Business
Column: The George Carlin auto-generated comedy special is everything that’s wrong with AI right now
I knew it was going to be bad. By the time I sat down to watch the thing, much of the internet was already furious that a “state-of-the-art-entertainment AI” called Dudesy had generated an hourlong comedy special in the style of George Carlin, without the consent of the late comic’s horrified family. But I wasn’t prepared for it to be so bad.
The special, tastefully titled “George Carlin: I’m Glad I’m Dead,” is one of the most unpleasant things ostensibly produced for entertainment purposes that I have ever sat through. It’s a stroll through an uncanny valley of Carlin’s comedy, an audio program in which a serviceable replica of the familiar raspy voice delivers “jokes” on topics from mass shootings to Taylor Swift to artificial intelligence.
It’s all set to an unsettling rotating gallery of AI-generated images that roughly correlate to whatever Carlin’s simulacrum is discussing. When the Carlin voice is hitting on the malign influence of money in politics, there’s a bizarre diagram of politicians being bought off, with figures labeled “The guluar citizen” and “Liolbolist”; when AI Carlin says the you-know-what “has hit the fan,” a hyper-stylized brown tube protrudes from one.
It’s a nightmare. If I were to have to watch this whole thing in a darkened room, eyeballs peeled like the guy in “A Clockwork Orange,” there is a non-zero chance I would have a complete psychotic break.
Sadly, that’s the point. This thing wasn’t produced to convince anyone AI can produce great work in the style of one of our iconic comedians. It was, like the AI Drake song and those Harry Potter-directed-by-Wes Anderson images before it, a provocation. It was supposed to cause a stir, to go viral in a way that vaguely unsettles or irks people, and it did that exactly. Part of that calculation may have, depressingly, included pissing off Carlin’s family and estate, which it also did.
Carlin’s daughter, Kelly, responded to the special in a statement about her dad. “No machine will ever replace his genius,” she wrote on X. “These AI generated products are clever attempts at trying to recreate a mind that will never exist again. Let’s let the artist’s work speak for itself. Humans are so afraid of the void that we can’t let what has fallen into it stay there… Here’s an idea, how about we give some actual living human comedians a listen to?”
George Carlin fans have expressed disgust with the content itself, too: Vice’s Matthew Gault, a self-described longtime fan of the comic, described the special as “worse than you could possibly imagine.” Writer and PR pro Ed Zitron, another Carlin stalwart, wrote that “the jokes were bad, the voice was soulless and inaccurate, the pace was languid, and the world will have forgotten about it in two weeks unless Carlin’s estate sues (and I desperately hope they do so).”
But what bothers me uniquely about this episode is that it serves as a grim snapshot of where so much of the AI industry is at, a year into its reign as the dominant tech trend: Here we have an apparently impressive technology — we can’t know for sure, because the details are concealed in the production process, and almost surely involve ample human labor — designed not to meaningfully entertain, or to present any actual utility, but to exist wholly as a warped advertisement for itself.
So much of AI is smoke and mirrors right now, clouding what too often seems to have amounted to automated digital reappropriation (it’s no accident that the special begins with a long disclaimer that what you’re about to see is not actually George Carlin and was created by an AI that “learned” from his specials, in a laborious effort to avoid allegations of copyright infringement) and rank opportunism.
Notice the pattern of chief AI spokesman Sam Altman himself, who spent last year publicly extolling the vast and potentially terrible power of the AI he was building — a CNN headline from October noted that “Sam Altman warns AI could kill us all” — but has now pivoted to assuring business leaders in Davos, Switzerland, that actually, it’s just good for business. “It will change the world much less than we all think,” Altman said this week at the World Economic Forum there, adding that it’s an “incredible tool for productivity.”
The cynical observer might conclude that the apocalyptic AI hype tour Altman and his peers embarked on in 2023 was merely a sustained auto-generated George Carlin special: a stunt designed to generate interest in the power of a product that tech companies want to sell you.
That’s likely the case with Dudesy, the “AI” that allegedly created the special, though we can’t say for certain because what Dudesy actually is remains shrouded in the dumbest kind of secrecy. The Dudesy “AI” is the animating conceit of a comedy podcast hosted by ex-”MadTV” cast member Will Sasso and comedian Chad Kultgen. The premise is that both comics have handed over all their personal data to Dudesy — a bot created by an unnamed tech company, and which the hosts have told journalists that a nondisclosure agreement precludes them from discussing — and the “AI” runs the show.
I keep putting “AI” in scare quotes because it’s not entirely clear to what extent Dudesy exists as a technology, whether it’s fabricated by the comedians, or stitched together from ChatGPT output or voice manipulation technology or actually some proprietary chatbot or what. Honestly, I don’t know what would be worse: if two washed-up comedians stitched together a stunt that made it appear as though an AI generated a facsimile of George Carlin, insulting his memory, fans and family in order to flog their floundering podcast, or if there was a real tech company behind this and its bad-taste advertising for some voice-replication product.
The podcast, which isn’t all that popular, appears to rely on its central hook to juice its numbers. Before the Carlin stunt, Dudesy had produced another comedy special, this one performed by an AI version of quarterback Tom Brady, which was immediately met with the threat of legal action and taken down.
I want to pause here to note that one of the stories about that fiasco I found was published by Sports Illustrated, which recently faced down its own scandal over allegations the once-iconic sports magazine was using AI to write articles, which were posted to the site in uncharacteristically weird and unintelligible prose. And, well, here’s the opening sentence of the Sports Illustrated article about AI Tom Brady: “Comedy comes in many different forms and is portrayed in a multitude of ways, but a newly generated AI comedy special — created by comedians Will Sasso and Chad Kultgen — created some buzz last week.”
Can’t say for certain, but that scans as AI-generated to me! It felt like a glimpse of one plausible, fast-arriving future: generative AI products reviewing other generative AI products ad infinitum — bad AI content all the way down.
Business
Older AC and fridge chemicals amp up climate change. Trump just rolled back limits on them
President Trump on Thursday announced that grocery stories and air conditioning companies will be allowed to keep using high-polluting refrigerants for longer than they would have under a law he signed during his first administration.
“This was a tremendous burden, a tremendous cost,” said Trump, surrounded in the Oval Office by executives from supermarket chains including Kroger, Fairway, Neimann Foods and Piggly Wiggly. “It was making the equipment unaffordable, and the actual benefit was nothing.”
The move loosens rules meant to restrict hydroflourocarbons, a class of climate-damaging chemicals used in cooling equipment. HFCs are known as “super pollutants” because their impact on climate change can be tens of thousands of times greater than carbon dioxide during their shorter lifespans.
In the move Thursday, the Environmental Protection Agency extends the deadline for companies to comply with a 2023 rule transitioning refrigerators and air conditioners off HFCs and onto new cooling technologies. Reducing these chemicals and moving to cleaner refrigerants has long been a bipartisan issue.
Trump is also proposing exemptions from a rule requiring leak repairs on large-scale refrigeration systems.
The administration framed the changes as part of its effort to bring down high grocery costs. EPA administrator Lee Zeldin said the actions will save $2.4 billion for Americans and safeguard 350,000 jobs.
“Americans who wanted to be able to fix their equipment were instead being required to buy far more costly new equipment and that just doesn’t make any sense,” said Zeldin.
David Doniger, senior attorney at the Natural Resources Defense Council, said the move will not only harm the climate, but U.S. competitiveness in global refrigerant markets as well.
“The EPA is catering to a small group of straggling companies by derailing the shift away from these climate super-pollutants,” he said. “The industry at large supports the HFC phasedown and has already invested in making new refrigerants and equipment, currently installed in thousands of stores.”
Danielle Wright, executive director of the North American Sustainable Refrigeration Council, an environmental nonprofit, said any perceived near-term savings from the rollbacks will be outweighed by the future costs.
“Business owners are far more worried about the escalating cost of keeping aging, high‑global-warming-potential equipment running than they are about the cost of installing new, compliant systems,” she said.
Trump dismissed the climate concerns, saying his changes “are not going to have any impact on the environment.”
He said he wants to get rid of the technology transition rule entirely in the future.
Business
Airbnb to add grocery delivery and car rentals ahead of World Cup
Airbnb unveiled a new set of services for guests on Wednesday, adding car rentals, airport pickup and grocery delivery to its online marketplace that connects travelers with local hosts.
Customers can now get groceries delivered to their Airbnb through a partnership with Instacart and have a driver meet them at the airport with Airbnb’s Welcome Pickups. The app is also offering luggage storage in partnership with Bounce and will add in-app car rentals later this summer.
At the same time, Airbnb is ramping up its use of AI by adding AI-powered review summaries and lodging comparisons, the company said.
The company has been expanding beyond lodging since last year, when it introduced Airbnb Experiences and Services, giving guests the option to book private tours and chef-cooked meals through the app.
In an earnings call earlier this month, the company’s chief executive, Brian Chesky, said the company is at “the very, very beginning of how AI is going to change how we all do our jobs.”
The changes are coming in time for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, which will take place in 16 cities across the U.S., Mexico and Canada. The company said its offering exclusive World Cup experiences, such as watch parties and access to stadiums.
“In terms of what we’ve seen in cumulative bookings heading into the event, the World Cup is slated to be the largest event in Airbnb’s history,” said the company’s chief financial officer, Ellie Mertz, on the earnings call.
Airbnb gained popularity for offering travelers unique and homey stays on other people’s property, but it added boutique hotel bookings to its platform late last year. The move had some customers questioning if the app was straying too far from its original purpose.
In its announcement this week, the company said it is partnering with more independent hotels in 20 top destinations, including New York, London and Singapore. On the earnings call, Chesky said hotels on Airbnb could become a multibillion-dollar revenue business.
The San Francisco-based company was founded in 2007 and gave homeowners the opportunity to earn money by renting out their space to travelers seeking something different from a hotel. Airbnb bookings can range from private bedrooms in a shared home to luxury mansions and yachts.
The company’s revenue grew 18% year over year to $2.7 billion in the first quarter, while net income increased slightly to $160 million. Airbnb’s new services and offerings could transform it from a home-sharing platform to a holistic travel marketplace, analysts said.
Shares of the company have increased by 14% over the past six months and fell by less than 1% on Thursday.
Business
SpaceX files to go public in huge IPO deal
Elon Musk wants to take investors on a ride to the moon — and beyond.
His pioneering rocket company SpaceX filed Wednesday for what’s expected to be the largest initial public offering in history, potentially raising at least $75 billion and valuing the company at as much as $2 trillion.
The registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission for an expected public offering next month explicitly sets aside stocks for retail investors, though the exact number will be spelled out in a later filing, as will the offering price and company valuation.
Interest in the stock offering is expected to be high despite the billionaire’s controversial politics, including his involvement last year with the Department of Government Efficiency, the makeshift cost-cutting effort that resulted in the loss of hundreds of thousands of government jobs.
“Potential investors are probably just as polarized as the electorate is too, given his dabbling in politics,” said Carol Schleif, chief market strategist for BMO Private Wealth. “But it’s not just the SpaceX IPO per se, it’s a bigger, broader excitement among investors for space investment in general.”
Investor interest was piqued by the Artemis II moon mission this year that SpaceX did not participate in, she said. However, the company is expected to play a larger role in future missions that take astronauts to the moon..
Ultimately, Musk, 54, wants to establish a colony on Mars but those plans have been set on the back burner, with NASA now focusing on moon missions.
Musk will remain the company’s chief executive and chairman. Under a dual-class stock structure as a holder of special Class B shares he will be able to control the election of directors, the filing says.
The IPO is expected to be at least twice as large as the current record holder: Saudi Aramco, the state-controlled national oil and gas company of Saudi Arabia, which raised nearly $30 billion in 2019.
Nearly two dozen banks will be underwriting the IPO and offering shares to investors, including Goldman Sachs, Bank of America and Citigroup.
Founded in 2002 in El Segundo, SpaceX has revolutionized the aerospace industry by developing the reusable Falcon 9 rocket that has radically lowered launch costs.
The company moved its headquarters from Hawthorne to Texas in 2024. However, SpaceX retains large operations in the South Bay city and blasts off regularly from Vandenberg Space Force Base in Santa Barbara County.
Scores of former SpaceX employees have launched startups in Southern California, including rocket company Relativity Space, hypersonic missile startup Castelion and satellite manufacturer Apex Space.
Since developing its reusable rocket technology, SpaceX has established its Starlink network as the leading satellite-based broadband internet service. It also is moving into satellite-based cellular service and this year merged with Musk’s xAi artificial intelligence company that also included his X social network.
Marco Cáceres, an aerospace analyst at Teal Group, said that the advantage of going public for SpaceX lies in the IPO’s ability to raise a large amount of capital quickly to complete development of its Starship rocket.
“It is going to dominate the market even more than the Falcon 9 is dominating the market now,” he said. “That’s going to be ultimately what’s going to drive their business for the next 10 years.”
The 12th test launch of Starship is set for Friday from the company’s south Texas launch facility. The rocket is the third version of craft, standing more than 400 feet tall and with about three times the payload of the second version.
The regulatory filing claims that the market for its rocket, internet and mobile telephone businesses could be as large as $28.5 trillion.
SpaceX also plans to launch thousands of orbiting data centers powered by the sun that would perform AI calculations.
With the company making massive capital investments, it recorded a $4.28-billion loss in the first quarter. Last year, it recorded $18.7 billion in revenue and lost $4.94 billion, according to the filing.
The public offering is expected to hit the market next month after a “road show,” during which SpaceX will seek to drum up interest from institutional and retail investors.
It will arrive after a fairly quiet year for IPOs that was brightened last week when Cerebras Systems, a Sunnyvale company that makes semiconductors for AI supercomputers, went public.
Shares at Cerebras were offered at $185 and jumped 68% on its opening day. They closed Wednesday at $290.69.
Matt Kennedy, a senior strategist at Renaissance Capital, said the SpaceX offering would dwarf that of Cerebras, as it is expected to raise more than every IPO combined in the last two years.
“A win here or a loss could really impact the IPO market,” he said. “The sheer size of this deal is going to make or lose fortunes.”
Among the oddest disclosures of the IPO is a decision by the company’s board in January to grant Musk 1 billion Class B shares if the company reaches a certain market capitalization and establishes a “permanent human colony on Mars with at least one million inhabitants.”
-
Sports1 minute agoFrom broken windows to delayed dreams, JJ Saffie is ready for Dodger Stadium moment
-
World13 minutes agoIsrael’s October 7 tribunal: Show trial of Palestinians or justice?
-
News43 minutes agoDrive slower, go electric, don’t drive at all? The best options for saving gas
-
Los Angeles, Ca2 hours agoMiley Cyrus to receive star on Hollywood Walk of Fame
-
Detroit, MI3 hours agoGrading Jack Campbell Detroit Lions Contract Extension
-
San Francisco, CA3 hours agoHeadlines, May 22 – Streetsblog San Francisco
-
Dallas, TX3 hours agoRanking the top 10 players on the Cowboys’ 2026 roster: #8 Tyler Booker
-
Miami, FL3 hours agoFecal bacteria risk at South Florida beach prompts health warning ahead of busy Memorial Day weekend