Digital Folklore

Statistically Conscious (Artificial Intelligence)

Digital Folklore

Show Notes

Statistically Conscious (Artificial Intelligence) After the procedure revealed that Digby's implant is essentially running an artificial intelligence, Digby falls into an existential crisis about whether or not he is actually a sapient being. Mason is worried because the podcast is falling behind on production, and Digby is not helping. He and Perry decide to try and kill two birds with one stone by interviewing experts on artificial intelligence. They learn about how the technology works, the intersection of AI and folklore, and they ask John Laudun directly how they could prove that Digby is not an AI. In This Episode:

Digby is inconsolable, the poor guy.

Is Perry also losing his grip on reality?

How natural language AI like Chat GPT works.

John Laudun trained an instance of Chat GPT on only Reddit's conspiracy forum.

Discussions around the impact of artificial intelligence on folklore.

We somehow pronounced John's last name wrong 🤦‍♂️

Guests:

Lev Gorelov: AI research director at Handshake Consulting, and co-creator of the Generative AI Masterclass. (LinkedIn)

John Laudun: Professor of English at the University of Louisiana, researcher focused on computational models of discourse, and someone whose work is so varied and wide-ranging that he's hard to pin down in a few sentences. (Website) (GitHub) (Medium)

Featuring voice acting from:

Brooke Jennett of THIRTEEN as Digby

🗣 Join our Discord community 💁‍♀️ Support us on Patreon 🕸 Sign-up for our newsletter, check our our merch, and learn more about the show at digitalfolklore.fm. 📚 Check our book list for some great folklore-related books Find us on the socials:

Twitter: @digiFolklorePod

Facebook: DigitalFolklorePod

Instagram: DigitalFolklorePod

TikTok: digitalfolklore

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

More from Digital Folklore

Apr 29, 2025

This is the 2nd of 2 sample episodes/issues of Perry's new audio newsletter, Deceptive Minds. If you enjoyed these and want to receive future editions, please subscribe here.

Apr 29, 2025

Hey listeners, Perry Carpenter here. I've got something exciting that I think you'll be interested in. It's the audio version of a newsletter that I recently started.

Oct 7, 2024

This is Part Three of a ten-part miniseries exploring Perry Carpenter's latest book, FAIK: A Practical Guide to Living in a World of Deepfakes, Disinformation, and AI-Generated Deceptions. Each episode kicks off with a dramatized reading of the "Whispers from the Static" vignette that opens the chapter, followed by an in-depth conversation with Perry Carpenter and Mason Amadeus, where they unpack the chapter's themes and real-world implications. Get the Book (Amazon Associate Link): FAIK: A Practical Guide to Living in a World of Deepfakes, Disinformation, and AI-Generated Deceptions Check out the website for more info: https://thisbookisfaik.com Voice credits for the opening "Whispers from the Static": Kayla Temshiv This is the last episode we are publishing in this feed. If you enjoy The FAIK Files, be sure to follow the show's feed so you don't miss out on future episodes. Links to the show:

Sep 30, 2024

This is Part Two of a ten-part miniseries exploring Perry Carpenter's latest book, FAIK: A Practical Guide to Living in a World of Deepfakes, Disinformation, and AI-Generated Deceptions. Each episode kicks off with a dramatized reading of the "Whispers from the Static" vignette that opens the chapter, followed by an in-depth conversation with Perry Carpenter and Mason Amadeus, where they unpack the chapter's themes and real-world implications. Get the Book (Amazon Associate Link): FAIK: A Practical Guide to Living in a World of Deepfakes, Disinformation, and AI-Generated Deceptions Check out the website for more info: https://thisbookisfaik.com We'll be posting episodes 1 through 3 on this feed. If you enjoy The FAIK Files, be sure to follow the show's feed so you don't miss out on future episodes. Links to the show:

Sep 30, 2024

This is Part One of a ten-part miniseries exploring Perry Carpenter's latest book, FAIK: A Practical Guide to Living in a World of Deepfakes, Disinformation, and AI-Generated Deceptions. Each episode kicks off with a dramatized reading of the "Whispers from the Static" vignette that opens the chapter, followed by an in-depth conversation with Perry Carpenter and Mason Amadeus, where they unpack the chapter's themes and real-world implications. Get the Book (Amazon Associate Link): FAIK: A Practical Guide to Living in a World of Deepfakes, Disinformation, and AI-Generated Deceptions Check out the website for more info: https://thisbookisfaik.com We'll be posting episodes 1 through 3 on this feed. If you enjoy The FAIK Files, be sure to follow the show's feed so you don't miss out on future episodes. Links to the show:

See all episodes →