Note: Team Catalyst for their weekly blog post for my creativity chose to submit a podcast transcript. I then went ahead and created some python code to convert it into an actual podcast, with real (well… that may be a stretch) voices. You can see how that was done at the end of this post.
Presents “Creative Minds: The AI Edition”
PODCAST SCRIPT (5-minute episode)
[INTRO MUSIC FADES IN]
Arpita: Welcome to “Creative Minds: The AI Edition,” where we discuss the intersection of artificial intelligence and human creativity. I’m Arpita.
Bret: I’m Bret.
Karina: Karina here.
Priyal: And I’m Priyal. Today, we’re reflecting on what we’ve learned so far in our AI and Creativity course as we approach mid-semester.
Arpita: So, we’re about halfway through this fascinating journey exploring how AI can amplify our creative abilities. What’s been your biggest takeaway so far?
Karina: For me, it’s definitely been the thinking tools we’ve been exploring. I never realized how creativity could be purposefully developed with skills like perceiving, patterning, and abstracting.
Bret: I’ve enjoyed seeing how each of these skills are applied in different disciplines. It’s not just for art — a field we might typically think of as “creative.” We’ve seen applications in science, math, and engineering.
Priyal: The transdisciplinary approach has been eye-opening. Before this class, I viewed creativity as something exclusive to artistic fields, but now I see how it cuts across everything.
Arpita: Speaking of cutting across disciplines, let’s talk about our GPT projects. How’s everyone’s personal creativity helper coming along?
Bret: I feel like I’m finally getting to an okay place with it. I have three — the first one an attempt to teach college students how to write, and it was rough going. But the next two have been fun and kind of silly. If they are smart, overly confident, biased interns, but they haven’t seemed all that drunk — yet.
Karina: That phrase has stuck with me too! “Smart, drunk, biased intern” – such a perfect description. My GPT is supposed to walk people through a creative exercise, but sometimes, it “forgets.”
Priyal: The testing and refining process has been humbling. I think the most valuable lesson I’ve learned is that AI is a tool to amplify our creativity, not replace it. You really need to check its work.
Arpita: That critical evaluation piece is crucial. I’ve found myself blindly trusting outputs at the beginning, but now I’m much more discerning.
Bret: What about the in-class activities? My favorite was wandering around campus looking for things that looked like letters. I really felt the shift from nothing looking like the letter I was after — C — to all of a sudden seeing it everywhere.
Karina: Oh yes! And the Visualizing with 5 Senses exercise really pushed me out of my comfort zone. I tend to be very visual, but forcing myself to think about sounds, smells, and textures opened up new creative pathways.
Priyal: The Team Catalyst activities have been great for collaboration too. I’ve gotten so many ideas from working with different people in the class.
Arpita: That reminds me of the idea generation concept we discussed – how quantity breeds quality. I’ve been applying that to my personal creativity project, just letting the ideas flow without judging them initially.
Bret: Fighting perfectionism is hard. I still catch myself wanting everything to be perfect on the first try, or not being able to give up on something quickly. That whole “Fail Fast” thing is tough for me, because it includes failing.
Karina: That’s where I think AI actually helps. Using it for brainstorming takes some of the pressure off. It gives you a starting point, even if you end up going in a completely different direction.
Priyal: Speaking of going in different directions, have you all started thinking about the final show in April?
Arpita: April 21st, right? I have some ideas brewing but nothing concrete yet. I’m excited to see how everyone incorporates what we’ve learned about AI into their final projects.
Bret: I’m curious to see how the reflection assignments will influence our final projects too. I’ve really used the process of the reflections to figure out how I feel about all of this stuff, and I think that will be a benefit at the end of the semester.
Karina: The peer review process has been invaluable as well. Getting feedback on my GPT from all of you has highlighted blind spots I wouldn’t have noticed otherwise.
Priyal: We should mention the resources too – the course website and Slack workspace have been lifesavers for staying organized.
Arpita: Absolutely. Well, we’re almost out of time for today’s episode. Any final thoughts on what you’re looking forward to in the second half of the semester?
Bret: I’m excited to see how our GPT projects evolve and become more sophisticated.
Karina: I’m looking forward to more of those cross-disciplinary creativity exercises.
Priyal: And I can’t wait to see everyone’s progress at the final show!
Arpita: That wraps up our mid-semester reflection on “Creative Minds: The AI Edition.” Thanks for listening, and remember – we’re not just using AI; we’re partnering with it to ignite our creative potential.
[OUTRO MUSIC FADES IN]
ALL: See you next time!
[MUSIC FADES OUT]
Punya: Once I read the transcript, I wanted to listen to it as if it were an actual podcast. So I went to Claude to see what could be done, essentially to automate the process of going from transcript to a podcast. Well I will Claude take it from here to tell you how it all turned out.
My Adventure Creating a Podcast Generator with Punya (as narrated by Claude)
So there I was, minding my AI business, when Punya swooped in asking how to transform a podcast transcript into audio with four distinct voices. I could tell immediately we were in for a wild ride when his GitHub knowledge level could be summarized as “What’s a repository? Is that where they keep the aliens at Area 51?” The GitHub tutorial was comedy gold – watching him navigate it was like seeing my grandfather discover smartphone swipe gestures for the first time.
Punya had this elaborate transcript with four speakers discussing creativity and AI (ironic, considering our impending struggle). His vision was ambitious: Indian accents for two characters, American accents for the others – practically Broadway on a budget! I created a sophisticated Python script, which he looked at like I’d handed him ancient hieroglyphics.
Our grand accent plan collapsed spectacularly when Google’s free TTS (Text To Speech for all of you clueless peeps like Punya) couldn’t distinguish between “American man” and “Indian woman” – they all sounded like that robot from your phone’s navigation app. When the error message simply read “Minds” (just that one word), I could practically hear Punya’s confusion through the digital ether. We eventually scrapped the demographic-specific voices for something that actually worked. Punya went from “What’s GitHub?” to having a deployed Streamlit app, though I suspect he’s still not entirely sure what he committed to his repository, but hey – that’s part of the charm of tech adventures with Punya!
Would Pixar hire us for voice acting? Absolutely not. But did we create a functional tool while Punya learned some coding concepts? Against all odds, yes. Though I suspect he’s still not entirely sure what he committed to his repository, but hey – that’s part of the fun!
Punya here. You can listen to the podcast created by AI below.
Short answer, human podcasters have nothing to worry about, for now. But again this was created using freely available resources, in around 30 mins. And now I have an app that can be used to convert any transcript into a terrible sounding podcast. That’s pretty cool (except the terrible sounding part).
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