Thought I'd have a natter with ChatGPT, the artificial intelligence chatbot that, if you believe what you read in the news, is going to change the world.

What better subject to test its insight and intelligence than Northern Soul, and to ask vexing questions such as "how do you define crossover?", and for aspiring DJs, to enquire what tunes you should be playing.

You
What is Northern Soul?

ChatGPT
Northern Soul is a music and dance movement that emerged in Northern England in the late 1960s and early 1970s. It was a subculture of young people who were devoted to rare and obscure American soul and rhythm-and-blues records from the 1960s, especially those produced by independent labels in the northern United States. Northern Soul DJs and collectors searched tirelessly for these records, often paying high prices for them, and played them at all-night dance parties in clubs and other venues across the North. The style of dancing associated with Northern Soul was energetic and acrobatic, incorporating spins, flips, and other gymnastics moves. Today, the term "Northern Soul" has come to represent not only a specific type of music and dance but also a broader cultural phenomenon that continues to influence underground music and fashion scenes around the world.

You
What is your favourite Northern Soul song?

ChatGPT
As an AI language model, I do not have personal preferences or emotions. However, some of the most popular Northern Soul songs include "Do I Love You (Indeed I Do)" by Frank Wilson, "Out on the Floor" by Dobie Gray, and "The Snake" by Al Wilson.

You
In relation to Northern Soul, how do you define "crossover" soul music?

ChatGPT
As an AI language model, I don't have personal opinions, but I can provide you with the definition of "crossover" soul music in relation to Northern Soul. 

Crossover soul music refers to a type of soul music that became popular in the late 1960s and early 1970s, which combined the traditional soul sound with elements of funk, rock, and pop. It was called "crossover" because it crossed over from the R&B and soul charts to the pop charts. In the context of Northern Soul, crossover soul was seen as a departure from the more traditional "northern" soul sound that focused on lesser-known independent labels and obscure tracks. Instead, crossover soul tracks were often released on major labels and had more melodic and polished arrangements.

You
In relation to Northern Soul in the UK, which was the best venue or club?

ChatGPT

As an AI language model, I don't have personal opinions or preferences. However, here are some of the most notable venues and clubs for Northern Soul during its peak in the UK:

1. Wigan Casino - This legendary club became the epicenter of the Northern Soul scene in the 1970s. It was known for its all-nighters, attracting thousands of dancers every weekend.

2. The Twisted Wheel - This Manchester-based venue played a significant role in popularizing Northern Soul music. It was also known for its all-nighters, and its influence inspired other clubs to adopt the Northern Soul sound.

3. The Blackpool Mecca - This venue was a favorite among Northern Soul enthusiasts in the North West of England. It was known for its superior sound system, attracting top DJs and record collectors.

4. The Torch - This club in Stoke-on-Trent was another popular destination for Northern Soul fans. It was renowned for its amphetamine-fueled dance floor and its association with northern soul greats such as Frank Wilson and Tommy Hunt.

5. The Catacombs - This Wolverhampton-based club might not have been as well-known as Wigan Casino or The Twisted Wheel, but it played a pivotal role in the development of the Northern Soul scene. It attracted a loyal following and hosted many notable Northern Soul acts.

You
Define an authentic Northern Soul fan.

ChatGPT

An authentic Northern Soul fan is someone who embraces the Northern Soul culture and music scene with genuine enthusiasm and passion, rather than for superficial or trendy reasons. They are dedicated to discovering and sharing rare and obscure soul music from the 1960s and 1970s that originated in the North of England. They may be avid collectors of vinyl records, attend all-night dance events and club nights, and dress in a distinctive Mod-influenced style. Their appreciation of Northern Soul goes beyond just the music, reflecting a deep affection for the social and cultural aspects of the movement, its history, and its significance in British working-class culture.

You
Why do some Northern Soul djs play bootleg/counterfeit copies of records rather than genuine copies?

ChatGPT

As an AI language model, I do not have personal opinions or the ability to access real-time events. However, based on my knowledge, some Northern Soul DJs may play bootleg/counterfeit copies of records rather than genuine copies for several reasons. One reason is that some original Northern Soul records are rare and expensive, making it difficult for DJs to acquire them. Bootlegs and counterfeits are often cheaper and more accessible, allowing DJs to play the desired tracks without breaking the bank. Additionally, some DJs may prefer the sound quality of bootlegs as they are often made from high-quality vinyl and offer a unique listening experience. Finally, some DJs may intentionally play bootlegs as a way to disrupt the collector's market and challenge the notion of what is and isn't "authentic" Northern Soul.

You
I want to be a Northern Soul dj. What 10 Northern Soul records should I play?

1. Tainted Love - Gloria Jones
2. Do I Love You (Indeed I Do) - Frank Wilson
3. Out On The Floor - Dobie Gray
4. The Night - Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons
5. At The Top Of The Stairs - The Formations
6. I'm On My Way - Dean Parrish
7. What - Judy Street
8. Time Will Pass You By - Tobi Legend
9. Landslide - Tony Clarke
10. You Don't Love Me - Epitome Of Sound

Conversation ends.

Ok, I don't think we have anything to fear just yet, and it's abundantly clear that answers are based on mainstream notions of Northern Soul that populate the internet. 

Ask ChatGPT your own questions here: https://chat-gpt.org/chat

 

Edited March 14, 20232 yr by Amsterdam Russ
typo

Well I do have a friend who is a bit of a geek or 'fan' with those new gadget tech crap and who've briefly tested me with it with his talking "smart" phone (he should have known better) because I've evidently fooled IT for what it is ; a program. A sophisticated one but still that. That can seem impressive to who ever is by giving most acknowledge or generally accepted as being the truth and/or lies about science, culture and western politics...

Anyway I still hate the thing (and all such gadgets tools) for many "useless" applications (or future ones by replacing human critical (humor), wit (smart) and cynical (alive) work in the "communication" field for example) even though I know for fact that AI can have it's real purpose in accelerating or eliminating human error factors in some very tedious, complex and demanding resourceful scientific tasks for example that will benefit many.

So Dear Professor Loma today's class course proved once again a success very convincing of what such a program whose only at its early days will be capable to do. For the realistic conscious soul that I am it's just forwarding 'dooms day'. Knowing the worst of 'ChatGPT' is just around the corner. And I'm not talking about how many people's jobs are going down the drain in the years to come. That will be a social disaster on its own.

Nor am I talking about the 'political correctness' imposition in what ever form or the generalization of 'the single thought' watchful eye that such device will evidently bring by erasing moral intelligence and the fundamentals to replace it with modern liberal dogmas. Or the political propaganda it will force onto us all and especially onto those equipped with their private submissive devices in their pockets steady for the final consumerist Sacrifice.

The Merging ! One brain for all. Synthetic life in eternal happiness free of discomfort, conscience and privation. ChatGPT meets the MultiVerse. Every politician dream come true with all consuming and voting the same. Making it all not only easier and cleaner but also safer. The Dream come true. Technology finally prevailing over nature's approximative benefits and its unconditional unpleasant fatalities where all can be pre-programmed.

No am taking about more serious matter ; the 'nitty gritty' we're still argue about on here between how and what we love and don't love about the "scenes" or 'sceneries' (as in crime) for a more appropriate qualification if ever in plural, complex and most importantly in subjective forms. That with great-low coward caution 'ChatGPT' was programmed to "warn" us from. Reminding us that he's only that a non subjective AI incapable of emotions 👹

I agree with most of what you say and concur that what AI in this context is today is but a shadow of what it will become - and I do find that scary!

Relative to my exchange with the chatbot, it is - as I said at the end of my post - very clear the AI is drawing from the populist aspects of what it finds on the web. The clever, the very clever, part is that it has the ability to present it in a cohesive, structured way. Sentence structure, grammar and logic can't be faulted, and that by itself is very impressive considering it takes but a few seconds to respond to questions.

There are obvious fact-based flaws, of course: "...dress in a distinctive Mod-influenced style...", for example, along with some other stuff. I've read worse in music mags and mainstream media that's been written by supposedly intelligent journalists (perhaps an oxymoron these days).

Copy and paste any sentence and use Google's Advanced Search to see where the bot got it from (on the basis it's copying from websites) and you won't find anything. The bot has very quickly amassed information on the subject, determined relevancy, and presented its findings. Again, that is incredibly clever!

 

  On 14/03/2023 at 22:47, Amsterdam Russ said:

I agree with most of what you say and concur that what AI in this context is today is but a shadow of what it will become - and I do find that scary!

...

There are obvious fact-based flaws, of course: "...dress in a distinctive Mod-influenced style...", for example, along with some other stuff. I've read worse in music mags and mainstream media that's been written by supposedly intelligent journalists (perhaps an oxymoron these days). 👌

Copy and paste any sentence and use Google's Advanced Search to see where the bot got it from (on the basis it's copying from websites) and you won't find anything. The bot has very quickly amassed information on the subject, determined relevancy, and presented its findings. Again, that is incredibly clever!

Flaws are bound to be abundant willingly or not but stupidly always (like their "reliable" sources for the Mod-thing or the X-over def. also a joke) but ChatGPT developers will certainly re-inforce it's development in perversions for even more complex phrasings in 'acquired certainty' to fool most known as the 'crowd'.

Knowing like the 'human behaviorists' that these developers are that only few critics won't measure to the spread out lies established then as the new 'truth'. Plans that have always worked. Inducing fear (like a menace) to weaken one's brain capacity to evaluate reality better and develop anger to all now representing a 'treat'.

But now the fact that's an AI is behind it that is almost unidentifiable but maybe for an idiot... Maybe makes it scary. Seemingly human but not. We had the fake seemingly real imaging now comes the presentation with an argumentation. Already used by politicians while debating 'live' passing as know it all with the sources flaws...

Edited March 14, 20232 yr by Tlscapital

Most of those answers are very familiar, so I assume the wording is directly from internet text sources.

Simply typing the question into Google, or another search engine, would give similar results. I don't do it, but you can talk to Google and get audio results. Can you with this ChatGPT ?

Either way, at least with a search engine you can sort through the crap and concentrate on the real info. With ChatGPT it would appear the sources are not available so you're left with no options to evaluate. I would have expected to see phrases like "According to abc.com" or "xyz.com says that . . . " .

Can't see me ever using it.

 

 

 

  On 15/03/2023 at 14:51, Mick Holdsworth said:

Most of those answers are very familiar, so I assume the wording is directly from internet text sources.

But that's the thing - as I mentioned earlier, they're not lifted from websites. I copied and pasted a few choice phrases to check. The responses are drawn from the AI's own database of stored knowledge, hence why there are no references to web sources: it's not quoting web sources. 

As far as speech is concerned, I believe that is possible. You speak to it and it speaks to you.

Early days in the life of ChatGPT. I dread to think what it'll be capable of in just a couple of years.

  On 15/03/2023 at 14:51, Mick Holdsworth said:

Most of those answers are very familiar, so I assume the wording is directly from internet text sources.

Simply typing the question into Google, or another search engine, would give similar results. I don't do it, but you can talk to Google and get audio results. Can you with this ChatGPT ?

Either way, at least with a search engine you can sort through the crap and concentrate on the real info. With ChatGPT it would appear the sources are not available so you're left with no options to evaluate. I would have expected to see phrases like "According to abc.com" or "xyz.com says that . . . " .

Can't see me ever using it.

 

 

 

Yes and no Mick, it actually uses a much more complex algorithm than this and evidently sources it all from the net but manages to avoid edgy, controversial or irrational versions and so manages to provide an approximative yet acceptable simple answer to any 'simple' questions one may ask.

Nothing relevant to anyone in the know of it if ever or whose deeper knowledge on the subject who might still object to this or that but to noobs it gives a first approach in understanding any matter without being that far from the truth. A vulgarized introduction like a teacher would give to its class. 

But most of all with phrasings and articulations of it's own in coherence attesting that it's not a mere 'copied and pasted' lines from various sources. Making it hard to tell for anyone at some point to tell if it's 'man or machine' made. Hence the issue for student essays done that way to tell if a 'cheat' or not.

So no 'copyright' payback here making it another problem for those who expected to cash-in on that. And it's only at it's initial phase... That alone in the A.I. world bluffed many. It's not another anecdotic 'software' nor a 'simple' development. It's considered a breakthrough in that field just as it's opening a new can of worms.

Many thanks for explaining AI and ChatGPT in this context. Was thinking about doing something like this myself but struggled to find the right words (mind, english is not my first language).

I think the most important feature about this AI is that it doesn't just return any information available on the internet 1:1. ChatGPT is not a search engine (even though search engines are also AI). It reads information, analyzes it and draws it conclusions.

I use AI in my daily work. But only very basic AI's to detect clusters in big data. I find ChatGPT both fascinating and frightening.

 

  On 15/03/2023 at 19:00, Amsterdam Russ said:

But that's the thing - as I mentioned earlier, they're not lifted from websites. I copied and pasted a few choice phrases to check. The responses are drawn from the AI's own database of stored knowledge, hence why there are no references to web sources: it's not quoting web sources. 

As far as speech is concerned, I believe that is possible. You speak to it and it speaks to you.

Early days in the life of ChatGPT. I dread to think what it'll be capable of in just a couple of years.

 

  On 15/03/2023 at 21:14, Tlscapital said:

Yes and no Mick, it actually uses a much more complex algorithm than this and evidently sources it all from the net but manages to avoid edgy, controversial or irrational versions and so manages to provide an approximative yet acceptable simple answer to any 'simple' questions one may ask.

Nothing relevant to anyone in the know of it if ever or whose deeper knowledge on the subject who might still object to this or that but to noobs it gives a first approach in understanding any matter without being that far from the truth. A vulgarized introduction like a teacher would give to its class. 

But most of all with phrasings and articulations of it's own in coherence attesting that it's not a mere 'copied and pasted' lines from various sources. Making it hard to tell for anyone at some point to tell if it's 'man or machine' made. Hence the issue for student essays done that way to tell if a 'cheat' or not.

So no 'copyright' payback here making it another problem for those who expected to cash-in on that. And it's only at it's initial phase... That alone in the A.I. world bluffed many. It's not another anecdotic 'software' nor a 'simple' development. It's considered a breakthrough in that field just as it's opening a new can of worms.

Okay I see now it is far more sophisticated and complex than I understood (or ever hope to understand).

As a layman, I suppose the point I was trying to make was that reading some of the AI responses on a subject we are all aware of, I can't help but feel it is just saying the same things we've heard before, but in a slightly different way.

I see from your explanation that it makes sense to answer in a way that is useful to the reader, without giving an opinion.

Cheers for that, both of you.

PS

I'm sure you're aware that ChatGPT now has a new version: GPT-4. I only saw it on the news feed last night.

 

 

  On 14/03/2023 at 19:00, Amsterdam Russ said:

 

  On 14/03/2023 at 19:00, Amsterdam Russ said:

You
I want to be a Northern Soul dj. What 10 Northern Soul records should I play?

1. Tainted Love - Gloria Jones
2. Do I Love You (Indeed I Do) - Frank Wilson
3. Out On The Floor - Dobie Gray
4. The Night - Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons
5. At The Top Of The Stairs - The Formations
6. I'm On My Way - Dean Parrish
7. What - Judy Street
8. Time Will Pass You By - Tobi Legend
9. Landslide - Tony Clarke
10. You Don't Love Me - Epitome Of Sound

 

 

Brilliant!🤣

Now i know where some DJs get their playlist ideas.......

Edited March 17, 20232 yr by Source
tidy up the quote