Remember those latent fears you’ve been having that artificial intelligence will one day take over the world, ultimately rendering humans unnecessary and utterly meaningless? Well, in case you forgot, “Travisbott” has arrived to turn those fears into a reality! What is a “Travisbott,” you ask? Well, it’s a deep-fake version of rapper Travis Scott that just released an entirely AI-generated song based on Scott’s music and lyrics that’s actually not half-bad. According to Genius, digital agency space 150 decided to follow in the footsteps of electronic musician Holly Herndon and push the limits of AI technology by attempting to create an entirely AI-generated song, which has very “weird flex, but okay?” vibes.
In an interview with AdWeek, executive creative director of space 150 Ned Lampert said that the agency settled on Travis Scott because “[Scott] is such a unique artist and he has such a unique sound and everything sort of has an aesthetic to it, both audibly and visually,” which anyone who caught a glimpse of his daughter’s 1st birthday would be hard pressed to deny. According to Lampert, they fed Travis Scott’s music and lyrics into an AI generator for two weeks before producing a track called “Jack Park Canny Dope Man.” Initially, the AI generator kept writing lyrics about food, so please be aware that the robots are hungry, people! The final product was an eerily convincing song and music video starring the aforementioned Travisbott, which we must admit is an undeniably cute name for an AI version of Travis Scott. The song sounds super-close to an original Travis Scott song, complete with his classic “it’s lit” and “straight up” ad-libs riddled throughout. Should artists pack up their bags and leave the music-making to the robots? Probably not yet, but after listening to Travisbott, we wouldn’t be shocked if the Grammy’s added a Best AI Artist category in the next few years.
