these children and trying to make them happy and she is she looks angelic you know as she's serving the children she does look angelic so she is obviously a queen apparently there was another umpa lupa as well that is in some pictures but not all but yeah they it was all around a complete flop the fact that it's in Scotland makes it even funnier to me because they all have like Scottish accents just sounds like insane too I I don't I want to go to Scotland but is it is it offensive that I kind of just like assumes that this was what Scotland already was like no no if it's the UK you can make fun of it I feel like I feel like the UK is we've been saying this we've been saying that the UK fell off like I feel like this event like is the best they can do yeah considering Brexit you know they're they're dark times right now but anyway it was complete flop and it went viral after people were posting it on Facebook complaining someone called the cops they canceled the event midway through because of all the complaints I like the I like the idea that this event was put together earnestly by someone who is really hoping it'd be a fun event for kids it's like dash on it's compared to that and it just flop so hard that like could you imagine if you you tried to put together an event in earnest and then it flop so hard that it made international news for being so bad imagine the humiliation like if you're just oh I want to like put together this event for like the community and it flop so hard that people all around the world are making fun of you yeah but like come on like it's the AI art for me like like the AI text generated like wait so be it text what was your conspiracy theory my conspiracy theory is that this was an event this was an art installation created by artists who want to comment on the rise of AI art and or and AI you know event planning and just AI using AI in general to do work in art and the maybe the commentary is that like if you like at this time if you're relying completely on AI to do all the work that artists and professionals spend a lot of genuine time and effort on it's gonna be a complete disaster you know I and it's called House of Illuminati it's called House of Illuminati yeah I think that's pretty insightful because I mean I don't think that's what happened I don't either I don't need a conspiracy theory for reason but I do think that is actually pretty pretty insightful because I do think that's the quiet part out loud yeah why corporations are so excited for AI is like literally for that purpose and well you know what I have I'm gonna be honest I think that I think corporations are gonna have no problem doing that right because no corporation would put anything that insane out like they've actually put a freed stuff but at this I mean it's clear that at this point in time we cannot rely a hundred percent on AI to do that for us not a hundred percent there needs to be some human intervention because otherwise even with human intervention it ends up like this but AI cannot at least right now like replace the the the vision of a real person okay now I'm gonna flip this on his head and just play devil's advocate real quick all right the count argument is once AI gets good enough and is able to do events like this then we're gonna be able to have a really really really good Willy Wonka experience every weekend because it'll only take a week to put something together like this okay I'm sure that's what I'm sure you would love that to be true yeah yeah it's like my best friends were artists are all you know unemployed but I get to go to Willy Wonka's experience and I feel like and it also just goes to show not only is like AI just at this point the world is not ready for AI because people literally saw those AI generated promotions and thought I'm gonna spend $40 on this you know the world is not ready for AI and it's unedited form I'm gonna go a step further I don't think the world will ever be ready for AI that's true and it's coming fast and we're all about to get we're all about to feel something weird something weird is gonna happen is what I'm gonna say yeah because I at this point I don't have enough faith in humanity that even with proper training and stuff people are gonna be able to like even if AI art quality completely flatlined forever which is obviously not gonna happen I just I'm feeling very like I'm just kind of shocked and stunned lately at the how dense people are right now okay that's stupid okay I'm sounding pretentious no no it's like people maybe it's because they aren't as online as we are but if you aren't able to tell if something's AI and I'm talking about images AI AI audio is very convincing right now I'm talking about images and writing like if you can if you look at an image and you can't tell like AI art has its own like specific like you can tell if an AI realistic person you can still tell it's AI because it has this like kind of airbrushed look you know like it's I don't know maybe I'm just been trained but I can tell when images AI generated pretty easily I'm sure that will change but yeah yeah yeah you and I yeah you know we both know that's it just keeps getting better and soon no one will be able to tell but and this is a whole other topic for another podcast remember Sophie when those the Sora remember Sora the AI videos oh right yeah those looks pretty realistic it's still you can still tell they're not real yeah it's definitely getting to the point where it's like okay we got videos that look that are hard to tell if they're fake or not and I've been saying this like there is really no real benefit to AI imagery like that costs outweigh the benefits big time for me and the benefits in question are like okay yeah you don't need to rely on an artist to do something now which is you know I know we kind of see it a little differently than each other in some ways because you know I personally think it's good to hire real people to do these things because they have like a certain vision but you know if you need some art and a pinch for something and you're just like a regular person that's fine I think corporations using AI art is really cringed but whatever I'm not even talking about that but the devastating consequences AI imagery will have on geopolitics politics you know domestic politics and the capacity the unregulated capacity for AI to be used to create unconsensual pornography of people is horrendous and like I said it's it's unregulated at this point it's very hard to limit because it gets into free speech law and yeah like I just think the cost of AI art and AI imagery away the benefits like what is it what benefit beyond oh you can generate some image and that's cool like what is a real benefit beyond that the consequences are way worse. AI generated writing is I can get on board with that a lot better even though I I think like it's probably gonna make a stomach. I will say in terms of the AI generated imagery this is one area where you have actually changed my views a decent amount because because you're right like I for me I am very excited about AI but when it comes to specifically the capacity to generate realistic images and videos like that one specific skill set of artificial intelligence that does seem to be a specific skill set that has the least tangible value for society with the highest potential damage yeah so I think you're absolutely right that needs to be something that like needs to be like it killing jobs is just the tip of the iceberg the real bad stuff comes from disseminating disinformation and making us unable to tell what is real and what is not. And also the very real capacity it has to sexually exploit unwilling participants, it's disgusting. It's really disgusting. It's used for evil because we know how the world works. Of course, it's gonna be used for evil. - Yeah, when I think of AI imagery being used for good, the only thing I can think of is maybe in specific like university settings of using generating imagery of like, I don't know, microscopic cell research and somehow generating with AI imagery can help researchers. - Yeah, it might have like, you know what I mean. - I can totally see that. - But that's very different. That's not like, that's not it. I mean, I don't know. I don't know. - Maybe that should, maybe that technology should be limited to that like specific profession or area of study. Maybe it should be every sources that is used by professionals. - Get a good license. - Yeah, I mean, it's so dangerous and what are the benefits beyond that. I can definitely get on board with that. I bet it could help with science and like medical stuff. But let's leave it to those people and let's keep it out of media. Let's keep it out of journalism. Let's keep it out of porn. Let's just stop. - I think the conversation we had a couple of episodes ago about Taylor Swift, the AI. - Yeah, that shit was horrible. That was definitely, that was a conversation I was thinking about for a while afterwards. - Yeah. - And it really did make me move from an AI optimist to like an AI middle ground. - Agnostic. - Agnostic, yeah. - Yeah, and I'm not like a vehement hater of AI. I just don't see the real benefits of AI art or rather the consequences are just so bad that it shouldn't exist, at least for public use. And as a woman, again, not only am I a woman, but you know, Joan of Arc goes, it's a big account. Like there are photos of me. I guess I uploaded by my choice. But when I started Joan of Arc, I had no idea that this would be a thing. And I do worry because a lot of female like streamers, podcasters, internet personalities are being used in AI porn. And I know this makes me sound like a narcissist again, but I would not be surprised if someone did it to me. - You're not a narcissist now. You're not a narcissist. - Well, I'm not saying 'cause I'm super hot. And like that would be like, good, good. - You know what I mean? I know everyone is vulnerable. Even like your neighbor down the street is vulnerable to this. - Yeah. Yeah. - Anyway. - Yeah, AI art sucks. Okay, sorry, good. I'm just gonna, I was just gonna say, we're about like what, like 50-ish minutes into the episode. What time do we start recording? - I don't remember, but yeah, I feel like we're heading towards the end, but we want to try this new thing. - Yeah, okay. Yeah, so if you're not thinking one thing that would be fun to do, just to like wrap up the episodes, would be just each of us giving like a recommendation of something maybe we did this week or something we've tried before that we want to recommend to the audience. It's just a fun little thing that I think would be a nice way to, 'cause put the final chapter of each episode and you all can learn a little bit more about what we've been up to in our lives. - Yes. - So. - So let's build that pair of social relationships. - Let's build a pair of social relationships. So do you have a recommendation, Sophie? - I do, so lately I've been reading and I'm getting towards the end of this book called Walking Through Clearwater and a pool painted black. It was gifted to me by my friend Matt of Dream Baby Press. It's a book by Cookie Mueller who was an underground film New York actress and a girl crazy party girl. She is, her life was crazy. She was in a lot of John Waters movies like Female Trouble and Pink Flamingos. She was involved in a lot of crazy parties and drug culture in the New York 80s and late '70s and stuff. She just has a crazy life and has so many insane stories about working in strip clubs, filming movies, running away from creepy men getting bind drugs, the list goes on. She had an insanely, running away to Italy. She has a crazy life, she had a crazy life. But unfortunately she died of AIDS when she turned 40 years old. She died really, really young and she had such an interesting vibrant life. She had a kid too, it's really interesting. But anyway, not only did she live this crazy life but she's an incredibly talented writer and her writing is so fun and accessible but just really solid, good prose. And the book is basically just like each chapter is like a little story she wrote like about her life. Like if these are all like mostly true stories. There's also like, she used to be a columnist. I forgot in wet newspaper, but she used to have a column called Ask Dr. Cookie and she would give advice and it's really funny too. Anyway, yeah, I really recommend this book. It's really inspiring me, especially as I'm trying to get more into writing to write about crazy stuff in my wife and even though my life isn't that crazy but it's inspiring the way she writes about her life and I guess she wouldn't expect an underground film star who has had this crazy life to be such an incredible writer what she is. And there's this anecdote about how when she was like, a little girl she wrote like a 300 page like book about some local disaster, I can't remember what it was but she wrote some insane like 300 book page book like held together by like cellophane and like aluminum foil. I don't know, I can't remember exactly what it was but it was like DIY and she put it on the library shelf where it would be if it were actually like a real book and then it was never seen again but I thought that was such a cute story. - Wow, can you just say the name of the book again? - Yeah, it's called, it's by Cookie Mueller and it's called Walking Through Clearwater in a Pool painted black which is, I'm not gonna lie that it's a kind of a Tumblr coded book title but it is really good. - Thank you for that. That's a good recommendation, thank you so. I think you've had some pretty crazy life experiences too like when we went to this. - I guess. - The Sesame Street Musical. (laughs) - Yeah, that was really, that was a real. - That was a, that was a, that was a, that was a doozy. My recommendation is the album "Close to the Edge" by the band Yes, which came out in 1972. And the reason I recommend it is 'cause I read, it's a classic that like lots of people have listened to and I really listened to it really recently. It's like just literally like so amazing. It's actually kind of like, it's almost funny to listen to 'cause it's so good. And the thing, the thing that to me, I was thinking about when I was listening to it was like, I wonder what Gen Z and Gen Alpha would think about this album because progressive rock is like a seriously not cool genre right now, it's not trendy, it's kind of cringe. And the music is definitely kind of cringe. It's very, it's kind of cheesy. But like this music is so, it's so damn good. It's just like, what would happen? If you're a Gen Z high schooler who's grown up in an environment that this is not cool and then you listen to this album, are you gonna be able to fully appreciate it? I think you probably will. I think it's good enough that you probably will. So that's my recommendation, especially if you're a Gen Z person who doesn't listen to much '70s rock. This might be a good place to start just to get into that genre. - Can you say the name again? - Yes, so the band is yes, why yes, yes. And the album is close to the edge. And I posted a meme recently about it. - Oh yeah, you made like an edging meme about it. - Yeah, and it's like when you're listening to the album it's like you're edging. - Very good, well, let me get the Gen Z or Zen into it. All right, I think that's, we made it to the end of the episode. - We honestly don't, 'cause we're doing this on Zoom right now, we honestly don't know how long this has been, but it feels like time probably. - It's been a while. It's been like an hour, so I feel it in my gut. - We feel it. So yeah, thank you guys for listening less. No, if you like this format, I think it's fun. I like just kind of chilling and talking about stuff. And I think the people want some recommendations. So yeah, and make sure to please, please, please, rate our podcast and leave a review if you're on Apple Podcasts. It really helps. I know when podcasts are like it helps us chew much, but it actually does because let us tell you why. It also helps us in the algorithm and helps us get more listeners and helps us support our career because this takes so much time and effort to do. So please give us a rating. And if you really like our podcast, check out our Patreon, we do two extra episodes a month. And yeah, it gets pretty fun over there. So subscribe to our channel. Patreon if you would like to see that. And yeah, thank you so much for listening. Thanks for listening. This has been. Bye-bye. Bye-bye.