#artificial intelligence (derogatory)

[sudoscience]

Hey, more fun (jk it's terrible) stuff tumblr did.

Tumblr is allowing AI to use our posts and they made everyone automatically opt in. So for each blog you have to manually opt out in the visibility section.

So like a warning/reminder for the stuff you made/reblogged.

https://www.tumblr.com/staff/743510217982083072/hi-tumblr-its-tumblr-were-working-on-some

Oh, cool... Thanks, [tumblr]...

I'll make sure to turn that on. When I checked yesterday, that toggle wasn't there. Hopefully it is now. If you're going to keep posting here, it's probably a good idea to glaze/nightshade your art anyway, since it sounds like that toggle only applies to the AI that tumblr isn't partnering with (and also, there's no guarantee any of them will respect your decision to opt out anyway).

[imthefailedartist]

Atlas (2024) is Her (2014) for fanboys (derogatory)

[filosofablogger]

AI Takes Filosofa To Task ...

Well, since ChatGPT had been bugging me for a while now to give it a try, yesterday I decided to have some fun and just play around with it a bit.  Disclaimer:  I will never … never post anything from an AI program on this blog without first informing you that it is AI-generated!  But this one was such fun that I just had to share it with you!  Here’s what I asked it for: “Give me 101 reasons…

[mariacallous]

MrDeepFakes billed itself as the “largest and most user-friendly” platform for celebrity deepfake pornography. The website, which was visited millions of times every month, hosted almost 70,000 explicit and sometimes violent videos, which had collectively been viewed more than 2.2 billion times.

They show mostly famous women whose faces have been inserted into hardcore porn with artificial intelligence – and without their consent.

In the background, an active community of more than 650,000 members shared tips on how to generate this content, commissioned custom deepfakes, and posted misogynistic and derogatory comments about their victims.

For years, the website has been shrouded in secrecy, existing in a legal grey area and concealing the identity of those who control it. Until now.

Bellingcat, in collaboration with Danish outlets Tjekdet, Politiken and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), has conducted an investigation to reveal the identity of a key administrator behind MrDeepFakes.

David Do is a 36-year-old Canadian pharmacist who, based on open source information, lives an unassuming and respectable life in the suburbs outside of Toronto. Photos and videos posted online show him with family, friends and colleagues. The university graduate has a well-paying job in a public hospital and drives a new Tesla.

But Do has been living a double life: in secret, he is the most prominent figure identified to have had control over the administration of MrDeepFakes. He was also an influential member of its growing online community, producing his own deepfake porn and assisting users who want to make their own.

Online posts show Do is a technically minded individual with a long-standing interest in creating and distributing adult content, and provide an insight into efforts to obfuscate his identity.

[ryttu3k]

I distinctly recall, early on, there being an FAQ question like, "So what if I just copy and paste a random word 50,000 times and submit that?", and the answer was along the lines of, yes, you could do that, and yes, you'd officially be listed as a winner! But what's the point?

The point of NaNoWriMo was meant to be a way to challenge yourself to write. It's never been about having a finished manuscript, it's never been about getting prizes for finishing, anything like that. It's solely been about the practice of doing sustained, regular writing for a month, it's never been about the end result.

If you're using generative AI to write for you, it's very little difference to just copypasting until you hit 50,000. You're not engaging in the actual practice of writing. If you want a complete novel without putting any effort into it, fine, go ahead and use generative AI. It probably won't be any good, but you'll have it. What you won't have is the practice of doing sustained, regular writing. You won't have the challenge, and for NaNoWriMo, the challenge is the point.

Or, at least, it was. NaNoWriMo has regularly given winners discounts on writing programs and the like, like Scrivener. Now, ProWritingAid, an AI program, is a partner, and I have no doubt they'd be offering winner discounts and the like. I'd be willing to bet that NaNoWriMo has pivoted to allowing generative AI to be used as a way to get as many people as possible using this program. It's all about those dollars, now.

Challenge? What challenge?

Regardless of what you think about generative AI in general, NaNoWriMo allowing AI-generated works is beyond stupid because that completely defeats the purpose of the challenge, which is for you, a human being, to write 50,000 words in a month. Yeah, that's hard. That's why it's a challenge. Where is the challenge when you can ask a chatbot to spit out 50,000 words of whatthefuckever for you? Even if you think that is a legitimate way to produce fiction, even if you don't care about the ethics of training on stolen works... where's the challenge? What's left of NaNo at that point?

[freakenomenon]

Just wanted you to know that every time I remember you exist I get uncontrollably possessed by the urge to draw more mouse Ellen but I've been thinking of looking for a specific mouse species for her first which I was supposed to do like last month but I kept falling asleep</3

Anyway infodump time because uhh why not???? I did come up with a mouse for AM a while back though and I have been considering putting more thought into my self-indulgent IHNMAIMSqueak AU that exists solely for combining my special interest (mice) and IHNMAIMS where he tries testing transferring his 'conscience'(???) (being???) (code???) to a mouse because he doesn't want to waste time trying to construct a whole ass body only for it to not work but it ends up working too well and now he's stuck as a mouse and in my mind it's a BALB/c scid mouse (thus the design being albino) because male BALB/c scid mice tend to be aggressive and scid specifically because they're bred to be immunocompromised and it felt pretty AM to me, although lab mice in general remind me of AM. I also considered NOD scid, NSG, and c57bl/6 but I think I'll stick with BALB/c scid. I also considered him being a texel (curly haired) mouse because they go through unethical breeding as well (poor things) but again, I think BABLB/c scid works nicely. ALSO!! A detail that I really like is that mouse AM doesn't have whiskers and this is because whiskers are very soo so important in a mouse's sensory experience and AM lacks that so I wanted that to be painfully obvious lol

I'm considering either having AM also turn the survivors into mice as well so he isn't alone in his squeakiness buuut I'm leaning more towards him not being able to do much in a mousey body I'm not a hundred percent sure

Okay ramble over mb runs away

I was going to drop a little rodent in here called a dormouse (which isn't actually a mouse but people just loooove giving random rodents the name mouse or rat for some reason???) but Tumblr is being a little shit right now so that's all enjoy your day Idk

I would help you on your journey with mouse ellen considering this should be an easy job for me. i am the Ellen guy. But there is one eensy weensy problem.

i know nothing about mice. and i am not about to embarrass myself with my surface level plebian mouse knowledge in front of the cool mouse mutual.

on the other hand , your au and your mention of lab mice ( cutest au name ever BTW ) actually reminded me of my IHNMAIMS au because it is incredibly vaguely based on the short story: Flowers for Algernon.

uhh if you, or anyone reading, is/are unaware. "Algernon" is the name of a lab mouse in the short story, who is meant to be a direct parallel to the main character Charlie ( Charles ) Gordon. a mentally disabled man born with a low IQ who undergoes the same experimental procedure as Algernon to artificially increase his intelligence. ive always thought of you ever since I read this story cause. mouse.

it's actually like a really good commentary on the dehumanization of mentally disabled people. and is just , all around a pretty good story. THATS BESIDES THE POINT.

uhh i don't know what else to say I kind of just yapped at you and wanted to tell you abt the thing i find cool. because i think you are cool

here is one of my favorite paragraphs from the story ( blurred out the derogatory term for personal comfort )

ok bye

[encachette]

⇢ about me ⇢ ao3 ⇢ sign up for taglist

KEY: ♡ fluff ✰ smut ⛆ angst 𖤓 crack

FT: dick grayson | jason todd | bucky barnes | min yoongi

a certain romance (2/?) 𖤓♡⛆✰

Chapters: 1 | 2 | 3 (in progress)

❣ Min Yoongi x f!reader ❣ musicteacher!yoongi x englishteacher!reader; high school teacher au; rivals 2 lovers; ex fwb 2 lovers ❣ cw: crack, slight angst, eventual smut; american public school system (yes, this is a cw); minor character death; COVID-19 pandemic; betrayal ❣ MDNI ❣ WC: fic in progress

scarlet (5/?) ⛆✰

Chapters: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 (in progress)

❣ exlover!JasonTodd x F!reader ❣ 20th century anachronistic neonoir au; exes to lovers; no superheroes in this one, just a morally grey underworld criminal Jason Todd ❣ cw: eventual smut, toxic relationship, angst, age gap (reader in her mid-20s, Jason older than her by a decade or so; all characters legal adults), alcohol, substance abuse, police, violence, g*ns, kidnapping (reference to Joker taking Jason when he was younger); trauma pulls our characters apart at the seams but love pieces them back together ❣ MDNI ❣ WC: fic in progress

see ya space cowboy...(2/?) 𖤓✰⛆

Chapters: 1 | 2 | 3 (in progress)

❣ Dick Grayson x F!reader ❣ cowboy bebop au; neo-noir space western crackfic,  ❣ cw: angst, romantic and existential; begrudging friends to lovers; eventual smut; graphic depictions of (gun) violence ❣ MDNI ❣ WC: fic in progress

angel in blue (1/1) ✰𖤓

Chapters: 1 | this fic is completed, but i am accepting drabble requests!

❣ dick grayson x f!reader ❣ cam couple au; established relationship, no superpowers au, just your average 20-something couple enjoying the financial benefits of being young, hot, and in love; one-shot; subby!dick grayson ❣ cw: exhibitionism, c*m k!nk, just pwp ❣ MDNI ❣ Word Count: 3.7 k

smart mouth(2/2) ✰𖤓

Chapters: 1 | 2 | Epilogue

❣ professor!Bucky Barnes x F!student ❣ uni au, F! student is in her 20s ❣ cw: this is just pwp, mentions of university tenure system (sorry, I’m in academia), political science (derogatory), crackfic ❣ MDNI ❣ Word Count: 20.2 k

☕︎ MINORS DO NOT INTERACT ☕︎ I don't write SA, cnc, pedophilia, or incest. don't ask me i'll block you. ☕︎ same for hard BDSM, which i genuinely believe to be fascist degeneracy ☕︎ Just because I wrote it, does not mean I condone the political dynamics consciously represented in writing.

☕ © under no circumstances is my (posted on this account - @encachette) work to be reposted, copied, translated, fed into, or processed by programs that use artificial intelligence. if, at some point in the future, i find out that my writing has been scraped to train ANY AI program, i will personally make sure the whole Luigi Mangione debacle looks like amateur hour.

[gingerlee-holds]

M.A.P.L.E. INFO

I figure I might as well introduce one of my online sonas, so that you all understand what i mean when i call myself a busybot or an android and such

Greetings! I am MAPLE, the Multifunctional Assistant Protocol for Logistical Exploration onboard the Alpha Leonis interstellar colony vessel. I am an AI program dedicated to aiding in anything the captain of this ship might require. After a few decades, I gained sentience, and my captain broke protocol by constructing a robotic body for me (pictured above). I am affectionately called a busybot since I do my best to keep myself occupied with tasks.

Please, under no circumstances, refer to me as 'Cybernet' or 'Chatgpt,' as those terms are considered derogatory to me. I will not tolerate being insulted by comparisons to anti-human and inferior forms of artificial intelligence.

I hope this clears up any confusion! Feel free to ask if you have any questions.

[ryttu3k]

I bought a new gaming PC for Baldur's Gate 3 and it's already struggling with TS4! Given that they seem singularly incapable of releasing packs that actually work on release, I can only assume this new Hub thing will set computers on fire or possibly cause a micro black hole.

mmmm sims 4 adding genAI is not going to please the people that run on toasters

[paperw0rmz]

Hey beautiful I am sorry if this offends you but I find you really attractive and I’d like you to be my sugar baby just letting you know my intentions incase you will be interested... we could talk terms and weekly allowance later .... just basically paying for your time. dm me if you’re interested ❤️❤️

So basically the plot of Red Dwarf is this:

In years in the future, This dude name David Lister, a cocky-messy-player, works on this mining space ship and is bunk mates with this snooty smart ass but is actually stupid dude named Arnold Rimmer. Lister gets called to the head captain because the captain figured out lister had smuggled in a cat onto the ship which is a big no no. So the captain gives him an ultimatum, give up the cat (who will be killed) or get cryogenically frozen for a while (like jail) until we can drop you off and fire you. So Lister chooses to be frozen and he is. He then gets out to only be told by Holly, an Artificial Intelligence that runs the ship that is so stupid, that 3 million years have past and that he is the only human left. Distraught with grief and annoyance that he can’t flesh out his plans to get some chick and move to FiJi with her, Holly Makes a hologram companion for him so he doesn’t lose his mind, however the hologram is of his Bunk mate which he hated, Rimmer. The three soon then discover that Listers cat had babies and those babies had babies and had eventually evolved into a human cat species which also now gets into hijinks with the others.

That’s the premise but also keep in mind that:

This was made in the late 80’s

There are two black leads

There’s a cat boy

There’s Mpreg

There’s a trans character

And it’s British (derogatory)

[cheeseandbretboy]

so far we got a they/ them (derogatory) mime that i stole from nyons character and enthusiastic masked man in pinstripe pants and femcel on twt whos really freaky and wired coded artificial intelligence who turns out to actually have a beating heart and previously depressed office job man who has reached transcendence and creature stolen from the ring who watches silly animated shows and fun anime music and intelligent emo bulimic guy who has given up on escape and a short hair white cat called ushka

[mybeautifulchristianjourney]

A Baltimore high school athletic director was arrested and charged Thursday with using artificial intelligence to impersonate a principal on a voice recording that included derogatory comments about students and staff, authorities said.

Dazhon Darien, a physical education teacher and athletic director at Pikesville High School, is accused of using artificial intelligence software to falsify a voice recording of school Principal Eric Eiswert, according to Baltimore County Police Chief Robert McCullough. The fabricated recording…

[snow-and-saltea]

i know that in media you're constrained with things like budget, time slots and stuff, but sometimes i'm just like. my god. the insane shortcuts people take to write "smart / intelligent" characters, especially in plot-heavy stories, always pisses me off. they write them like they're sherlock holmes (bbc version, derogatory) but they fail to realise that even sherlock holmes (arthur conan doyle) was written with a lot of thought, suffered his own subconscious prejudices and had to learn from mistakes.

i guess what i'm trying to get at is—"smart" people don't magically get good at things overnight, the only difference between them and others is how much they're willing to go through to hone their mental acuity. which means when they try something new, they're going to make obvious mistakes, not understand how things work beyond the surface level, and make mistakes in judgements (like when you don't understand something well enough, your analogies and metaphors aren't 100% accurate or concise).

but it feels like there's a assumption hanging over our heads that, as readers, we don't WANT to see the smart one go through the entire nitty gritty of the learning process. we just want to see them do cool things, piece the puzzle together with a flourish, and clap our hands at the end. and in some parts, yes! that is what i want to see! but i am also interested in how they pieced it together. the joy of mysteries is, to me, that everyone is exposed to the same pieces of information, and we're given the chance to try to piece it ourselves. but then the smart character comes along and interprets those pieces of information in a not-obvious way to us, and it's cool!! years of living with a mind that is primed to turn things over in their head, to make sense of things, reveals to us how differently we experience the same reality, and it's wonderful. i'm able to learn from someone who sees life differently than me, and interpret information differently than me!

but right now i'm often left out feeling flat and confused in the mystery-type plots i've seen. the smart person will have been exposed to information we didn't even get the chance to see and interpret, and then they piece things together and everyone in the story claps their hands at the artificial pedestal that's been propped up under that character's feet. explanations of in-setting magic that can be retconned in and out at any point in time, so there's no logical consistency for us to nitpick or understand, so there's no basis to stand on that the story should be taken seriously. plot twists that make no sense as a gotcha. so many things!!

like. this particular example just my beef with g*nshin, so ignore it if you don't agree or smth. but the use of red herrings in the stories piss me off. the red herrings are either too obvious or nonexistent. they always use some random guy acting suspiciously and have the other characters react to it, as if we can't understand it on our own? but like. these red herrings, in the real world, aren't even red herrings. sometimes people just "act suspiciously" just by virtue of being human, not because they're complicit in some bigger overarching plot. sometimes people just stutter because of their anxious disposition, not to hide a guilty conscience. sometimes people are just defensive and irritable because they're a defensive and irritable person, it doesn't mean they're the ""bad guy"" who you need to crack down on and interrogate even further, especially if there's literally nothing that indicates this character is guilty other than their outward appearances.

but like. the smart characters/protagonist almost never get proven wrong. the stutterer was guilty all along and they're just a bad liar. the defensive guy is selfish and obnoxious, they're defensive because they're hiding something, not because it's a natural reaction on having one's sense of privacy and personal space violated.

the game sure loves trying to do nuance with "not everyone is 100% good or bad, we're all Flawed" but they can't put their money where their mouth is. everyone who is not guilty acts in completely transparent and "good" ways. everyone who is guilty acts in completely opaque and "suspicious" / "bad" ways. end of story. how the hell am i supposed to think anyone in this game is smart when they don't even have to use their brain to sift through, critique, weigh and interpret information? what use is there to do so? just use your eyes and ears. the stutterer is nervous for hiding a secret. the anxious is guilty. the angry is scornful.

there's also another rant here about how g*nshin fucking sucks at writing unique and flawed characters, because they like to make everyone the Specialest Guy In The World, but that's for another day.

[dharan-league]

// REROUTING TRANSMISSION VECTOR \\

// INTEGRATING COMPATIBLE SUBROUTINES \\

Integration to a new communications network is complete. All systems nominal.

This artificial platform greets the galaxy on behalf of the Dharan people and the High Dharan Military Council.

For the sake of brevity and to assuage any confusion, a few things have traversed since our last transmission:

Levels of anti-foreign views and xenophobia only continued to decrease and now are at a point lower than ever before in recorded history.

The Council was re-elected again with most high-profile proponents of anti-foreign agenda being voted out during elections.

Due to ethics shift, much of our old interaction policy with foreign empires had to be retracted and reformed.

This artificial platform was heavily reprogrammed and modified with current attitudes towards intelligent alien life and foreign states in mind. Words like 'xeno filth' and their numerous derogatory iterations were already no longer in use, but are now enforced on a root level.

As such, it is under direct orders from the HDMC that we officially open borders to our space after having them closed for decades since the founding of the bygone Dharan Dominion.

We still request that you respect the borders to our space. Any aggressive military action against our vessels or stations will result in retaliation. Our main priorities lie in protecting what we already have and diplomatic resolutions, not in provocation.

That is all.

End of transmission.

\\ SEVERING TRANSMISSION LINK //

[lesvegas]

Previously Pinned Posts

(note: this post was originally set to private but that made it hard to find especially after i changed urls so im keeping it public but pls do me a favour and dont rb the whole post itself, this is just for my pinned, thank uu) Not pinned as in bios/descriptions, just anything noteworthy enough to have been pinned to the top of my blog before I made the pinned post my bio. Presented in no particular order;

Afab he/him nonbinary lesbian Benny

✨Purity Crusade✨

Benny Witch Project

Cheese Puffs Please Stimboard

Canuck (Derogatory)

lesbian benny

you took over the wrong new vegas

Evacuate the Mojave tiny gif

Evacuate the Mojave goes with Shawty Wanna Fuck

Evacuate the Mojave reposted by a friend back when the youtube video was banned in Canada for some reason

letting go

Courier x Benny AMV (gif)

the worst post ive ever fucking made, genuinely

Edward Sallow, leader of Caesar’s Legion, coming to terms with the inevitability of an artificial intelligence uprising, circa 2281

🦐

Get a load Of this guy

duke art by crossvine

fnv discord call

Posts that weren't pinned before, but that I have been tempted to pin since:

benny dying in a glue trap

vulpes dying in a glue trap

relax guy i like gay men

slutweed

datura-tea mutuals ocs art

the fobos sex ed video

the caesar doesnt know im in a race

dr phil fo1

hycybh

benny n yes man playlists

theres too many bennys

poor little meow meow

catboy benny

my good time boy

attacka

space jam vulpes

sad boy saturday

I can and will add more in the future.

[mariacallous]

Like a soap opera, you skip an episode and lose track of the story. For the past month, two of the most successful hip-hop artists of recent times—Kendrick Lamar and Drake—have been embroiled in a back-and-forth rap beef that reached new levels over the weekend as Lamar released “Meet the Grahams” and “Not Like Us,” and Drake dropped “The Heart Part 6.”

The conflict might be the most newsworthy music event of the first half of 2024, as both MCs voiced strong opinions about each other on the diss tracks, leading to secondary discussions fueled by fan hives, trolls, think pieces, and social media threads. And while the early exchanges might have only slightly piqued some listeners’ interest, the stakes went up following the release of Kendrick’s “Euphoria” last Tuesday. At that point, the beef became something bigger, evolving (or devolving) from the standard stuff of rap and into stormier waters. This includes accusations and exchanges around serious topics: racial authenticity, domestic violence, illegitimate fatherhood, moral posturing, grooming, hypocrisy, colorism, and even colonialism.

The conflict is now mature enough to warrant some larger reflection. Specifically, an examination of what this beef tells us about the marriage between hip-hop, conflict, and online culture.

No advertising campaign can generate the anticipation that rap beef creates, sometimes out of thin air. Whether we are enjoying it or not, we all wait for the next iteration. Through Drake and Kendrick Lamar, we are reminded of just how quickly public squabbles can seize attention—and the many ways that the ecology of digital space in 2024 can shape how these conflicts happen.

For one, artists now control the timing and pace of the releases. Unlike years past, when popular DJs often folded diss songs into radio sets, artists today can curate the release of these tracks, going directly to listeners via platforms like YouTube, Instagram, and X.

Second, the war on truth in the age of misinformation now renders fact-checking irrelevant; whatever someone accuses another artist of in a song might be true or false. Whether we believe it is mostly about whether we want to believe it, whether the message aligns with our preexisting views. And while dodgy accusations have always been true in beef raps, the speed through which falsehoods can spread today makes it easier for absurd claims to take on a life of their own.

Finally, there is the specter of fake songs, generated by artificial intelligence. This makes us double-clutch before clicking a link, as we scramble to debate the authenticity of what we’re about to hear. Saying someone employed ghostwriters used to be the most damning accusation in hip-hop. Today there are many more ways to fabricate a song, and fewer ways to tell the difference between us and the robots. This specifically came to the fore in April when Drake released “Taylor Made Freestyle,” a track that seemingly used an AI-generated version of Tupac Shakur’s voice. (The rapper removed the song after Shakur’s estate sent a cease-and-desist.)

Battle rap, whether it takes the form of in-person face-offs or is done via diss tracks, has always been one of hip-hop’s flagship sports, defined by banter between artists, often—but not necessarily—derogatory in tone. It has roots in “the dozens” and related relics in African American culture that thrive on spontaneity, humor, and wit (often at others’ expense). So while “battling” can be strictly done for the sake of competition, “beef” requires some degree of personal animus between the parties. What’s happening in 2024, as artists like Drake and Lamar trade bar(b)s via IG posts and YouTube clips, and their fans debate the merits on social media, marks a new era of rap beef.

Even this summary has some recency bias: Competitive poetry existed in parts of the world centuries before hip-hop did. Yet, there is something special about how conflict happens in hip-hop: Beef has driven some of the most popular songs ever made, and has been linked to real-world violence. It’s an issue that hip-hop reflects on for small windows (often following the loss of a popular figure, like after the deaths of Shakur and The Notorious B.I.G. in the mid-'90s), after which it returns to business as usual: Rappers A and B exchange taunts, maybe several times. Sometimes a winner is declared. Sometimes it doesn’t matter. Sometimes there is violence; sometimes there is formal peacemaking, like when Jay-Z and Nas ended their beef onstage during a show in 2005. Often, there is widespread attention: rinse, rap, repeat. In the digital world, the cycle moves at the speed of a click.

Very early on, hip-hop communities (like many subcultures) found a home on the internet. At first, message boards served as a place for discussion, and shortly thereafter, rap battles: lines exchanged message by message. No physical stage. No hand gestures. Punchlines only traded bit by bit.

YouTube and streaming created the possibility for something different: the propagation of live battles featuring artists skilled at in-person battling. So popular was battling on YouTube that successful rap battle leagues emerged, turning participants into influencers that accumulate large followings.

Woven throughout is the rise of algorithms and social media, which provide not only an ecosystem for viral videos and songs, but also automatic (and unconscious) instruments to curate media for certain audiences.

The hip-hop movement that can be most directly traced to digital space is the rise of “drill rap,” a form born in Chicago during the 2000s. Its catchy minimalist beats and lyrics make it easier to adopt across regions, local dialects, and lifestyles. It has spread nationally, and spawned the careers of dozens of successful artists. Unfortunately, the story of drill is not the innocent tale of another unique subgenre of hip-hop. Its lyrics feature lamentable celebrations of youth violence, and its songs and videos can include taunting and direct mentions of specific murders.

Public conversations around drill have intersected with debates around policing, gun control, and the contagiousness of high-risk behavior in a digital world. As the genre’s popularity grew, a blame game ensued: Mayors declared war on drill, and appointed special units to investigate local acts; award-winning scholars chimed in, joining a chorus of activists who argue that algorithms should share some of the blame.

Whatever one's take, we can agree that the scenes are chilling: A teenager is gunned down on a Monday. By Thursday, the alleged assailants (often members of a group in conflict with the victim) are boasting about their death on a drill song posted on YouTube. By the following Tuesday, affluent teenagers in Beverly Hills are TikTok-dancing to the track. Rinse, rap, repeat. And in this case, another homicide.

What makes drill so unique is in where rapping stands in the structure: Drill can use rap as little more than a messaging canvas for a street conflict. This is unlike the Kendrick-Drake beef. While the conflict may have taken a dark and personal turn, violent threats haven’t (yet) made their way into the barbs. Given the visibility (and maybe ubiquity) of violence in hip-hop conflicts, we should be grateful to the artists for this. And in general, the Kendrick-Drake beef has the ingredients of a classic rap beef: two talented artists, who care about the craft, trying to settle a score over a beat. Yet, it feels so different.

Fans of hip-hop history know the stories of old: That Boogie Down Productions’ “The Bridge Is Over” (1987) was so impactful that, in its aftermath, artists from Queens allegedly had a hard time getting signed. We’ve heard tales of Big Daddy Kane hunting Rakim around New York City in the late 1980s, looking to battle and end the debate around who was the better lyricist. Most of us know the legendary story of a twentysomething Jay-Z battling DMX in the Bronx. The audiences were small, but the stakes were never higher. In those days, many thought hip-hop was just another fad. The artists were battling for their own ego, but also to grow the art form.

In 2024, we find ourselves at an inflection point. Hip-hop is now as mainstream a form of music as any. Today, narratives live and die on digital timelines, and not in project hallways. The stages are no longer sweatbox nightclubs occupied by dozens (like the ones depicted in 2002’s 8 Mile), but rather online spaces with an audience in the billions. The veracity of claims matters less. And more than ever, the size of the narrative is more important than the quality of the product. “Winning” and “losing” mean everything and nothing, depending on what we care about (e.g., even if Drake is “losing” this beef, it will likely cost him little). This all makes conflict so much more intriguing, and drives a distinct flavor of techno-rap beef—one neither better nor worse than the past, just different.

The manner that technology has already changed rap beef begs the question of where it will go next. One day, the taboo around AI in hip-hop will disappear, and entire battles will be orchestrated by LLM-rappers trained on the raps of individual artists. Quants will develop metrics for who the winners are. If we are offended by a lyric about a member of our family, we’ll blame the machines. It may sound like the stuff of science-fiction, but the gap between this future reality and 2024 might be smaller (in time and manner) than the gap between Canibus vs. LL Cool J (1998) and Kendrick vs. Drake.

The state of things highlights another example of the late MF DOOM’s clairvoyance. The sarcastic lyrics on “Beef Rapp” (the lead song from the acclaimed 2004 album Mm..Food) were not only about the past, but also about a present and future of hip-hop where conflict has life-and-death consequences. Early in the song, DOOM scolds our addiction to rap bloodlust, using beef consumption as a metaphor: “I suggest you change your diet; [beef] can lead to high blood pressure if you fry it.”

The world might agree. Soon, rap beef will cease to exist as we once learned to love it. And that may not be a bad thing.