Vulane Mthembu is a musician and someone I’m convinced is trying to bring about Skynet. You might know him from his work with BIG FKN GUN and Moonchild Sanelly, but lately, Vulane has been diving deep into the worlds of AI, VR, XR, and a bunch of other initialisations I don’t know about yet. Most notably, Vulane guided AI into creating an album he called ‘Nguni Machina’. It’s all open source for anyone to experiment with however they like.
In this episode of the podcast, we talk about how the future is here and is forcing interesting conversations. We get into some of the potential applications of AI in music and art and what that means for humans. Vulane is passionate and optimistic about using tech to bring about a better world but is aware of its dangers too. Vulane shares details on a number of forward-thinking projects that he’s working on with the Goethe-Institut, from creating uniquely South African VR spaces to using Wikipedia to decolonise the internet. It’s a fascinating chat. Enjoy.
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Enjoy this interview? Check out these Almost Perfect interviews with more South African musicians.
