The Furtue of IA is Dyslexic

So no need to fear the AI Alpacalypse?

It being less than two weeks before my next road trip kicks off, tradition demands that I create the road trip playlist.

Now being the thoroughly modern and tech savvy individual that I undoubtedly am, and having used AI to assist with trip planning (such as it is!), it seems like a good idea to ask it to create a playlist for me based on sharing my proposed itinerary.

Typically, the same old standards pop up a lot on road trip playlists, but it didn’t do a bad job for an initial stab:

Classic Road Trip Anthems

• Born to Run – Bruce Springsteen

• Sweet Home Alabama – Lynyrd Skynyrd

• Hotel California – Eagles

• Don’t Stop Believin’ – Journey

• Take It Easy – Eagles

• Go Your Own Way – Fleetwood Mac

• Life is a Highway – Tom Cochrane

• Born to be Wild – Steppenwolf

• On the Road Again – Willie Nelson

• Route 66 – Chuck Berry

• Radar Love – Golden Earring

• Running on Empty – Jackson Browne

• Free Fallin’ – Tom Petty

• I Drove All Night – Cyndi Lauper

• Mustang Sally – The Commitments

Modern Road Trip Hits

• Mr. Brightside – The Killers

• Stick Season – Noah Kahan

• Shotgun – George Ezra

• Shut Up and Dance – Walk the Moon

• Riptide – Vance Joy

• Blinding Lights – The Weeknd

• On Top of the World – Imagine Dragons

• Can’t Stop the Feeling! – Justin Timberlake

• Feel It Still – Portugal. The Man

• Good as Hell – Lizzo

• Take Me to Church – Hozier

• Texas Hold’em – Beyoncé

• Levitating – Dua Lipa

Desert & Cosmic Vibes (for New Mexico, Arizona, UFO stops)

• Space Oddity – David Bowie

• Starman – David Bowie

• Life on Mars? – David Bowie

• Across the Universe – The Beatles

• Rocket Man – Elton John

• Intergalactic – Beastie Boys

• Paint It Black – The Rolling Stones

• Riders on the Storm – The Doors

• Black Hole Sun – Soundgarden

• The Less I Know the Better – Tame Impala

Singalong Classics

• Africa – Toto

• Dancing in the Moonlight – Toploader

• Brown Eyed Girl – Van Morrison

• Walking on Sunshine – Katrina & The Waves

• Don’t Stop Me Now – Queen

• Bohemian Rhapsody – Queen

• Uptown Girl – Billy Joel

• Superstition – Stevie Wonder

• Proud Mary – Tina Turner

• Girls Just Want to Have Fun – Cyndi Lauper

Americana & Country Roads

• Take Me Home, Country Roads – John Denver

• Jolene – Dolly Parton

• The Gambler – Kenny Rogers

• King of the Road – Roger Miller

• Wagon Wheel – Old Crow Medicine Show

• Ring of Fire – Johnny Cash

• 9 to 5 – Dolly Parton

• American Pie – Don McLean

• Fast Car – Tracy Chapman

• California Dreamin’ – The Mamas & The Papas

Rock & Roll Energy

• Highway to Hell – AC/DC

• Thunderstruck – AC/DC

• Eye of the Tiger – Survivor

• Jump – Van Halen

• Paradise City – Guns N’ Roses

• Here I Go Again – Whitesnake

• Born in the U.S.A. – Bruce Springsteen

• Summer of ‘69 – Bryan Adams

• Sweet Child O’ Mine – Guns N’ Roses

• Don’t Stop – Fleetwood Mac

Indie & Alternative for the Open Road

• Dog Days Are Over – Florence + The Machine

• Mountain Sound – Of Monsters and Men

• Home – Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros

• Young Folks – Peter Bjorn and John

• Electric Feel – MGMT

• Pumped Up Kicks – Foster the People

• Ho Hey – The Lumineers

• Somebody Told Me – The Killers

Feel-Good Pop & Modern Singalongs

• Party in the U.S.A. – Miley Cyrus

• Shake It Off – Taylor Swift

• Call Me Maybe – Carly Rae Jepsen

• Rolling in the Deep – Adele

• Happy – Pharrell Williams

• Roar – Katy Perry

• Good 4 U – Olivia Rodrigo

• Bad Guy – Billie Eilish

• Blame It on the Boogie – The Jacksons

Road & Driving Songs

• Hit the Road Jack – Ray Charles

• Every Day is a Winding Road – Sheryl Crow

• Drive – The Cars

• Drive My Car – The Beatles

• Road to Nowhere – Talking Heads

• Little Red Corvette – Prince

• 2-4-6-8 Motorway – Tom Robinson Band

• Life in the Fast Lane – Eagles

• Back on the Road Again – REO Speedwagon

• Road Trippin’ – Red Hot Chili Peppers

Atmospheric & Chill for Scenic Drives

• Holocene – Bon Iver

• Big Sky Country – Chris Whitley

• The Breeze – Dr. Dog

• Graceland – Paul Simon

• Harvest Moon – Neil Young

• Into the Mystic – Van Morrison

Bonus: Quirky & Thematic Tracks for Unique Stops

• Ghost Riders in the Sky – Johnny Cash (for the desert stretches)

• Monster Mash – Bobby “Boris” Pickett (for Roswell/UFO stops)

• Science Fiction/Double Feature – Rocky Horror Picture Show

• The Passenger – Iggy Pop

• Gimme Shelter – The Rolling Stones

Spotlistr did a less than adequate job of converting the suggestions to a playlist, so back to manual mode

No as I am travelling for a month, I will need to pad this out, but I quite like the themes that it went with, so will expand along those lines.

Things came unstuck a little when I told my digital lackey to take the same itinerary and create an image representing that. It initially seemed to be madly dyslexic and produced this

I tried a variety of AI models, and they all struggled to some extent - some with spelling, some just with persistent and I would say debilitating dullness. One seemed keen to redraw the geography of the US …

This would certainly be challenging in terms of driving distance as my carefully planned and streamlined route has fallen foul of shifting states.

Still it made me somewhat less concerned with all of the AI doom-mongering. Even if the AI does take over, at least we could be confident that just by giving it your actual location and staying putt, it would never be able to find you. And even if it did, I would take my chances when it came to examine tree me.

Unless that’s what they want us to think ..?

Whilst doing this, it occurred to me that maybe I should have crowdsourced the playlist … which of course led on to the thought that maybe I should have crowdsourced the road trip itinerary but I don’t imagine that this would have ended well.

Just after I left university, I remember writing to a friend (with actual pen and paper, stamps etc. - yeah, used to happen, get over it!) and suggesting that I might set up a business called Vicarious Hedonism. The idea was that I would get people who were cash rich but time poor to fund me to travel around and do all of things that they would like to do if they had the time and I would write them a report and send to them. Again, would almost certainly not have ended well, and I suspect I am nowhere near adventurous enough. Entirely risk averse I may not be, foolishly reckless I certainly am not.

Still, remembering that made me think that that is not a million miles from travel blogging … except for the cash of course!

Anyway back to the playlist and trip cover, by simplifying the task, I finally got an image that I am happy with as representative of the vibe I am aiming for on this trip. Playlist locked and loaded…