In the company of muses and gods: an interview with rock poet Patti Smith from the Cream archives
Patti Smith is famous for fusing rock’n’roll with awesome poetry, most notably on her seminal LP
Horses. In this interview, Smith talks about surviving the heady days of the 1960s and ’70s, her peers including Jimi Hendrix and Jim Morrison, liaisons with lover Robert Mapplethorpe, and “keeping it together” throughout the decades.
Interview by Antonino Tati
Hi Patti, you have a bit of a hoarse voice there. Is it a cold?
Yes, it’s been going around New York and it’s a bit nasty. It makes you have coughing fits. But I feel better now.
And what’s the Patti Smith remedy for a cold?
Just to take steam showers, drink a lot of hot water mixed with lemon and honey, and rest.
Thanks for the advice, Doctor. I’m glad you’re ready to talk. Now, I believe your CV prior to singer/songwriter also revealed a stint in music journalism?
Well, I wasn’t very prolific. I did review some records… some blues artists – The Allman Brothers, Jimi Hendrix. I just did reviews of records that I liked, to help make a living. Really, I was a poet and a writer but I do love rock’n’roll, and writing about rock’n’roll in 1970 was rather new. Anyway, I wrote for Creem [the US-based title] and Rolling Stone.
A few years ago you released ‘Twelve’, an album of covers by artists who were your peers in the ’70s. Did it seem surreal to be, decades down the track, covering songs by artists with whom you’ve shared the stage? And some artists whom you reviewed?
Well, I wrote about Jimi [Hendrix again], and I wrote about Bob Dylan, and I wrote about the Stones, and the Doors. In a way it’s not surprising that the people I was covering were the people I ended up having long relationships with, in that I’d been listening to them for years and had been inspired and influenced by them.
“There’s a very small percentage of people that do want to rule the world, about 1% – the rich, the corporate, and the powerful – but I did that song really as a political statement.” – Patti Smith on covering ‘Everybody Wants to Rule the World’
Do you record in the studio as though you are performing live?
When we recorded Horses [Smith’s album that constantly makes it into “top 100 albums of all-time” lists] it wasn’t much different to playing live. I didn’t know anything about recording, we just performed in the studio the same way we would perform in a show – with only a little technology. And I still do the same.
On ‘Twelve’, you even managed to cover Tears For Fears’ ‘Everybody Wants to Rule the World’, sounding decidedly girly.
Well… I am a girl [laughs], and I was raised on girl groups: the Ronettes, the Crystals, Martha & the Vandellas, and maybe some of that shone through. I think that’s a good thing, and I actually think the ‘girlishness’ is inherent in that song. They were brilliant pop lyrics; very simple, yet they reflect the state and woes of our planet. There’s a very small percentage of people that do want to rule the world, about 1% – the rich, the corporate, and the powerful – but I did that song really as a political statement. It’s as much about corporate greed and my own country’s imperialist acts. But it’s also got a really nice groove.
And on The Beatles’ ‘Within You Without You’, you seem to come across even more down-tempo than George Harrison did. There appears to be a military bent to your take.
I wanted people to hear the lyrics, and I suppose it sounds militant because of the lyrics – which are very stoic. Sure, they have a Hindu philosophy that ‘love can change the world’, but it’s a strong point of view. It does ask us to examine our consciousness – are our goals in life materialistic or spiritual?
Or indeed, both? In today’s global state of affairs, the first thing that came to my mind hearing you recite the lyric ‘Are you one of them?’ was that the war does go on within you and without you, but there is something that you can do about it now if you want to…
Well a lot of good songs are like that. Even Rolling Stones’ Gimme Shelter. It’s a brilliant anti-war song and it’s almost like Mick Jagger asks us to examine our conscience: ‘War, children, it’s a shot away, and love is a kiss away’.
There is this myth about the musicians of your original era, that the new generation assume you were all taking drugs, being decadent, having orgies and so on. Can you clarify that conception?
Well the main aspect of my experimentation was in art. I wrote about things within art, but in terms of myself I’ve always had a very different view of drugs that my generation did. I did not believe that drugs were for recreational use. I believed drugs were sacred. And I didn’t relate to the drug culture. I knew so many people that took them, and they looked like babbling idiots. To me, you took a drug to expand your mind and learn something. Most people did so many drugs but weren’t learning anything. And a lot of people died from them, or they destroyed their brain or their teeth. Me, I smoked pot, I hung around with a lot of Rastafarians, and I took acid a couple of times, but I took it seriously. Every time I’ve taken a drug, I’ve done something with it. Like with pot, I’d write poetry. I’d use it for something creative.
It sounds as though it brought you together with some very creative people. You went out with photographer and artist Robert Mapplethorpe for a few years, of course.
I met Robert when I was 20, and he was my boyfriend until we were about 24. Then Robert was evolving, and he found he was more homosexually bent. But we stayed close friends for the rest of his life. We spent hours and hours making art together, but drugs were not the source of our friendship. I had a good time, and I went through some different things in life, but I’ve never been self-destructive. While being self-destructive has its romantic aspects, I’ll tell you it’s also a pain in ass. I think one of the reasons I’m [70-plus] years old and still healthy is that I’ve always been grateful for my gifts – my voice is strong, I’m a mum, I like to work, I travel, I write poetry, I’m still making records.
“I’ve always had a very different view of drugs that my generation did. I didn’t believe drugs were for recreational use. I believed drugs were sacred. And I didn’t relate to the drug culture. I knew so many people that took them, and they looked like babbling idiots.”
It’s a pity so many artists of your time were cut in their prime because of that self-destruction.
I try to talk to young people, of any generation, and if I can tell them anything, it’s to romanticise people’s work but not their lifestyle. Because I met Jim Morrison, Janice Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, and they all died at 27-years-old. And it’s really a tragedy.
Ah, all the Js…
Yes, and I don’t romanticise them being dead at 27. I wish Jimi Hendrix was still alive so I could talk to him, and collaborate with him or just be inspired by him. I mean, in the end, Jimi didn’t want to die. He had a million ideas. But he fucked up, you know. He took a bunch of pills and he drank that night, and he took another pill and he bought tracks. He didn’t commit suicide but he made a mistake. You know, you look at somebody like Jim Morrison; he just drank bottles and bottles and bottles of alcohol and it just totally messed up his body at such a young age. It’s not cool, and it’s not pretty.
It might leave a legacy, but an unfinished one?
Yeah, but it only left any legacy because he did good work. If he were to have just been some good-looking guy that drank himself to death he wouldn’t be much remembered. He’s remembered because he wrote great songs, was a great performer, a poet. And if he would have lived longer, he would have written even greater things. I don’t want anyone to feel I’m judgemental, or like, ‘So she’s old now and she’s going to turn against everything’. It’s not like that. I thought about this stuff when I was 20 years old and it’s why I’m still here, alive and healthy.
“Me, I smoked pot, I hung around with a lot of Rastafarians, and I took acid a couple of times, but I took it seriously. Every time I’ve taken a drug, I’ve done something with it. Like with pot, I’d write poetry. I’d use it for something creative.”
I must say, kudos to you for continuing to record to this day. Some people think Patti Smith is ‘one of those heavy singers from the 70s’, but at the end of the day you’re quite a shining example of persistence and survival. And the quality of your new musical and published work are testament to that.
Well thank you. I have seen a lot of stuff, you know. I know all about loss and death. A lot of my people died. Like Robert, my husband, and my brother, my piano player, and my parents. And still – no matter what – I love life. Bad things are going to happen, but there’s always going to be something great to think about and to write about. Your imagination will bring you things. The planets, or the full moon, or a really great book, or somebody has a cool movie out. You fall in love, or meet a really neat person. There’s a million reasons to live.
The above interview appears in the anthology Conversations with Culture Icons by Antonino Tati, available in select outlets including AGWA Design Store (online and physical outlet), Urban Depot (physical outlet), Boundless Books (physical outlet) and select Australia Post outlets.
From the Vault: Boy George on bisexuality, butch versus tenderness, and the difficult side of drag
Boy George has a new album out called SE18. With its cover art emblazoned in red, green and gold motifs, you can expect to hear a lot of reggae influences on it. And George does reggae really good. Just think of his hit Everything I Own, and even the nods to reggae on earlier Culture Club songs such as White Boy, Love Twist, and of course Do You Really Want To Hurt Me.
Hearing the new record via fab vinyl/CD retail platform ElasticStage.com, I can say it’s actually an absolute all-round genre-bender, and any reggae elements pay due respect to Jamaican greats as much as they are fresh-sounding. To celebrate the album’s release, I’ve dusted off a classic interview with George, posted here in full and appearing in my new anthology Conversations with Culture Icons, which is available through Amazon and in select physical bookstores.
George is in great company in the book, alongside music luminaries such as Patti Smith, Nick Cave, Tori Amos, Tina Turner, kd lang, Dave Grohl, Dave Gahan, and many more.
This interview was conducted in 1995.
KARMA CHAMELEON
One Sunday afternoon in the Spring of 1982, I had an epiphany in the middle of watching Australian music show Countdown. I was with my little sister, Lorena, and some friends of Mum’s, the lot of us huddled around the TV set, debating if we were witnessing a girlish man or a handsome woman on the screen. Our ambiguous subject wore braided hair and a long dress-shirt scrawled with what looked like Hebrew writing, singing ‘Do you really want to hurt me?’. He/she was in some kind of cabaret bar, the faces on the folk in the video’s audience looking as puzzled as ours. By the end of the clip, we learnt that the artist’s name was Boy-Something and that our object of wonderment was indeed a he. The band he fronted was called Culture Club and, as it turned out, the text on the frontman’s shirt translated to “culture” and “association” in English.
Aged just 12 at the time, I was nowhere near even thinking about sexuality but I did sense a certain affiliation with the flamboyant artist I was seeing on screen. Actually, I first felt somewhat paranoid, wondering if anyone in the room could tell I was blushing.
My mixed thoughts soon morphed into enlightenment as I realised this new pop star – singing about strength over persecution – seemed to be celebrating a mixed-up, colourful kind of multiculture.
Little did 12-year-old me imagine that I’d be sitting across the table from this Boy a decade or so on, chatting over coffee about sex and sexuality, culture and class, and the clashing of gold and silver jewellery.
ORDINARY ALIEN
Boy George is still quite the chameleon, although his costumes are less colour by numbers these days, more two-toned. The changes instead occur in his public persona: one day he’ll say absolutely no to signing autographs and will give television reporters a hard time with his one-word responses, the next he’ll play the popstar part perfectly and give enough quotes to fill a few paragraphs of an autobiography which, incidentally, he’s just released. I get him on a good day, and forsake a cup of tea for a long black coffee at our meeting in a small café in Sydney’s The Rocks.
“What’s a long black coffee?” asks George. “Does it come in a tall glass?”
He himself opts for coffee and cream.
Boy George is in Sydney to perform at Mardi Gras – as the headline act, of course. Though he’s somewhat dressed down today, he is wearing a selection of silver and gold rings across the knuckles of both hands. I dare tell him that you’re not supposed to mix silver and gold jewellery as it can seem garish. He retorts, “Look at the size of these hands.” [I realise then, George has big hands – in fact, he used to be a boxer]. “Nobody is going to comment on the mix of my jewellery when they see these huge hands.” He’s right, his hands alone are kind of intimidating.
AT: Hi George. It seems you’ve toned the wardrobe down a bit. Is that a conscious effort or something that’s happened casually?
BG: I think it’s more to do with the choices I have now. I don’t have to, but there are times when I dress really over-the-top. Before Culture Club I dressed up because it was something to do and it was fun. And then it sort of became a career and I almost got trapped in that outfit and people expected me to look like that all the time. I suppose as I got older I got more comfortable with myself and I just felt like I didn’t have to do this for anybody but myself. But there are days when I get up, or nights when I go out, and I think, “Right, I’m really gonna go for it”, although it’s not an obsession like it used to be. Certainly, the drag and the mastery of disguises is very much a part of me, particularly when I’m making videos.
AT: You’ve had some renowned quotes published: saying you sometimes prefer a cup of tea to having sex; that you’re Catholic in your complications and Buddhist in your aspirations… How does it feel to be so inscribed in pop culture, and at what point in your career did you start being desensitised by your own quotes?
BG: I don’t think I’ll ever be desensitised. I don’t collect cuttings anymore and it’s not an obsession like it used to be. But I enjoy giving promotion, although I find it a bit stifling. Like sometimes when you go on TV and you don’t get to say anything really intelligent. You’re answering the same questions you answered ten years ago, like “What should I call you: Boy or George?”… “Do you still take drugs or is the drug thing behind you?”… On TV, they don’t want you to say anything but in print I think you have a lot more freedom. And I have got a lot more to say.
AT: Could it be because traditional television is so commercially-oriented and people like yourself are well into deconstructing traditionalism?
BG: I think people are still quite uncomfortable with certain aspects of gay culture, certainly the sexual aspect. You can be camp during the Mardi Gras but the minute you talk political about your feelings or what you do sexually, people become unsettled and don’t want to hear it. In a sense I feel it’s a kind of mission of mine to promote not necessarily pornography, but indeed the sexuality that exists in gay culture. My video Love Is Leaving has been interesting.
All the TV shows have just shown little bits of it and have said, “We can’t show it all because it’s men touching each other”. But all they’re doing is dancing. They don’t actually kiss although it is inferred. But then, football players are always touching each other on the pitch…
For me, showing men touching isn’t a political gesture; it’s a part of my life. I sleep with men, I embrace men, I like to see men being affectionate with each other. And I actually think that one of the biggest things missing in gay culture is tenderness.” If you look at any of our magazines or any of our porno videos, it’s all fucking and aggression; it’s all “Get on your knees and suck my dick”. That’s something I enjoy, but I think tenderness is something that also really needs to be put across.
“For me, showing men touching isn’t a political gesture; it’s a part of my life. I sleep with men, I embrace men, I like to see men being affectionate with each other. And I actually think that one of the biggest things missing in gay culture is tenderness.”
AT: There’s also the bitchy aspectof the gay community that might need some tending to…
BG: I think the bitchiness is a defence mechanism. You tend to find camper gay people are the ones that are the most defensive because they have a lot more to deal with. If you’re a drag queen, you’re putting your head on a chopping block every day of your life and so that makes you defensive. Even in gay culture, there’s a lot of animosity towards camp, and a lot of gay people want to disown it. That’s something that really disturbs me because I see it as a form of treachery. If you go back to the 1920s or the 1930s, camp was the only way to be counted. We were called fairies but you had to be effeminate in order for people to realise that you were different. So camp has a very important role in our history; it’s very much woven into my act, and I’m very protective of that.
AT: Do your Buddhist beliefs incorporate the idea that you were a gay man in past lives?
BG: Well my views on sexuality are contentious anyway. I don’t believe there’s such a thing as gay or straight. I think the only thing that exists is sexuality. Everybody is sexual, and all sexuality is fragile. To me, a truly evolved individual is bisexual, or at least open to the possibility of being bisexual. I don’t consider myself to be liberated because I sleep with men. There are things about women that I find attractive, although the idea [of sleeping with women] is something that I’m not comfortable with because it’s kind of too late in my life. What I know is that I enjoy male company and sex, and to go out of that would be too threatening for me.
AT: So you haven’t yet reached bisexual nirvana, so to speak?
BG: I haven’t at all. When I was 13 I kissed girls and touched them. I got aroused by them but I never actually had penetrative sex with a woman. Then I started going out with boys and there was a period when I first came out and I thought “Women, yuk, the idea of it makes me sick”. Then, when I went to group therapy, I suddenly had to undo a lot of my sexual perceptions.
“[Pauline Hanson] is not very clever. She looks more like a country singer than a politician: part Anne Murray, part Eva Braun.”
AT: Do LGBT communities have a lot of work to do on the road to acceptance?
BG: I think so, yes. Outside of it, they think our culture is all about fucking. They don’t think of us as being emotional or spiritual. For a kid growing up, getting all that information about gay culture is kind of terrifying. Of course, none of us are concrete, and all human beings are a multitude of feelings and experiences. What we do sexually is a big part of what we are, but there’s more.
AT: We have a politician in Australia named Pauline Hanson who was in strife earlier in her career for homophobic comments and, more recently, racist remarks.
BG: I read a thing about her in England and I think politicians who preach racial hatred – any hatred – are immoral and it should be illegal. We clearly live in a multicultural world and I think anyone who preaches racism or homophobia should be gagged and tied to a tree in the outback. Australia is Aboriginal country. People came there and settled, or they were sent there and settled. It’s almost ridiculous to say she wants to curb immigration, because that’s actually the foundation of Australia. She’s not very clever. She looks more like a country singer than a politician: part Anne Murray, part Eva Braun.
POSTSCRIPT
This interview was conducted some 30 years ago and it’s surreal to see how far we’ve come with LGBTQI rights and visibility, and how far we’ve got to go.
In the current sexual-political climate, George’s words are as relevant as they ever were. Just as we thought things were getting better for LGBTQI culture, suddenly a new obstacle has struck: the big queer backlash, especially that stemming from the more conservative side of the aisle. Drag queens are being persecuted simply for wanting to read to children; athletes are being criticised for happening to have an extra chromosome; and trans folk are having a hard time online thanks to some of our biggest cultural influencers, such as author JK Rowling and comedian Dave Chappelle (not to be confused with photographer David LaChapelle whose work has always been proudly queer).
Anyway, hopefully steadfast artists like Boy George will continue to bring stronger queer sensibilities to the fore, so that gender and sexuality won’t be such big issues to future generations. Already, Gen Z appear to not think of sexuality as a label, and by the time Gen Alpha have grown up, hopefully everybody will finally realise: your sex is what you’re born with – male, female, or intersex genitalia. Sexuality is what you choose to explore – and you should celebrate it unashamedly, whether you’re monogamous and vanilla, gay and in an open relationship, or pansexual and proud of it.
As for gender, seriously people, the entire gender spectrum is all of ours for the taking, and limiting ourselves to one gender ‘identity’ would be just that: limiting. I say be what you want when you want – masculine one moment, feminine the next; heck, who even has time or energy to classify these days? When we truly realise that all gender is a construct, only then will we feel free in simply being and letting others be.
Boy George has just released his new solo album ‘SE18’ through ElasticStage.com. The album is available exclusively on vinyl and CD since George feels this is what fans prefer to own. That we certainly do.
This interview is published in the new music interview anthology Conversations with Culture Icons by Cream’s founding editor, Antonino Tati, available now through Amazon.
Survival of the Fittest: an interview with rock poet Patti Smith from the vault
Ground Control to Major Don: 60 Years of ‘Lost in Space’, an interview with actor Mark Goddard
#2ab8db #333333 #3366ff #3fc6e8 #anthologyByAntoninoTati #ANTONINOTATI #ANTONINOTATIINTERVIEWBOYGEORGE #boyGeorge #boyGeorgeAndAntoninoTati #boyGeorgeAustralianTour #CONVERSATIONSWITHBOYGEORGE #conversationsWithCultureIcons #conversationsWithCultureIconsAnAnthologyOfUnconventionalInterviewsFromTheMixedUpMuddledUpMusicScene #CREAMMAGAZINE #creamMagazineAntoninoTati #cultureClub #cultureClub2023 #cultureClubAustralianTour #ff0000 #GEORGEODOWD #interviewWithBoyGeorge #MUSIC #POPCULTURE
AI Content Conundrum: Sentiment Degradation Exacerbating the Misinformation Age
AI technology may have evolved with good intention but it could well be turning out to be the monster your sanity’s always been afraid of. Cream contributor Merilee Kern takes a look at how generative AI content is leading to much confusion – and quite possibly insanity – for the online reader.
With industries across the board becoming increasingly adept at using AI-driven Large Language Models (LLMs) like OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Anthropic’s Claude2 and Meta AI’s Llama2, it begs one obvious question: How do we make sure all of the content out there isn’t generated by AI?
So severe the concern over AI-induced mis- and disinformation, the World Economic Forum (WEF) named these concerns in its Global Risks Report 2024, which warns of a “global risks landscape in which progress in human development is being chipped away slowly, leaving states and individuals vulnerable to new and resurgent risks.” In the report, Carolina Klint, Chief Commercial Officer, Europe, Marsh McLennan, underscored that “Artificial intelligence breakthroughs will radically disrupt the risk outlook for organizations with many struggling to react to threats arising from misinformation, disintermediation and strategic miscalculation.”
“AI offers great promise but it has a glaring weakness: it is gullible. Its intelligence depends on the quality of data it extracts from the Internet where, unfortunately, misinformation is all too prevalent,” says AI and technology expert Alex Fink.
“The future of AI hinges on our capacity to distinguish fact from fiction in the online realm. If we can use AI to create things like deepfakes, we can (and should) also use AI to stop misinformation. Knowing how to separate the signal from the noise is crucial for advancing AI ethically.”
According to Axios, “By some estimates, AI-generated content could soon account for 99% or more of all information on the internet, further straining already overwhelmed content moderation systems…Dozens of ‘news sites’ filled with machine generated content of dubious quality have already cropped up, with far more likely to follow—and some media sites are helping blur the lines.”
University of Washington professor Kate Starbird, an expert in the field, told Axios that generative AI will deepen the misinformation problem in numerous ways. “Generative AI has the potential to accelerate the spread of both mis- and disinformation, and exacerbate the ongoing challenge of finding information we can trust online,” she said.
Fortunately, being an “AI sleuth” is relatively easy thanks to some emerging smart SaaS tools. Such solutions will become crucial for those endeavoring to identify the use of AI in content creation, dealing with challenges related to false positives in AI content detection, discerning if AI material has yet been detected, and even if AI “distilled” content has been reconfigured to be more neutral in sentiment.
In fact, to that latter point of original content being watered down or repositioned to a more impartial format that does not accurately reflect the originator’s voice or purpose—whether that be intended or unintended outcome of the spin—one study has revealed how pervasive this is along with the implications related thereto. This as Originality.ai—a 99% accurate AI content, plagiarism and fact checker SaaS assuring publishing with integrity—released its findings that some of the most popular LLMs used to rewrite or paraphrase another text are making content more neutral in sentiment and, in doing so, are notably altering the nature and objective of the initial written work.
To better understand and consider the possible consequences of such AI-driven content transformation relative to tone, temperament and overall sentiment, I connected with Originality.ai Founder and CEO Jonathan Gillham for some insight into the study along with implications of the disconcerting findings it revealed.
MK: Your study found that popular LLMs like OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Anthropic’s Claude2 and Meta AI’s Llama2 are officially making content more neutral in sentiment. Why does this actually matter?
JG: Employing LLMs to rewrite or paraphrase another text can certainly offer speed and ease in content production, but it comes with caveats. For example, there might be a sound reason for coverage of a news event to have highly negative or positive sentiment. Dampening those qualities might prevent readers from perceiving how potentially troublesome or heartening an event might be. Outside of news content, publishers might desire to convey a particular kind of sentiment to evoke feelings in readers, and a neutral-scoring story might struggle to do so. On the other hand, there could be uses for making texts with more neutral sentiment that read more like “just the facts.” Publishers might want to consider the tone and purpose of a piece and know that LLMs might modify texts in ways that affect those goals.
MK: What exactly is sentiment analysis, which was the benchmark employed for your AI Paraphrased Content study?
JG: Sentiment analysis is the process of analyzing and categorizing texts as positive, neutral or negative, and to what degree. It’s often used to assess opinions and feelings expressed in reviews or open-ended questions in surveys. Many of the stories in this study had sentiment made more neutral after generative AI rewrote them. In the Sentiment Analysis scale, 1 is highly negative, 5 is highly positive and 3 is neutral. LLMs tended to move a story’s sentiment closer to 3, whether the original writing was more negative or positive. In the aggregate, the rewritten articles had their sentiment flattened.
MK: How was the study methodology undertaken and what were some of the specific key findings and data points?
JG: We analyzed 100 articles for their sentiment, or how positive or negative they were, and then had them rewritten by three Large Language Models: OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Anthropic’s Claude2 and Meta AI’s Llama2. The new texts’ sentiment scores were then analyzed for any changes. The 100 articles utilized in the study, each from popular websites, were rated by Sapien.IO’s Sentiment Analysis for how positive, neutral or negative each was. We then had three different LLMs—ChatGPT, Claude2 and Llama2, specifically—each paraphrase the article and then analyze the sentiment of the new text. These ratings were then compared to the original article’s sentiment rating. The score given, along with each rewritten article’s word count, was analyzed for any relationships.
The key findings include the substantiation that LLM rewrites moved the sentiment scores closer to the middle, neutral part of the scale and that the resulting sentiment scores differed by LLM. Llama2 had the most positive orientation scores, with Claude2 having the most negative. It’s also important to note that rewritten articles were made shorter than the original, which could be part of the reason sentiment scores changed.
MK: You mentioned that the LLM rewrites often resulted in fewer words and that this could have impacted the results. Can you elaborate a bit on that?
JG: Yes, a possible explanation for the neutralization in sentiment could be that all three LLMs reduced the number of words when they rewrote articles. Claude2 reduced words by a notable 43.5%, compared to 13.5% for ChatGPT and 15.6% for Llama2. While shortening an article can be desirable for some purposes, the reduction might eliminate details or potent phrases that indicate how negative or positive the sentiment of the story is. Losing those details or descriptive words could explain part of the movement toward a rating of 3, neutral, for stories with either the most positive or negative sentiment.
This study was small, but the data displayed suggests a slightly positive correlation between sentiment scores and word counts, with longer texts receiving higher scores. The trend was highlighted by comparing the three LLMs to each other. Across all levels of sentiment in the original articles, Claude2 consistently had both the lowest sentiment scores and the lowest word count, while Llama2 had the highest sentiment scores and highest word count.
MK: How pervasive do you feel the issue of AI-generated content is becoming?
JG: Some of our other research has looked at large companies that dominate Google search results. These include Valnet, Arena Group, Cande Nast, Red Ventures and DotDashMeredith, among others. Our analysis shows that 46% of major publishers are using AI for content creation. This includes seven out of the 16 companies we’ve studied, with significant AI content detected on their sites. On one particular globally popular sports magazine site, an article was identified by Futurism as being penned by a “fake” author, which our algorithm substantiated. This is a tactic being increasingly used for a content marketing strategy called “parasite SEO,” where reputable domains host content—even wholly AI created—primarily for search engine ranking purposes. Of course, for readers of such content expecting a human was at the helm, this kind of gratuitous and unimpassioned information propagation, especially that with extreme reach, can be disheartening.
With other reports indicating that a vast majority—over 75%—of consumers are reportedly concerned about AI-driven misinformation, content sentiment degradation is emerging as an insidious facet of that overarching threat. Although it is a more stealth and less considered offense, the restructuring of content in a way that mitigates, or outright eliminates, the intended emotional tonality—the humanity—of a text is exacerbating the Misinformation Age of AI.
Merilee Kern, MBA is an internationally-regarded brand strategist and analyst who reports on noteworthy industry change makers, movers, shakers and innovators across all B2B and B2C categories.
#aiAI #artificialIntelligence #ConversationsPoppics #CREAMMAGAZINE #facebookParodyAd #MerileeKern #popShopKeychainPoppics #technology
Discover more from
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
3 Responses to “In the company of muses and gods: an interview with rock poet Patti Smith from the Cream archives”
[…] songwriter and poet Patti Smith said it best when I interviewed her once. In response to a question about many of her colleagues […]
LikeLike
I’ve been a fan of Patti’s forever. When I go to see her perform now, she’s so much nicer. I TT her briefly in Philly. A true sweet heart. But she’ll be the first to admit that wasn’t always the case. She was sometimes kinda mean even to fans. She’s a truly unique woman with more raw talent than anyone I’ve ever had the pleasure to make the world a much more interesting planet.
LikeLike
I found her to be an absolute charmer. She even had nice things to say via her record company once we’d finished our conversation, saying she loved the chat. Never sensed any ego with Patti. Cheers, Antonino Tati, Editor, Cream Magazine
LikeLike