Mailbag #175
/Do you have any tips for spotting AI? I thought you were reaching with Wednesday's post about AI in that magic demo but when Penguin came out and admitted it I realized I'm maybe falling for a lot of it. Anything in particular I should look out for? —NA
I don't really know what to tell you. To me it was obvious the moment I saw it—the way the facial features moved, the voice, etc.
You know, sometimes someone will say, "This diet soda tastes just like regular soda." And I taste it and it tastes chemically, fizzy, sweet piss. I just think some people's senses are attuned differently.
I pick up on AI content really easily, especially in magic or writing—but that's because I perform daily for people and I write professionally. So that's right in my wheelhouse. On the other hand, if you showed me an AI cricket match I'd probably buy it because I've never really seen a real one.
So it was just an immediate recognition. And then on rewatch, specific things stood out to me as strange.
"There's no way you're going to get this." That seems like an odd thing to say. The card is sitting face-up in front of her. He's turned away. He hasn't indicated he's going to try to "get" anything (that's not even the point of the trick). At this point in the routine he's only had her take a card and sign it.
Notice her eyes and facial expressions. They don't line up with looking at someone's back. That's a face that's making eye contact with someone.
Her reaction here is too intense for the trick.
The trick is a card turning over in the deck. At best this should be a fun surprise moment.
This expression is what's known as the "inner brow raiser." It's indicative of shock, but not "fun magic trick" shock. More of, "I forgot the baby in the hot car" shock. There's concern and fear there.
You can get this reaction with magic, but it typically has to be a very intense or personal effect.
AI often gets the magnitude of things wrong. Here it's like, "Oh you want her shocked? Sure thing." And it gives you a woman who looks like she found her husband in bed with her grandfather.
You wanted this 😮 and you got this 😱.
You see this magnitude issue in AI writing as well. People will ask AI to write an ad for their variation on Twisting the Aces, and it's like:
This isn't just a card trick. It's a weapon. This is a rupture in the fabric of what your spectators believe is possible.
One ace turns. Their pupils dilate. Their breath catches. Time itself seems to fold in on the moment.
It's not magic. It's inevitability.
And magic creators are like, "Hmmm… yeah that sounds about right. Let's go with that."
Everything is maximal, nothing is specific, and the actual mechanics or performance conditions of the trick are nowhere to be found—because the "writer" doesn't know what a real reaction looks like, just what "reaction-adjacent language" sounds like.
The truth is, online magic reactions have always been mostly worthless as far as judging a trick goes. Pull out a camera and start filming people's reactions and you're going to get performative reactions. It's actually less embarrassing to go, "Wow! That's incredible!" than to give a real reaction that's underwhelming.
So my point in calling this out was never to be like, "How dare you tarnish our beloved demo reactions with AI!" It was just to make the point that if there’s going to be any value to online demos we at least have to all understand exactly what we’re dealing with.
Just a quick heads up for a potential topic for your blog: As so many people are raving about Reid Ferry’s ‘Trident’, I’m wondering what you think of it. The prop-less version in particular is pretty obvious, isn’t it? I think it’s generous of Reid to post the uncut version on YouTube, but not only me even after showing this to a laymen, they immediately knew what was going on... However, if there would be a way to improve it, it would probably fit to the carefree approach.—SG
I think you should offer a service where you offer a “stamp of approval” for tricks before they come out. I’m tempted to by the new Trident trick but it’s SUCH an investment. And the endorsements just sound like the standard mutual cocksucking of all magic endorsements. I feel like you’re in a good position to confirm if a trick has merit because you’re known in the community but you aren’t ever marketing yourself or wanting people to like you, so you don’t have the “let’s scratch each others backs” thing going on. Think about it. —DA
What the fuck? I want people to like me! Do I come off that misanthropic? Well, to be fair, I don’t particularly care if other magicians like me. So I see your point.
I’ve actually offered a similar service in the past to people who are releasing effects. I don’t think anyone ever took me up on it.
As far a Trident goes, I found the propless version (shown here—five minutes in) pretty obvious. And that’s despite the fact that the demo is edited to hide the process somewhat. But what did you expect? Any truly propless “any word” revelation has to be obvious almost by definition.
I think the version with a business card is stronger (shown here) But if the method I’ve been told for this is accurate, you’re going to have a lot of unhappy people when they get this.
That said, there may be so much more to this than I understand and it may actually be great. But from what I’ve seen and heard, I’m skeptical.
I wanted to share one of my favorite hooks. I usually use it when I know I'll be spending my time with some of my friends that I see often (especially if I know that we will spend some time scrolling away and showing each other funny videos and whatnot). It's basically having a bunch of normal interesting posts saved on Instagram that make for an interesting magic hook...
Also, by having the videos on the saved page on Instagram, you can showcase the video as if you had just stumbled across it while scrolling with a few taps on the video (going down with a few upward swipes after clicking on the saved video, then swiping downward as u look at the reels yourself with the audio on). I find that feeling of spontaneity adds to the fun of the experience for smaller effects compared to "look at this interesting video I saw last week" even though I still love that line if the presentation makes sense for me to use it. —KA
Yeah, this is a goood idea. That style of interaction: “Let’s hang out and look at stuff on our phone and show each other anything interesting we find” is so common and natural these days that using that as an “in” to an effect makes a lot of sense.
I’ll try to remember to mention any good posts that I come across for this purpose. Perhaps it’s time to turn this blog into a similar Instagram.
Until then, you’ll have to find your own useful posts. Which sadly means branching out from the bear-focused balloon fetish content you usually peruse on Instagram.
