CHIMPION
I'm experimenting with the technical possibilities of AI music. More importantly, I'm interested in what I can tell with it. Can an artificially generated voice express credible doubt? Can a digital character move us? What does authenticity mean when the voice, image and music all come from a machine?
Perfection doesn't create meaning. Chimpion tells his story.
He's loud, euphoric and sometimes almost uncomfortably self-confident. At the same time, he doubts himself, his origins and the world he's been thrown into. He wants to be seen — although he doesn't know how real he is.
Those contradictions are what make him interesting to me. A character gains depth through rough edges and questions without simple answers. Chimpion expresses his personality inside an AI world: between wild euphoria and deep uncertainty, megalomania and vulnerability.
Through his songs, I want to look at the current excitement around AI from a different angle. Chimpion is caught right in the middle of it.
Perhaps that's where his authenticity lies: in the doubts, hopes and contradictions that shape his story.
gmki: the association
I realised quite early that I wanted people to talk to about AI. I had questions of my own, felt unsure about some developments and wanted to know how other people dealt with them. That's how I found GMKI.
I immediately liked how open everyone was. People test things themselves, share what happened and speak just as honestly about their doubts. You don't have to walk into the room with a finished opinion. With a subject changing this quickly, that exchange matters to me.
I'm now part of the organising team at the non-profit association. We arrange talks, workshops, meet-ups and challenges on subjects including prompting, image generation and AI video. We don't sit and listen to what new tools supposedly can do. We test them together and talk about what actually works.
That includes the GMKI podcast. I join other members to discuss current developments and what they mean for everyday life, work and society. I particularly like that we don't pretend to have every answer. Sometimes the most interesting conversation begins exactly where the certainty ends.
For me, GMKI is a place where curiosity and open questions turn into learning together. Sometimes that leads straight to the next workshop, challenge or podcast episode.
The GMKI podcast
We look at current tools and big questions. Can AI become a counterpart? What remains of us digitally after we die? Is the idea of a technological singularity already shaping decisions today?
It's an open conversation about technology, society and being human in the age of AI.
Episode 36 – Is AI an existential threat?
My first AI agent: from experiment to second brain
One day, AI will run my company. Then I can concentrate entirely on creative work while Trix, my agent, takes the annoying jobs off my hands.
Getting there took rather more of my time than planned. Suddenly I was sitting in a terminal and programming. I had to learn how AI processes work and, first of all, how to teach an AI what I actually wanted from it.
I gave a talk about those experiences at GMKI: a practical account of the joy and misery of having my own agent. The room was full, and the conversations afterwards were especially interesting.
You'll find the next GMKI events at gmki.org.