This is an I Heart podcast. Guaranteed human. Broadcasting live from the Abraham Lincoln Radio Studio, the George Washington Broadcast Center, Jack Armstrong and Joe Getty. I'm strong and getty. And now he is. I'm strong and getty. Yeah. Civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again. So states, the president of the United States about Iran, a whole civilization will die tonight. The cutoff time for the civilization that has existed for a couple thousand years. It's going to end on April the 7th at eight PM Eastern. And they've had a good run. So claims the president. So more on that a little bit later this hour, it's it's it's it's historic, man. I'm making light of it because it's so incredibly heavy. Oh, it's unbelievable. True. Well, and this may be certainly in your top three threats of all time. If you consider the size of the threat times the capability of to make it come true. It's a hell of a threat. So more on that to come. Yeah, I'm going to take out every bridge and every power plan according to Trump and four hours we can have them all taken out. He said so. Okay, more on that later. Oh boy. Uh, less weighty topic, but interesting and thought provoking. AI music, ladies and gentlemen, before we get to the AI stuff, the soulful, soulful sounds of Eddie Dalton. Eddie doesn't exist. All the computer. Well, so I've been thinking lately, I come really into Olivia Dean, right? That album that she is fantastic. Just think she she sings that kind of soulful stuff, right? And, uh, or does she? She did on the Grammys. Uh, unless she was thinking to her, but did. But one of the things is that one of the things I enjoy about it is just, you know, how good she is and that there are people that still sing that way and blah, blah, blah. That guy sounds like a male Olivia Dean, except for he's not real, doesn't exist. He appears to be a 40 year old black man, but he doesn't exist. All of it is generated by a content farm run by Dallas Ray Little out of Greenville, South Carolina, who's already got dozens of these faux songs and videos by different artists, quote unquote, on YouTube. Well, why, why do you even claim it's a 40 year old black man? Why not claim it's a two year old poodle or a copy? Now, if that was a dog, that is worth the money. I would go see that, uh, or a coffee cup. Yeah, exactly. Uh, because, uh, either people aren't aware of it or I would go see that. I got tickets for the show tonight, honey, a dog who sings like Sam cook or, uh, either people aren't aware of it or he just realizes the barrier for entry for some people might be, wait, that's a computer. That's weird. But if he gives them a human face, um, for that Sam cook meets Chris Stapleton voice of his, um, then people dig it. Yes, Katie. Uh, the album cover is definitely believable and this totally got my mom. She loves his music and just found out it was AI and was legitimately bummed out. She's like, this wasn't, this isn't even a person. I would like to have that happen to me. Unfortunately, it, it's always been introduced to me as, as AI to start with. I would love to get into an album like I got into the Olivia Dean stuff and then have somebody say, here's the catch. This is not real. This was just me putting prompts on a computer. That would blow my mind. Yeah. She, she said, hopefully the guys will talk about Eddie Dalton because I really love his music and then I found out he's AI and I was really disappointed, but I still like the music. That's where we all got to get. And, and I haven't gotten there yet. And I don't know if I can as a guy who practices a musical instrument every day of my life. Do I get any enjoyment out of listening to a computer made up music or does it not make any difference? I'm, it shouldn't make any difference. Should I? Well, I did, I disagree. Although from a certain perspective, here's the way I'd respond to that. Music has always been the nexus between art and entertainment and commerce, depending on the setting. And if you remove the art from it, other than ability to recognize the computer got it right, then you've just got entertainment and commerce, which for some people, I think is perfectly fine. And, you know, if you enjoy music on that level, I don't care. Why are you saying the artificial intelligent can't create art? Because it's not art. I mean, what's the definition of art then? That has to be human. That was a childlike argument by me. And I apologize for it. Well, it's, it's not art because it's the, the programming of the computer was art in a way. It was astounding grasp of science anyway. I'm thinking this through, as I'm saying, and I don't have the answer to it. Why is it not art? Is the definition of art have to be a human expression? Yes, I would say yes, although I'd certainly be willing to hear a counter argument because it's such an interesting topic. What if he can't tell? So what, what if I'm listening to what I think is a human expression, really enjoying it, then I'm told that was a computer. Am I supposed to, I don't know, punch myself in the face or cry or I'm supposed to do if I enjoyed the art. Right. Quote unquote. Sure. No, it's a great question. Or a painting is even a better example. I'm looking at it. Really, you know, enjoying it, getting all those chemicals frying, flying. Sure. Firing off in your brain that you get when you look at good art. But you're told that's made by a computer. Ah, I gouge my eyes out. I'm so embarrassed. Wow. You're punching your face or gouging your eyes. Yeah. I know, I'd actually, I was trying to think last night of what like well known songwriters I could actually get hold of. They're just a couple, cause I'd love to write something about creating music in the age of AI music creation when, I mean, there are plenty, it's funny. I've joked in the past, there are plenty of songs. There's no need to write anymore. But people still do it and enjoy it. It gives me joy to do it. Um, people like new music and that sort of thing. I think it's wonderful. It's one of my favorite things in life, honestly. But what does it mean now is I'm thinking of a couple of my favorite songwriters. They're getting ready to do their next album. Why? Just cause they want to get it out of them. They, they want to make the very paltry sum of money. It'll get them. I can't answer this question in my own head. So I certainly can't answer it for or, or guess how this is going to play out for society. Yes, Michael, I think younger people aren't going to care. Older people are going to hate this. I don't, I don't know. I'm guessing. I'm actually guessing. I don't think unless you've got the human being to attach it to in your mind that it's going to hit you the same way. I think you're right. I don't know that you speak for the shallow simpletons of the world, Katie. You know, on Michael's point, there's been kind of this weird transition of inserting technology into music in the last decade or so, you know, with the auto tune and that. So it's kind of like we've phased that way. So maybe he's right. I think maybe the younger generation is going to just, it's just like computers and music are one of our. But no, you know, hand in hand. I can't imagine that anybody's going to go to an arena and just listen to the sound system with an iPhone on a stool on a spotlight. They do already. They with these DJs. Well, electronic music. That I mean, that's that's what it is. You go and there's a dude standing in front of a system with a laptop plugged in with a lot of lights. It's the soul rave featuring Eddie Dalton. Yeah, I don't know. Here's another interesting angle of the whole AI thing. This is a folk singer by the name of Murphy Campbell, a traditional folk, beautiful voice, but she brings up a problem. My problem with AI generated music is just worsened exponentially. I might try to catch all up on what happened because this is crazy. It's unprecedented. It's the Wild West and it could happen to anyone. Roll on. An entity called Timeless Sounds. I are uploaded AI generated versions of my songs to all major streaming platforms. And to do that, they fed YouTube videos of me to an AI engine that then mimicked my voice and playing. They used a distributor, which I just discovered. And that distributor's name is Vidya. They used Vidya to upload all these generated songs. And Vidya has since decided that it was going to make copyright claims on all of the videos that were used to feed the AI engine to sound like me. So AI replicated her songs, then filed copyright claims on them? Roll on, Michael. So Vidya has come forward and made copyright claims on my YouTube page. And because YouTube does not personally review these things, I am no longer making money on YouTube. Vidya is making money on YouTube off of my own videos and me playing my own banjo and my own backyard with traditional folk songs, some for my own family. Over AI generated music. Last clip. So I just wanted to update y'all and I wanted to let you know that the only thing I can do about it is dispute this copyright claim. I can't dispute the copyright claim of YouTube because YouTube doesn't get involved. I can dispute it with Vidya. Do you think Vidya is going to listen to me? I don't think so. So yes, that's AI generated music for y'all. And these are the consequences of using it. So. I don't like the modern world. Well, so not a fan. One star can't recommend. It shouldn't be surprising that AI creates music that it's lifted from other people. I mean, where else would it get the idea? And it's like LLMs. That's what they are. Language learning models. They're going out there and grabbing everything that's out there in the world. And, uh, you know, spitting back whatever he asked it to do based on what it's learned. Yeah, I don't know how to do that. I learned. Yeah, I don't know how to quote unquote read an algorithm, but like the voice of that Eddie Little character, like you said, that that's like, it's almost like a wine blend. That's 40% Chris Stableton, 40% Sam Cook and 10% of, I don't know, Lou Rawls. Well, and I don't see how you would ever be able to stop it legally because whatever precedent you set, you know, these, um, these trials that they've had over the years where people get sued for, you stole my melody are often so stupid because there's eight million songs with the same melody. There's only so many melodies. But sometimes people win money and sometimes they don't. But so if you, if you do this with AI, well, then the AI, the creator will just say, OK, the government regulation is it can only be 11% of anything. So we'll do 10.8% Sam Cook and 10.8% Chris Stableton and another 10.8% this and come up with their own thing just to stay below the threshold for breaking the law. I don't see how you'd ever change that. Don't know. Music has changed over and over again as technologies change the way it's presented and written and sung and the rest of it. I've recommended David Burns book, How Music Works Many Times. It's a good read, at least the first few chapters. The and it's about to change again fundamentally. Yeah, but the open question is how we are going to receive it. If we're going to be think I don't care if it's a computer or not, I still enjoy it. Or if it just lacks something when we know it's not a human being. Yeah, and how that change as younger people come along is Michael indicates. I don't know. I won't listen to another second of it. I love it. But really, even if you like this grandkids, even if you like the sound of it, you're not going to listen to it if it's not a human. No, no, it's unholy. It's like a sexy woman, but she's a slave, not interested. I'm like a sexy woman, but a slave. Let's all ponder that for a while. It's it's it's it's something to be enjoyed, but it is evil in its origin. Wow, that's some deep bass. Oh, please, I'm all about deep bass. Stay here. So we're we got into the conversation of where does this all go? And will people enjoy listening to that? I really don't know the answer. Some of it might be if you're young. So like a lot of your young pop stars, she doesn't sound like that. She's a model. She didn't write the songs. They become giant stars. How much separated from that is AI? Not a lot. Not much difference. No, I think for a young audience, very little, if any. Katie brought up the idea of people fill arenas to watch DJs just kind of spin records. Although there is a human being there. Anyway, we got this text. You two are getting really old and at this point are have become irrelevant. Happy Tuesday. No, great. Thanks. Well, I think what I was telling Joe, I off the air was my mom's amuse. My mom and my dad are both musicians. And when they hear the music, that turns them off because they're like, this is something that people practice out for their entire lives to perfect. And now here's a top chart song that took none of that. Yeah, I just I don't know. That's not even what bothers me. What bothers me is music is artistic expression. As opposed to mastery. Maybe I just think that because I suck. But Jack asked an intriguing question. You know, we're all into music. If you see art, neither one of us has any talent for like visual art, painting or drawing or whatever. I have none. And it's funny, I've run into artists who like, oh, sure you do. And I'm like, no, no, I don't. But anyway. Um, do I feel the same way about AI generated art? And Judy and I do have a fair amount of art. I wouldn't call myself an art collector, but we have pretty stuff on our walls. And we ran into one artist who does like AI or computer assisted art. Photography that then is altered and uses, you know, computers to create a composite image of the photography and and changes it in the way she she wants. And some of it's really whimsical and and it's really good art. But we're like, do we want this? What are we buying? What is this exactly? So is visual art different than music? I don't know. I really, really like literature. If there was a book that was getting rave reviews, but I know it was written by AI, would have any interest in reading it. I don't think I would. Other than to wonder at the technology. Yeah, I don't know. I don't know. I actually don't know for myself even we're going to find out really soon, though, like really soon in the next couple of years. It's clear to me that this will kill the human soul. But we've had a good run. What are you going to do? Beavers? Ants? I thought the ants probably are going to take over. AI killing the human soul, Trump killing off an entire civilization, or so he has vowed. That coming up. Armstrong and Getty. The entire country could be taken out in one night, and that night might be tomorrow night. With every bridge in Iran will be decimated by 12 o'clock tomorrow night, where every power plant in Iran will be out of business, burning, exploding and never to be used again. I mean, complete demolition by 12 o'clock. And it'll happen over a period of four hours if we wanted to. We don't want that to happen. We may even get involved with helping them rebuild their nation. And you know what? If that's the case, the last thing we want to do is start with power plants, which are among the most expensive thing and bridges. So you've probably heard by now that Trump truthed out early today, a whole civilization will die tonight. Never to be brought back again. That's an extraordinary thing, even by Trump standards to say. I don't want that to happen, but it probably will. So Mark Halpern, his newsletter, laid out the arguments that it will happen and the arguments that it won't happen, and they're pretty darned interesting. As Ian Bremmer's outfit G zero daily put it, is it Taco Tuesday or Fafo Tuesday? I'll tell you what, if Trump backs down on this, I don't call it chickening out, but if it's another, you know, I'm gonna. OK, but I will next time. I don't. I think this is the last one he can do. I don't think you can get the world's attention or anybody's attention one more time with this, if you don't follow through with some. Anyway, here's Mark Halpern laying out the arguments, facts, data for escalation that it will happen tonight. Trump was very definitive countless times on Monday about the deadline. He was. Trump called the Iranians bull as artists. He'd the actual word, of course, when it came to negotiations, which was to veteran Trump watches the biggest tell of the day when Trump declares that you're just full of crap. Then he decides no more negotiating with you. The two sides are so far apart on what it would take to end the war or even get a ceasefire. There's just no point. And the New York Times actually says that after those threats in response Iran has stopped engaging in the talks completely. Yeah, Iran's alleged demands are non starters and are no longer even negotiating, as Joe just said. Another one that Halpern says is B.B. would be leaking more to force Trump's hand if he was worried that there was going to be a taco. So B.B. had any sense that Trump wasn't going to follow through on this. He would be leaking out various things to try to push him that direction. And he's not. He must feel like Trump's going to going to do it. A bunch of international law professors told Trump not to do it. Halpern takes that as an argument that Trump probably will. Just because the law professor said don't that is not good. You would do something just because it would make them mad. But no one Trump's personality that certainly could be true. And then the cancellation of the Pentagon briefing today, we didn't even mention that. Hexeth was supposed to do one of his briefings and they canceled it last minute. I think that is a sign that. It's happening to me. Interesting. There's a, speaking of the New York Times, there's a headline just like three stories down. Hexeth, Likens, Easter, Rescue, U.S. Airmen, a resurrection of Jesus Christ. When did he do that? Oh, this is dated yesterday. OK, that's but they're so anxious to portray Hexeth and others as crazy Christians in the New York Times. This is still one of their lead stories. Really? OK. God, they're nuts. Here are the arguments, facts and data that it won't happen tonight. Trump asserted several times yesterday that the Iranians are negotiating. We think in good faith. He did say that a couple of times. Trump can claim, no matter the facts, that more significant progress has been made today and extend the deadline. I think it's the last time he can play this card, but he could do that this afternoon. He could say, we've made great strides in the negotiation. Going to hold off for five days, 10 days, three hours, whatever he says. But I don't think he can play that card again. He certainly can't play that card on me again and get me all excited. Only if it's real. If two days later, the Pakistanis announced, hey, good news, the straight open pieces were been restored. Damn, that was crazy. Wasn't it? Everybody back to the real life. Well, then OK, but no, you can't bluff again with that card. Yeah, that's one of the arguments why this won't happen. Trump has blown through a whole bunch of self-imposed deadlines already in this war and he lists them. And it is quite a few times. International mediators are highly motivated to succeed and reportedly have the new head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as an interlocute look, a person that they can have a conversation with. If that's true, that's how the problem is today. He's the head of the Guard Corps. Tomorrow he's just a head of the Guard Corps or or he's a headless. How about this is an argument why it won't happen? The human shields of young people around power plants that Iran is reportedly arranging could give Trump an excuse not to attack blaming Iran for the delay. I could easily see Trump saying, are they there yet? Go now, go now, go now. And adjusting his sales because the human shield thing. The Iranians who are unless he wants out and then you let the human shields get there and then you say, I look what they've done. Yeah. And I don't know what's in his head. I don't know if he wants out or wants to do it. In all my years of, you know, studying and reading and international relations and the rest of it, nobody ever brought up except for a couple of books. Now that I think about it, how do you negotiate with death cultists who will kill however many other people are necessary is necessary. And so how does that work? What levers do you use? Another argument against is that the U.S. could suffer massive losses in the attack if Iran's air defenses are not as degraded as the Pentagon has claimed. I don't know. That's what happened already. Yeah, I think so too. They're getting blasted every single day and day. There is this breaking news thing that I hadn't mentioned. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps warned the Gulf States today that it will no longer show restraint in choosing targets for retaliation. I don't know that they'd showed a lot of restraint so far. Finally, this for Mark Alperno has a lot of sources and is a pretty smart guy. Basing this on Trump yesterday talking a lot about how his CIA director looks like he's from central casting. How Pete Hegzeff looks like he's from central casting. How Trump just likes the way things look or whatever. If you want to know what Trump will do at 8 Eastern at the deadline, ask yourself one question. Which is the better movie plot development? What is the better movie plot development? Doing it or not doing it? Oh my. I don't know what to answer that question. I don't either. It depends on what sort of movies you like, I guess. I don't think he's going to come out in the middle of the day and say... Negotiations are going well. 48 more hours or something like that. But I don't know, canceling the Pentagon briefing. The fact that we're bombing Karg Island. The fact that Israel said stay off the trains. There's a lot of things lining up for kind of like, you know, 38 days ago when the attacks happened originally. Right. If he were to say progress has been made, given him another 48 hours or whatever. What's going to happen in those 48 hours though? I don't know. Just hoping things break in a productive way, I guess. I have no idea. If Trump follows through on this and takes out lots of bridges and power plants and trains like Israel is saying. And thousands die. Not just by Iranian news agency standards, but it seems pretty obvious thousands and thousands die. How's the world going to react? How's Congress going to react? How's America going to react? Oh boy, those are three different questions, but none of them are answered by the word. Just fine. Words. How the markets going to react. That's my least concern because they go up, they go down. But yeah, they'll bounce back by the dip. Michael, I request no, no, I demand clip 53, Trey Yanks. But what's very interesting here, I spoke with a high ranking source last night and I asked what happens next if the president orders these strikes. And they said, again, this is the Achilles heel of the regime targeting energy infrastructure. And what it may actually do is force their hand at the negotiating table because again, the president has time and time again. Even before Operation Epic Fury began, preferred a diplomatic option. But the Iranians have been unwilling to take a diplomatic option and that is how we ended up in this Operation Epic Fury that is unfolding before our eyes as we speak. But the president very clearly on true social just moments ago saying, however, now that we have complete and total regime change where different, smarter and less radicalized minds prevail, maybe something revolutionary, wonderful can happen. U.S. officials, this is from the New York Times, U.S. officials have encountered all arguments that if Iran showed a serious desire to end its nuclear program, it wouldn't have triggered the war in the first place. The officials said the U.S. would face significant hurdles in getting Tehran to agree to a ceasefire because the Iranian regime sees its survival is at stake and thinks it retains leverage over the U.S. through the straighter, whore moves. That reminds me of the Eisenhower book that I'm reading. Eisenhower was big on that Art of War book by the ancient Japanese dude. Chinese? Yeah, Chinese dude. Yeah, racism right there folks. Making a note. Cornered beasts fighting for their lives are very dangerous. And that is definitely where the Iranian revolutionary garrison and the Mullahs will be, maybe are right now and certainly will be tonight after the attacks. The great Filipino general, Sun Tzu, actually said, always leave your opponents an escape route. Because cleaning up the end will be terrible. Yeah, I mean, because obviously they're going to, Iran will show no restraint if they think this is the end, like an end might be tonight. And Trump stated it's tonight. It's the end of a civilization. Oh my gosh, there's so much uncertainty in the road ahead. Including what would it take to actually crush the will of the IRGC? Nobody knows the answer to that question. I don't think you can crush the will of the Mullahs. They actually believe that this is the purpose Allah put them on earth for and that they are going to a better place because of this. Right, indeed. And that Armageddon is the goal. So how do you leave that crowd an escape route? I think you got to squash them. Squash them like bugs. Blow their beards off. Blow their beards off. It's an expression. I don't know how this is incredibly troubling. I know one thing. I'm going to be gathered around the TV tonight. Five o'clock West Coast time. Holy crappings. Yeah, I know. I know. Wonder what MBS wants. Oh, that's what I meant to mention that earlier. I had missed this somehow when I was criticizing the president for unnecessarily antagonizing our allies. And I'm not talking about the boot in the ass that they need to actually do their share and get off their socialist-added thrones. But the other day he was in front of a Saudi audience and he said, I bet you never thought you'd have a leader who kissed my ass. Ooh. Which you do not say about MBS. No. That apparently caused extremely high levels of consternation and offense. I'm surprised Trump didn't know that was a bad idea. Has he lost his old man filter? He's a sales guy. He knows you got to make everybody feel good about themselves. You can't. You make me feel like a putz. I won't take a good deal. But that's what happened with the Denmark Greenland thing. True. Yeah, that was a real misstep. Why would you do that? We need their help. Oof. Well, that's going to be an interesting day. We'll finish strong next. Arm strong and Getty. A short time ago we were together and he looked at me and he said, you know, it's amazing. One year ago you were dead country. Now you're the hottest country anywhere in the world. He didn't think this was going to happen. He didn't think he'd be kissing my ass. He really didn't. He thought he'd be just another American president that was a loser where the country is going downhill. But now he has to be nice to me. You tell him he better be nice to me. He's got to be. That doesn't work on MBS. That was a mistake. Oh boy. That was a mistake. I didn't hear that. Wow. I'm surprised. Most salesmen are the opposite. They want to make you feel like, boy, you got the best of me there. We're the best buddies ever. Yeah. Troubling. Flawed human. No doubt. Aren't we all? You've probably seen this kind of story bouncing around the increase in people joining churches and that sort of stuff. Catholic Church saw a massive spike in converts over Easter. 38% increase in Easter converts across U.S. dioceses according to, compared to the previous year. That's a pretty big jump. I'd say. All four of the largest dioceses in the United States, Chicago, L.A., New York, and Phoenix saw significant growth. L.A. 8,000 converts this Easter. 139% growth from last year. That is something in the Orthodox Church is having that sort of growth too. Wonder what's happening. Is there another great awakening going on? You want to hear my stupid headline? Sure. Bringing mass back to mass. There you go. You like it? To find all thoughts with Armstrong and Gettie. You'll get the facts. They're sharp and steady. Tune in tomorrow. Don't you forget it for more from Armstrong and Gettie. I couldn't love that more. Here's your host for Final Thoughts, Joe Gettie. Let's get a final thought from everybody on the cry in the crew to finish the day. Michelangelo, would you lead us off, please? I held this afternoon. I'm thinking I'm going to park myself right in front of the television and just wait until five o'clock and see what happens. No kidding. Yeah, I might go with the Twitter, but yeah, same idea. Katie Greener, esteemed and used woman, has a final thought. Katie? I'm going to work on getting a shirt made that says blow their beards off. Love it. I'll take one. Jack, final thought for us. To the search and people joining churches, can that sort of stuff? I think the modern world is leaving a lot of people feeling like there's got to be more than this. They're looking for it somewhere and maybe find it in the church, but the modern world leaves you leasely feeling empty. Yeah, it's funny you should bring that up. I've actually been sitting on a couple of stories about towns and organizations that are leaving the tech behind to a large extent. Especially for kids. I think that's a good trend. Who knows? My final thought was going to be essentially that one way or another, history will have taken a pivot by the time we address you again. Manana. Oh, you think so? Yeah. Even if he tacos? That would be a pivot. Armstrong and Getty wrapping up another grueling four hour workday. So many people are thanks. So little time. Go to ArmstrongandGetty.com. We have hot links for you. You can drop us a note. What do you think about all this mailbag at ArmstrongandGetty.com? Is the email address pickups main G swag? Wouldn't your favorite A&G fan love a t-shirt or a hat or hoodie? Perhaps you are that very person. ArmstrongandGetty.com. I just don't feel like you can make the threat of all threats like that and then back down. We'll see you tomorrow. God bless America. Armstrong and Getty. How does this happen? I bought them used online and they're just they're like two sizes way too big. You choose. You want them really bad. You choose. Why buy them two sizes too big. You choose. They never really fit. You choose. What is this? The olden days. Hey Jack go buy yourself some brand new shoes. We can all agree on that. Armstrong and Getty.
