Computer Resources

“I gotta share this just to show you how cold G.O.D. is,” said Tracy Lynn Curry, posting on the social media X employing the hip-hop slang usage for cold as a synonym for cool, meaning “skilled, effective, talented, or great.”

Curry is known throughout the hip-hop world by his stage name, The D.O.C. He has been a critically acclaimed producer, collaborating with Ice Cube and Dr. Dre for some of the biggest hits in west coast rap during the early 90s.

But all of his dreams of rap stardom stopped after a car accident left him with a badly damaged larynx. The D.O.C. continued to contribute to the hip-hop scene as a producer and ghostwriter, but was never able to recover the unique voice that sent him to the top of the charts.

Until now, that is. Curry’s announcement on social media was for a new album that he’s producing in conjunction with the firm Suno, who will use existing recordings to recreate an AI version of his voice. In an interview on CBS Mornings with Michelle Miller, Curry explained that it was his old friend Fab 5 Freddy who convinced him to get on board. “When this thing happens, it sounds like the real me,” Curry said to one of the Suno software engineers.

As part of the segment, Miller also interviewed Mikey Scholman, Suno’s CEO, about the AI being taught to emulate Curry’s voice. When she asked about potential ethical considerations, Scholman defended the project, calling it “a slam dunk. ... Letting D.O.C. recreate the voice that has been in his head that he hasn’t been able to get out there for the last 35 years – I can’t think of a better usage of this technology than that.”

Possible Preaching Angle:

No tragedy is so great or so long ago that God cannot redeem it for good. God wants to take your place of wounding and use it to accomplish that which would seem impossible, because with God nothing is impossible.

A burst of recent editorials have criticized AI tools like ChatGPT as a threat to educational goals over concerns that students would abuse the technology. However, educators are beginning to come around to the value of artificial intelligence – not for students, but for the teachers themselves.

Kansas high school teacher Mike Harris said that normally, designing a 16-week drama class that adheres to state standards would take him at least a full workday. He asked ChatGPT to engage the task, however, and he said he had a workable outline in a few minutes. He also used it to break down the class into daily lesson plans. The 10-year veteran drama teacher said, “To me, that’s the wonder of the tool. This is one of those once-in-a-millennia technology changes.”

Experts recommend using caution when applying AI tools to complex tasks, particularly in the field of education, because the technology is still prone to making errors. Still, many educators would rather use their time rigorously fact-checking the output of an AI rather than starting from scratch.

Sarah Alvick is a social studies teacher who says AI is also helpful for teachers having difficulty engaging students with the task of writing. She said, “You’ll have a kid who sits for a whole week, saying, ‘I don’t know what to write about.’” With AI, she tells students to use it “to assist you, not to do it for you.” She is concerned about the loss of critical thinking, but seems to feel that the positives outweigh the negatives.

Possible Preaching Angle:

Technology constantly brings changes to the way we do things. We need to wisely put it to use as a tool, without it becoming a crutch or a way to avoid hard work.