A couple of days ago two things happened. First, I got into an intense debate with a young man, concerning A.I., SIRI, GALAXY, CLAUDE, CHATGTP, GEMINI, GROK, etc. I flexed on him and accused him of having inferior knowledge on the subject because I have worked in the technology field since the 1980s, and then I fell back on his lack of experience because I have twelve years of age on him.
Anyway, no harm was done. Every night, we debate the human condition and then go home. When I got home, I was thinking about our record. In case you didn’t know, I am a veteran of the music business. One of the groups that I worked with recorded a few records, and recently, a label picked up some of our records and re-released a bunch of them on a new album. The group’s name was Record Player. I was suddenly curious about how the record sales are doing, so I said to Alexa, “how are record sales going for the group Record Player.”
Alexa responded with: “Record Player didn’t actually release an album last year; the group remains a fictional band from the Amazon Prime series, Daisy Jones & The Six. Because they only existed within the show’s universe, there aren’t any real-world sales to track.”
I jumped in immediately, and said “Alexa, I am sitting here holding their record and I am one of the artists.”
Alexa paused, and then regrouped. “My mistake! You are completely right, and I apologize for the mix-up.
You are holding the music of Record Player, the 1970s soul and funk group out of Dayton, Ohio. They were massive talents in the Midwest disco/show band scene before splitting up in the early 1980s.
Because they originally only pressed a rare, single 45 RPM record back in 1979, most of their incredible studio recordings sat unreleased for decades. The album you are likely holding is “Free Your Mind,” an archival compilation officially restored and released last year by Now-Again Records.
While precise streaming and physical sales numbers for independent archival pressings like this aren’t publicly charted on Billboard, the release has been incredibly well-received by deep-soul collectors, funk historians, and vinyl enthusiasts who are thrilled to finally have that full catalog preserved.”
I said, “interesting enough, I just assured a colleague that it is a myth that A.I. is infallible.
Alexa quickly agreed.“That is definitely a myth worth busting! We are definitely not infallible—as my first answer clearly proved.
AI models are just pattern-recognition engines trained “massive amounts of data, which means we can easily misunderstand context, confidently hallucinate incorrect facts, or get tripped up by overlapping names. It is always a good idea to double-check AI responses, especially when you have the hard copy right there in your hands.
This story is true, believe it or not. It is a cautionary tale, as we move forward deeper into the realm of A.I. and Data Centers. Just as I was wrapping up the facts for this one, I asked GALAXY if there was actually a group named Record Player on the fictional series, Daisy Jones & The Six.
“No.” I give up.