AI vs RELIGION: Here's The Problem...

is podcast at grangersmith dot com. You could ask me anything and just like we're sitting in the truck riding together, and I'm gonna answer it hopefully, like like we're just old friends. Now. Randy Travis, which is an old of mine, Randy had a stroke in twoenty and thirteen, I believe, and he lost the ability to speak, which is significant because he has one of the most iconic voices in all of music, this rich, beautiful baritone. He could just carry a tune and everyone loved him and he has

just a massive legacy in country music. Well, this article just came out that now he has a new song out and you might be wondering how if he can't speak. That is because it is AI and it is available now wherever you love to find music, you could find this song, the new Randy Travis song. And there's a video I saw of different country music artist getting interviewed as they're listening to it for the first time. I think col Swindell is crying. You know, it's a really

big deal. And I've listened to it. It sounds exactly like Randy Travis. It's impossible to know otherwise. So here's how they did it. They used a surrogate vocalist, right, someone else saying the entire song. The guy's name is James Dupree. And this helped with phrasing, breath notation. And so Randy Travis's longtime producer used James Dupree, and Randy sitting there the whole time, sitting right next to this

whole to the soundboard. He uses James Dupree and he gets in there behind the vocal and he does behind the microphone. And he doesn't sound like Randy, but I guess he breathes like him or something. I don't know why they picked him. There must be something like that. And Randy's producer is His name is Kyle Lenning, and

he's sitting there with Randy at times Randy's wife. They record the song with a full band, just like they always would have, and they went back into Randy's old catalog and got forty two different dry vocals to create the model. And then once AI knew what this, you know how to sing like Randy, then they put they used James Dupree on this new song and changed James Dupree's voice to Randy's based on the modeling, the forty forty two different modelings. This is wild stuff. I think

I've said this before. I don't know if we've fully thought about the implications for what this is going to mean. I don't know if we thought about what the future of music is going to be. Because people will say, oh, I like Randy, I'll know if it's Randy, and I'll know. First of all, you won't. And second of all, humans, I want you all to think about this. Humans have a a odd quirk that makes us want to like the artificial. You think about artificial, just think about sugar,

a little pink packets. We will eat a pink packet all day long over an apple because it is. It mimics what we like and what we need and magnifies it. That's what those little sweetened load does. We're pretty much beyond the ability for a kid to say I want something sweet and go and get an apple. That's where we are as humans. But you go back in time and you look back on history, and that was an apple was like the dessert. So I think the same

thing's gonna happen with music. I think I think like this Randy Travis song is the beginning, and there's a couple of ways to look at it. One we're gonna look at it like, hey, this is amazing. Randy gets to sing again. Granger. He didn't have a voice, he had a stroke, he lost his voice, and now how sweet is it that he gets to sing again and we all get to enjoy Randy Travis again? How amazing is that? Granger? What could possibly be wrong with this?

This is a way of using AI for the good, right, Okay, yes, sure, sure, I'll agree with that. And by the way, before I get into this, you can get I'm looking at this. You can go and get a you could do this yourself. I don't know what website this is it's probably better if I don't advertise it anyway. But it's in beta testing, and you could get a nine to ninety nine a month subscription or a or a fourteen ninety nine a

month pro subscription. And this is so that you could you could enter your data and so and any song could sound like you. So there's that. But here's the thing about this. The idea of Randy Travis gets to sing again. This is amazing. What we are moving slowly away from is the idea that we are mortals and we have a mortality, and we would rather not think

about our mortality. This is why at funerals, so many times you see the funeral called instead a celebration of life instead of a funeral, because it's like, I don't want to say that word funeral. I don't want to I don't want to think about death, especially with kids

are teenagers. I don't want to think about that. So we're gonna think about a celebration of life and celebrate his life instead of have a funeral that it actually acknowledges that there's been a death, when in reality, death is a in fact, a great reminder that we are mortals and that we need things. When you know that you that we're mortal, and when you know that there is that death is emmittent for all of us, it pushes you towards the Gospel. If you do not think

about that. For instance, if you're like I was on this Bobby Bones podcast last week, if you think, well, I'll just freeze myself and cryo freeze, and then one day in the future they'll be able to saw me and by then they will have been able to have a cure for whatever killed me, and they could bring me back. We're just slowly carving away the idea of mortality,

when in fact we should embrace it. As awful and as horrible as death is, it's not supposed to be like this, and as awful as it is, we should embrace it knowing that eternal life is on the other side of it. And you're like Man Granger, this is a long way from AI vocals, But I think, and

maybe this podcast will be played years from now. I think that we will look back on the pivot when real vocals turned to surrogate AI vocals when and then the next step will be video and you'll be able to watch We kind of already do old dead actors that are now alive get on the screen because of AI. And like I said, we saw this with Kerrie Fisher in Star Wars, right whatever Star Wars. That was when

Princess Leah comes back. She died during the filming of it, and they bring her back and they use an AI version of her, and it looked a little bit phony. Not a lot, but a little bit phony. That's going away. It's gonna you won't be able to tell the difference in someone's look, their moves, their voice. You'll be able to have old dead singers come out with a new album because their their wife has approved it, or their

their grandkids have approved it. Elvis will have a new record, an old producer will go get Elvis's old takes and they'll put it all together. So I think we're heading down a road that's just absolutely crazy. So here's my point. Let's embrace our own mortality. Let's embrace the fact that we are dying every day. As we listen to this podcast, as I'm speaking it, we are all of us slowly

dying in a way, and that's not depressing. Actually, that's part of the reality of death and the depressing thing is to push that away and say I'm not dying. I'm I'm I'm gonna use fake hair color, I'm gonna use fake skins cream, I'm gonna I'm gonna use botox or whatever to make me further away from looking like I'm getting old, because God forbid I should look old,

because that would let people know that I'm actually dying. Instead, let's let's embrace this and along with AI, we need to know what to say about it and how to stand for it. And if you want to listen to Randy Travis's song and smile, great, that that's not what my point is. My point is we do need to be careful that slowly but surely, our mortality is being taken away from us. Hey, if you want to get a hold of me, an easy way to do that

is cameo dot com slash Granger Smith. You could have me make you a video message right here on my phone to your phone. You could have me say happy birthday or happy innerversary, or some kind of word of encouragement, whatever that might be. I'm here for you. It's super easy. Or you could download the Cameo app and search for me. Granger Smith once again. That is Cameo C A M. Eo dot com slash Grangersmith. All right, we're gonna answer some questions from you guys. If you have a question

from me, email podcast at grangersmith dot com. I'll answer anything you want. We can talk about life, love, the Bible, whatever that might be. Again, that's podcast at grangersmith dot com. The first question here says granger who is the coolest country artist you got to see? I'm assuming that comes from John and I'm assuming you mean like out on

tour or not. Not as in my teenage years when I was following George straight everywhere, you know what, it'd probably be appropriate on this podcast, on this episode to say Randy Travis. I did get to see Randy a couple three four years ago something like that at one of the award shows, and I don't remember which one.

They kind of all roll into each other in my mind, but there was a time I think I sang something from Randy, an old Randy song on Instagram or something like that, and somebody saw it on Randy's team and at the award show they came and got me out of my seat and they said, hey, Randy, wants to say hi to you. I was like, WHOA, yeah, that sounds amazing. So I went back stage and there he was in his wheelchair with his wife, and so we got to hang out. We didn't have we didn't have

much of a conversation, as you can imagine. I did talk to his wife for quite a bit, and Randy is I don't know why this podcast ended up being about Randy Travis, but there he was foundational in so many ways for me and as I was getting started in country music. So yeah, just for the I think for cohesive podcast, let's let's go with that answer. Next question comes from Nick. This is hay Gunder. My name is Nick from Ohio. I've been a fan of your music and podcast. I would love your viewpoint on a

difficult situation I find myself in. I was dating a woman and recently got broken up with the issue I cannot seem to grasp is the why there were no real red flags as people would say. She claims she just lost interest by being overwhelmed with the purchase of her new home. For a background, I haven't dated in over six years prior to her, I quit looking for someone. I just wanted to find the right one. It says I was raised and a raised a Christian, but along

the way lost some faith. But out of the blue is natural and genuine of a connection as I've ever had. This woman walked into my life. She got me back into church believing again, helped me get back into the gym, eating right, and vice versa. I helped her with her struggles. I do believe that God sent me this woman. I am struggling to understand how a connection could be so pure and just vanish. I've been praying for God to give her the strength to overcome her battles of being overwhelmed.

Any advice or thoughts on this on why I believe God connected us and had such a powerful and well rounded relationship and now it's just gone. Thanks keep up all the inspiring and meaningful work that you do. Thanks Nick. All right, Nick, let's dive into this. There are there's a lot to talk about here, and you man, thank you for emailing shout out to Ohio, Love Ohio. But what we need to get into is that this whole

you know, I love you man. You know this is tough love, right, We we got to get into this whole. Why you think you're convinced God gave you this woman, because that is scary and it's just creepy because when you go around thinking, hey, God sent me you, and you better fulfill this because you're if you go against this, you're going against God himself. And I know that he sent you to me. That's that's psychotic in the in the easiest lightest way that I could say psychotic. That's

that's really scary. And I think, Nick, I don't think this is really you talking. I think this is the heartbroke version of you talking. I think this is this is the Nick that says I'm desperate, I'll do anything, and you're just love of drunk. Okay, when a girl breaks up with you like this, you have to let her go. That's the only way. Otherwise you can get arrested for doing things that you're saying right here? Does that make sense? The fact that here's where the contradiction happens.

It says, I lost faith, right, and then out of the blue, she comes into my life. She brought all this faith back. She helped you get back into church, she helped you believing again, she helped you get back into the gym, eating right, and you helped her with the struggles on it, it doesn't sound like it. I don't believe you. I don't believe that you lost faith and now you're believing again, because if you were, you would say this, it would sound like this. Granger. I think

she's a special girl. But I have learned to trust God, and I've learned that God is sovereign, that God is providential. And although this is not working out, I'm not struggling to understand why God sent me this. Instead, I know that God is preparing me for something greater. Here's your last sentence. I have been praying for God to give her the strength to overcome her battles of being overwhelmed,

but you've got to reverse that. Instead, say God, give me give me the strength to see what you have for me. Let me love you in a way that just overshadows any girl, or any job, or being back in the gym, or even being in a church. Let me love you in a way that is so special that I start there. I start with you. And then, instead of saying give her the strength to overcome her battles,

say Lord, you've brought struggles into my life. Give me the strength to embrace the struggles as something that's actually going to grow my care. That's something that's going to actually grow my heart for you, therefore making me better for the next person that comes into my life. Right, you will be better nick for this because of what you learn from it and how you suffer through this.

This is just good old fashioned heartbreak. And you can't sound psycho by saying God sent me this woman, and I'm trying to trying to desperately pray that God changes her mind. Instead say God, she's gone, And so I pray that you gave me the strength to see what your plan is in this, and in the meantime growing my character through this suffering so that by the next time I meet a girl, I will be ready and

I'll be better for her because of this. Next question comes from Justin says, Hey, Granger, what advice would you give parents dealing with the death of a teenager who died of suicide? Something that would help his older brother, mother and me his father. Justin, I'm sorry, buddy, I actually didn't expect that this is h That's that's how your question would turn out, that you would be in it.

You would be the father. I'm I'm I'm imagining probably there is a there's a sense of grief mixed with guilt that you feel like you're a failed father because of the suicide and because you didn't provide this is I'm I'm imagining your thinking that because you didn't provide a home that made him, that nurtured him in a way to prevent something like this, then you're gonna blame yourself for it. So with me, it's it's not the same.

But through my loss of a child and through my guilt of not being there for River, which is not too different. It's different, but it's the same. I want to tell you, justin to reject the world that constantly tells you it's not your fault. Justin, it's not your fault. You are a good father, You are sufficient in all that you do. You shouldn't blame yourself. Now, it gets tricky because it's not necessarily sin that whatever you did ended up the end of the story as your son

committed suicide. And it's not necessarily a sin that whatever happened to me at the end of the story, River ended up drowning. But regardless of that, it's important for us to know in contrast to the Gospel of Jesus that the the world tells us You're not guilty, you are sufficient, you are a good father. The Gospel is the only story, the only situation, the only news where Jesus says, yes, you are, you are guilty, you are insufficient.

Look to me. I make you sufficient, not because of what you do, but through my work on the Cross. For you trust in me, lean on me, have faith in me. I make you clean, I make you restored. I adopt you as a as a son. Ransomed I was thinking about this. I'm reading this book called Empire the Summer Moon, and it's an incredible story about the Comanche Indians in Texas, where I live, and some of those stories that happen right around where I live, which

is why partly why it's so interesting. But there is a there are several times I've thought about this, and there's one specific time when the Indians came in to San Antonio and they it was a band of them, They had forty or fifty of them together, and they would kidnap the settler girls. Because they would kidnap they wouldn't kidnap the boys or the men. They would just kill them, but they would kidnap the women and the little girls, and they would do all kinds of horrible

things to these girls. For instance, they would cut off their nose and then burn the end of it with fire, and what they would do, and then their whole body which is covered in marks and cuts. And they would march these girls into the settlement, the Texas settlement, and they would sell the girl. And although of course that had value to it to the settlers, there was this one instance in San Antonio where they were marching this girl in and she's missing a nose and her face

is burned. The only her nostrils are just two holes in the front of her face, and she has cuts all over her and she's been sexually violated, and she's less than a human really to them, to to all all people, including the Indians, she's less than human in appearance.

And they would come in and the Indians would sell these girls, and sometimes they would be they would be they would be purchased by the settlers, even by their own family, but there was never really a future in it for the girls because they were, you know, violated, and there they were ugly, and they were cut and marred and and they couldn't ever have children, they were just kind of worthless, and they would sell them, and

that the Indians would leave. And I got I really got to thinking about this as I was reading that book. As awful as it sounds, I started thinking, Wow, that's us. We are the girl. We are the what appears to be a less than human girl, with our normal human functions taken away from us. We're marred so badly that we look like a monster. And we get marched in by the enemy to the village, and Jesus says, mine, I take this one. I purchased this one with my blood.

This one's mine adopted. I take this one, and I share the heir to the kingdom with this one, co heirs to the kingdom by mine divine right. And in me adopting you, you become a co heir to the kingdom. That is us. We are the girl, We are the less than human sight. Jesus says, you're mine. So justin when you feel that guilt, and when the world says, don't feel guilty. You are a great. Dad. I want you and said to think of yourself as the girl being marched into San Antonio. And I want you to

think of Jesus saying, justin you were mine. I make you clean, I restore you, I heal you, I give back everything you've lost. You were mine. I want you to think of it in that way, and that is the only story you will hear period that actually changes things for you. Next question comes from Jet and it says, hey, and your My name is Jet, I'm from Kansas. I'm nineteen years old, and I'm a career firefighter. I wanted to ask you your opinion on if I jumped into

life too soon. I feel like I never got to experience life to the fullest when I got this job. Should I be more adventurous? I need suggestions, all right, nineteen years old jumping into a career is not something that is crazy. I mean, this is something that has happened since the beginning of time until now. It's the only time here in this latest generation where we actually think, I don't know if I got all this living life to the fullest stuff out of my system, you know

what I mean. It's like forever, people just took a career and they worked it. They worked their butt off in that career, and they retired in that career and people said how long you've been a firefighter, and they would say thirty seven years, retiring next May or whatever. But we live in a world now, in Instagram world where you look at TikTok and you look at Instagram and you go, hmm, I think there might be more

out there for me, because I'm looking. I'm scrolling through all these people and they look to be really happy, and they look like they're doing things that looks like they're living life to the fullest. And I'm wondering if maybe I jumped into a job too soon, And I'm wondering if that's gonna catch up with me one day and I'm gonna get in trouble by this. I should be more adventurous, I should be a little more dangerous. I don't think I got that out of my system.

So I'm not saying that what you're feeling is wrong. I'm saying it's interesting that we live in a generation where you look on social media, you look on YouTube, you see Matt Character, you see Lungers TV. You see Western Champlain fishing, blowing up stuff and putting diesel engines in Ford Mustangs, and you go, man, that's the life. That's living adventurous, and here I go out here fighting fires, which most of the world thinks that is that's adventurous.

So the first thing I want to say Jet is I just want to relax you a little bit and just go, hey, man, we need to learn how to be content in the situation we're in. Maybe you won't be a firefighter forever, but you did jump into this, and this is your career. And I don't think you would have gotten into this career because I get plenty of emails on this podcast about people wanting to be

a fireman and something happened where they can't. So I do want to point out that a lot of people can't do what you're doing and you have it, and there's something you're missing. There's something else out there that's that feeling. It's like that you two song I still haven't found what I'm looking for. You should listen to that song. I still haven't found what I'm looking for. There is something in this world that tells us, in our own conscience, that tells us there's more to this.

What is it? This feels I don't know. It feels temporary. It feels like this home is just not my forever home. I can't seem to get happy with where I am. And I promise you, Yet you move into something else, or you take a year off and you go do adventurous things, You're still going to have the same problems. You're still going to have the same anxieties, and you're still gonna say, just like you two, I still haven't

found what I'm looking for. And so I would suggest to you that maybe it has nothing to do with a career. Maybe it's this is far bigger than a career. Maybe you maybe you were created for a purpose that's bigger than any of this, Bigger than a firefighter, bigger, bigger than breaking away and just being adventurous. You're getting a new job, meeting a girl. Oh man, I think I think I'm not living life to the fullest because

I haven't met the right girl yet. And then you do, and then you go, you know, I think it's because we don't have kids. We need we need kids to feel complete. And then and then you have kids, and you go, I think I think it was that we needed a house with some land. If we only had a little bit of land, things will be good. Throw the football in the backyard and you get the land and you go, yeah, I think we need like a boat or something, you know, to get out on the

on the lake where it's always something else. If if you're looking to the temper jet, then you're you're you're never going to be satisfied because we are made for more than this world. I want to want to you to think about that. I'm gonna do a bad quote on this. C. S. Lewis famously said, ducklings swim, meaning there must be such thing as water. Babies suck, which

means there must be such thing as milk. And man has something outside of this world that that it's it's yearning for, meaning there must be something outside of this world. That's a bad quote, but that's basically the idea. You are longing for something that this world cannot satisfy, meaning there must be something outside of this world. Be thinking about that jet and I could tell you that contentment will flow from that, not from your career or lack of a career as a fireman. I love you guys.

If you want to ask me something, do it please. Granger Excuse Me podcast at grangersmith dot com. That's my email, Just me today, I plan on. I actually had some plans for some more guys coming soon, so we'll continue to wrestle through these certain topics and then answer your questions. All coming up and I'm glad you're here. We'll see you next Monday. Thanks for joining me on the Grangersmith Podcast. I appreciate all of you guys. You could help me

out by rating this podcast on iTunes. If you're on YouTube, subscribe to this channel, hit that little like button and notification spell so that you never miss anytime I upload a video. If you have a question for me that you would like me to answer, email Graingersmith Podcast at gmail dot com. Yi