An Argument for and Against AI

Over the past several years, I've worked in two businesses that leverage AI in one form or another to solve customer challenges. I'm keenly interested in the debate over the technology's utility, impact, and future, and I'm more informed than most on the topic. Some people that think AI is a technological panacea that'll usher the species into a lasting era of bliss. Others believe AI will be cause the end of humanity. And at the moment, it's wildly overhyped by people who have an vested interest in the technology's success, which is a real problem.

The truth, as is so often the case, lies in the middle. AI is a tool. It can be very useful. It can also lead to some very mediocre if not downright stupid outcomes. 

Case in point, the rest of this blog, in which I'll illustrate the useful and the mid over the course of one recent interaction with Claude.

I was curious about whether I could use AI to help plan a road trip. In this case, a month-long tour of the country centered around seeing musicians I like in smallish venues in smallish cities/towns. I started my exploration by offering Claude the following prompt:

"i am a big fan of singer-songerwriter musical acts, like rhett miller, andrew duhon, jeff tweedy, jay farrar, cat power, carbon leaf, brandi carlile, tyler childers, noah kahan, waxahatchee, avett brothers, haim, etc. i'd like to take the month of november and tour the united states and listen to live music."

please create an itinerary for my that starts and ends in northern virginia that allows me to see artists live in mid-sized or small cities across america. make sure i spend at least two nights in each location and get to see at least one live performance. the venues should be small to mid-sized, as well."

It took me four or five iterations and refinements to get to an itinerary that I liked. After I'd reached that point, I asked Claude to, "synopsize this entire series of prompts and responses as a blog post, using the tone of voice of gheorghe: the blog (https://gheorghe77.blogspot.com/). make the itinerary the last thing in the post."

What follows is Claude/Gheorghe's response - my reactions will follow in italics:

So I've got this problem, and the problem is that I like exactly one genre of music with the burning intensity of a thousand suns, and that genre is "sad and/or earnest people with acoustic guitars," and the sub-problem is that the specific practitioners of this genre I love most — your Rhett Millers, your Tyler Childerses, your Waxahatchees, your Carbon Leafs (Leaves? the Carbon Leaf discography?) — do not, as a rule, play the Xfinity Center. They play rooms that hold four hundred people and smell vaguely like spilled Yuengling. Which is exactly how I like it, but it does mean that "catching a show" requires actual research, unlike, say, Taylor Swift, whose tour schedule you could find by asking a golden retriever.

Okay, so this is...decent. Not sure why Claude thinks I only like one genre of music. The voice is an amalgamation of Gheorghies. I definitely spy some OBX Daveish stylings in the mix.

Naturally, since I am both lazy and a person living in the Year of Our Lord 2026, I asked an AI to plan me a month-long, coast-spanning music pilgrimage instead of doing it myself like some kind of caveman with a road atlas. What followed was four entire drafts of a road trip, escalating in ambition and geographic absurdity, and I feel like you should get to enjoy the ride too, because honestly it was a journey (pun very much intended, I regret nothing).

Again, solid. A little try-hard, if I'm being honest. I hope we don't sound like that.

**Round one: November, start/end in Northern Virginia.** Reasonable ask, I thought. Big loop through Richmond, Asheville, Athens, Nashville, New Orleans, Austin, Memphis, Louisville, Knoxville, back home. Charming. Comprehensive. Almost entirely make-believe, as it turned out, because — and this is a very "living in the future" kind of problem to have — none of my guys had actually announced November tour dates yet. Not one. The robot did its diligence, came back, and basically said "I built you a lovely map of vibes but the actual bands part is aspirational." Respect for the honesty, mild personal humiliation for me.

The quotations around things that don't require quotations are starting to pile up. Some em dashes in there, but that's actually on brand.

**Round two: same request, but October instead**, because October is closer and therefore bands might have gotten around to telling anyone where they're playing. This is where things got good. Turns out Jason Isbell is doing a three-night stand at the Ryman. Turns out Old Crow Medicine Show is rolling through small-town Pennsylvania. Turns out Jeff Tweedy is doing a solo lap through Ohio with his kid's band opening. Carbon Leaf — a Virginia band, mind you — is out in Kansas City and Chicago being Virginian at people. Real dates. Real, bookable, small-venue shows. I felt like a guy who'd been handed an actual treasure map instead of a napkin drawing.

"Real dates. Real, bookable, small-venue shows." is an AI tell - one of the first in the text thus far.

**Round three: forget the loop, start on the West Coast and work back home.** This is where the trip stopped being "a nice drive" and started being "a bit."  It turned out Iron & Wine — not on my original list, but close enough in spirit that I'm retroactively adopting him — is doing a whole honest-to-god coast-to-coast October tour, Seattle to South Carolina, and I basically hitched my itinerary to his tour bus like a barnacle. Which was efficient! It was also, in retrospect, a little much — I looked at the finished draft and realized I'd built a road trip that was 70% one guy's calendar. Bold move for a project explicitly premised on my loving lots of different artists.

The analysis part of this segment was pretty dumb, if we're being honest. And again with the extraneous quotations.

**Round four, the correction: no more than two shows per artist, please.** This is the "actually think about what you're doing" round, and it's the one that stuck. Rebuilt the whole thing with real variety — Carbon Leaf, Andrew Duhon, Iron & Wine, Shovels & Rope — capped at two apiece, no single act allowed to hog the whole trip like it's their solo project. There were still a couple of honest gaps (sorry, Asheville) where nobody's calendar cooperated.

Fine. No complaints.

**Round five: "I'll fly for anything over 400 miles," I said,** like some kind of aristocrat, and this single sentence fixed everything. Suddenly the Isbell/Ryman residency — previously geographically impossible without a week of pure interstate suffering — fit right into the middle of the trip. Memphis, which had been sitting there as a sad empty stop with no band attached, got adopted by an Iron & Wine date that the flights made reachable. Turns out the solution to "my itinerary doesn't make sense" was, the whole time, "money," which, yeah, tracks.

So here's where we landed. Five artists, capped at two shows each, three flights for the genuinely brutal legs, and a route that goes from a Virginia band playing a Seattle dive bar clear across the country back to actual Virginia. I did not confirm any of this personally, so don't yell at me if Carbon Leaf cancels — yell at the robot, or better yet, yell at Ticketmaster, the true villain in every version of this story.

Closing stronger that we opened, for sure.

---

Five artists, no repeats beyond two apiece, one month, roughly forty thousand emotional dollars in gas and airfare. Wager accordingly.

The last bit doesn't make a ton of sense. Forty thousand should be a number, not text. I don't know what emotional dollars are. Meh.

To sum up, I think the final product - the itinerary - is quite good, and something that would've taken me or any other human a long, frustrating time. That's a good use of the technology. The writing is okay, and if you weren't picky about your words, you might be okay with it. That's lame if you're looking for a shortcut for a term paper or a training manual, and it's dangerous - at least professionally - if you're putting together a legal brief or an op-ed. Or targeting attacks on Iranian schools.

I happen to be picky about my words, as I suspect most of us are, so this isn't good enough for me. It lacks a bit of heart, even as Claude tried to emulate our tone. And there are bits of off-sounding language that sours the whole thing for me as a reader. In the end, I think AI's ability to fake human writing is a technological marvel, but it's not nearly the most interesting nor I think enduring capability AI has. That comes from its ability to synthesize and make sense of massive amounts of information, draw inferences, and generate logical data quickly, and reasonably accurately. 

Frankly, that's good enough to be really compelling. Shame the foofs that have a stake in AI's success can't just focus on that instead of moonshot claims about rendering human work redundant.

The Best of Us

There are a million different things we could say about Dolly Parton. We could emphasize her kindness, her humanitarian efforts (she fucking helped fund the development of the Moderna COVID vaccine!*), her authenticity, her acting, her self-awareness, her loyalty to her husband and her roots, her genuine affection, her ability to laugh at herself and with others, her damn near singular manner of embracing her sexuality on her terms and not the culture's - especially given the era she came to prominence in, her songwriting, her...all of it. Absolutely one of a kind, and the universal outpouring of love for her in the wake of her passing will not be matched in my lifetime.

(* Apologies for cursing, ma'am.)

And there are a million different pieces that have and will be written about the indelible mark she left on our world. I'd rather spend time reading those than trying to find a new angle. 

One of the most interesting things I've seen since she left us this week is directly connected to the thing we knew her for first. The number and diversity of the artists that have honored her with their live performances over the past few days is remarkable. She touched performers from Eminem to Brandi Carlile and so many beyond that, famous and not. Here are just a very few of the musicians that made time to remember one of one:

I mean, Pitbull loved Dolly!

Jack White's been performing Jolene for years. Here he was the night after she passed.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by SPIN (@spinmag)

The everlovin' Bands of His Majesty's Royal Marines, for goodness' sake.

The Avett Brothers were probably a good bet.

@avettbros The Avett Brothers perform a mashup of Dolly Parton’s “I Will Always Love You” and “Pretty Girl from Annapolis” at their show last night. 🦋 #dollyparton #dolly #avettbrothers #livemusic #cover ♬ original sound - The Avett Brothers

But I don't that anyone other than Dooger would've guess Amyl and the Sniffers loved her.

Amyl and the Sniffers pay tribute to Dolly Parton at their show in Dublin: "I f**king love Dolly Parton so much" 🤘

🤳: danleith_comedy pic.twitter.com/BrujVYltXS

— Far Out Magazine (@FarOutMag) August 26, 2026

Gheorghasbord

Truly a wide range of cultural flotsam that's tickled my fancy and/or given me cause for consideration over the past week or so. From sports to music to current political events, as always, we span the globe to keep you entertained.

I mentioned the kerfuffle the Sullivan brothers of the MLS Philadelphia Union got into against Inter Miami a few days ago. I told you to find the video. I know you, so I'm sure you didn't. So here it is. You'll see Quinn Sullivan (the older of the brothers at 22) get disrespected by Miami defender Ian Fray (Fray put his nuts on Sullivan's head) and respond with a textbook bodyslam. Cavan Sullivan (potentially the best 16 year-old male player the U.S. has ever developed) rushes to his brother's aid and squares up with Miami's much-taller Yannick Bright. Holds his own, too.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by TSN (@tsn_official)

There's actually a G:TB connection here, tenuous though it may be. Quinn Sullivan has dated a girl who grew up in my neighborhood for several years. My wife and I are good friends with her mom. She played at Radford and did a year as a graduate transfer at the University of New Hampshire. Where she met and became friends with...Yannick Bright. Small world, y'all.

Also, remember the name Cavan Sullivan. He's contributing significantly to Philly's attack this season, with six goals and nine assists in 25 matches across all competitions. Despite the fact that he's 5'7" and 150 pounds, he's tough and strong and unafraid to mix it up with older and stronger men. He's been under contract with Manchester City since he was 14, and will almost certainly head to Europe when he's old enough for the appropriate visa. Says here he'll be a USMNT mainstay for the next 15 years.

Speaking of balls, which we were, at least obliquely, check out this scene from a recent Kacey Musgraves concert:

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Tomás Mier (@tomas_mier)

And veering wildly from the ridiculous to the profound, I commend to your attention New York Times columnist Jamelle Bouie. The Virginia Beach-born, UVA-educated (nobody's perfect) is one of the clearest thinkers and writers about the current American moment. He writes a great deal about the politics of race and culture, but he's good on a wide range of topics. This video essay offers typically-thoughtful advice to the Democratic Party should it find itself in the majority in Congress after November's midterm elections. I sure hope the party leadership is listening.

NFL Grind, With International Flair

The Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy starter kit, otherwise known as the NFL regular season, fast approaches, so let’s visit The Shield’s efforts to simultaneously grow the game and to protect the disposable bipeds, excuse me, the valued human beings that fuel the American sports colossus. 

Commish Roger Goodell recently told a German media outlet that “at some point there will be NFL teams outside the USA. I have no doubt that this will happen one day.” The NFL has played international games for decades and will continue this season with nine games outside the border, beginning with L.A. Rams-San Francisco on Sept. 10 in Melbourne, Australia. Three games are scheduled for London, and there will be games in Rio de Janeiro, Paris, Madrid, Munich and Mexico City. 

Now, when Goodell says “outside the USA,” he doesn’t mean Mexico City and Montreal, he’s thinking Europe. He previously said that he believes London can be home to two franchises. Indeed, the city has hosted 42 games since 2007. The games have been well-received, with last year’s Rams-Jacksonville Jaguars game at Wembley Stadium drawing 86,000 fans and two games at Tottenham Hotspur’s comparatively smaller joint attracting more than 61,000. 

There are beaucoup issues with planting an NFL team flag across the pond. Start with the two biggest questions: Where would they play? And why would one assume that civic interest in occasional NFL games means that it’s sustainable over entire seasons and many years, particularly in places with no historical ties to American football? The NFL stages international games in big soccer stadiums, borrowing the facilities when they aren’t being used or when the home club is on the road. That arrangement is untenable for an entire season, so any transplanted or expansion NFL franchise will need, and probably demand, a dedicated stadium and training facility. 

NFL owners’ practice of extorting sweetheart deals that benefit them is unlikely to go over well on foreign soil (“We’re on the hook for how much? For a stadium that’ll be used nine or ten times a year? Sounds like bollocks to me, mate.”). Logistics concerns are real for a potential foreign franchise. Could a team based outside the U.S. retain players or attract free agents? What about the tax structure overseas? How would that impact player salaries and compensation? Flights across the Atlantic become onerous. There’s a five-hour time difference between London and the East Coast, eight hours – a full sleep cycle – between the U.K. and the West Coast. That kind of regular disruption would be an extra stressor to players and certainly affect performance. 

Speaking of added stress, all this talk of international franchises comes on the heels of adding a 17th game, with an 18th game all but assured within the next few years and little more than lip service about the effects on players’ health. Goodell and NFL brass routinely yammer about how player safety is a top priority, but their actions often say otherwise. Yes, the league now penalizes targeting and headhunting and has outlawed certain kinds of blocks deemed dangerous. Kickoffs have been tweaked and re-tweaked to reduce the battering-ram collisions on those plays. Concussions and head trauma are now taken more seriously, but remember that the league had to be dragged into that position after denying a connection between the game’s violence and brain issues for years. It took some high-profile deaths and diagnoses, along with dogged individual medical researchers, to finally get the league to acknowledge the problem. 

Rest and recovery are vital for player health, but you wouldn’t know it to look at the schedule. Twenty-four of the 32 teams have at least one stretch where they play two games within four or five days. Twenty-two teams have at least one stretch where they’ll play three games in 12 days. Eleven teams have multiple stretches in which they play 3-in-12. Denver and Green Bay have three stretches in which they play three games in 12 days, while Chicago has two 3-in-12 stretches and one in which it plays three games in 13 days. A slew of games at the end of the season are designated as TBA for dates and times, owing to attractive matchups and potential playoff bearings, but that will also affect recovery and quality of play. It all but guarantees that injuries will have an outsized impact and that many teams won’t play close to their best at the end of the season. 

One logical fix is to lengthen the season, not to add more games but more byes and off time and to get closer to the one-game-per-week routine that would give players a fighting chance to stay healthy or to recover and contribute. But instead, we get the inevitable march toward 18 games, Patriots owner Robert Kraft floating the idea of 16 international games per year with every team participating and the accompanying flights and disruption, and a schedule that puts greater emphasis on exposure and not player health and safety. Wager accordingly.

Yet More Definitive Footy Takes

You got the kit takes, and on the first day of the 2026-27 Premier League season (Holders Arsenal host newcomers Coventry City at 3:00, live on USA), you get another definitive analysis. I offer you the GTB vibes-based Premier League predicted order of finish.

First, a few opinions from the experts:

Opta is a analytical outfit that uses data to model predicted outcomes. Here's their take.

Three of NBC's pundits offer their opinion.

Finally, the BBC weighs in here.

I crunched the numbers to see how our vibes compared with the experts, and a few things stood out.

In this view, the higher the number, the better the expected finish. 20 for first, 19 for second, down to 1 for 20th and last. 

We are more bullish than the experts about Liverpool, Leeds, Sunderland, and Fulham (not saying much - the experts are not high on the Cottagers) and generally more bearish about Man City (we're right on this one, hear me now and believe me later), Forest, and Newcastle. And now we've got a way to track our gut. Game on!

GTB's Definitive Review of the 2026-27 EPL Kits

At the time of posting, we're fewer than 36 hours away from the start of a new Premier League season. One of the league's traditional preseason activities (in addition to exhibition games/money grabs in places far from the UK and Chelsea overpaying for middling talent) is the release of new kit designs. Which, come to think of it, is also a money grab.

ESPN has helpfully catalogued and ranked all of this season's new looks so you can judge their relative attractiveness (or lack thereof) for yourselves. But we're here to serve, so if you don't have that much time, allow us to tell you what's Good, Meh, and Ugly.

The Good

Sunderland were surprisingly frisky last season after being promoted from the Championship. The Black Cats took some major scalps early in the campaign, and wound up in 7th place, good for a Europa League spot. They celebrated by dropping a pair of sweet kits:

ESPN ranks their away kit as the very best of the new season's offerings. I like it, too.

But don't sleep on the update to their classic home togs, which are an homage to the club's 1937 FA Cup winners, and feature a ton of vintage details:

Coventry make their first return to the Premier League since the 2000-01 season. They were in the fourth division as recently as 2014. They're headed back up wearing a sweet home getup:

Crystal Palace has punched above its weight the past few seasons, winning the FA Cup and the UEFA Conference League. They've always had a sharp kit featuring diagonal red and blue stripes, and they've modernized it a bit this year:

Some observers don't like Brighton's away kits, claiming they're too bland. Those people are wrong. These are really clean:

The Meh

Adidas has done this thing recently where they leave a cap in the three stripes markings that run down the sleeves, probably to fit in more sponsorship logos. Let us go on record as disliking it - see Fulham's fairly unambitious home kit as an example of the form:

Chelsea is a mess in a lot of ways (though I expect them to be pretty competitive on the pitch under new manager Xabi Alonso). Their home kit design seems to be a complete afterthought.

A bunch of clubs, including the aforementioned Fulham, are basically running back the same home kits they've used for a while now. So don't expect anything interesting from Arsenal, Spurs, Manchester United, Bournemouth, and several others.

Everton is a blue club, just like Chelsea, and they didn't break any new ground, either, but I do like the little splash of yellow on the collar.

The Ugly

With due respect to our man Marls, Newcastle's home kit is a nice try, but a bizarre execution:

Hull City is newly promoted. Let's hope they play better than they design kits.

I generally like Leeds United's kits, but someone should've thought about how this season's home kit would look when the sponsor's logo was applied:

And finally, for good reason, Spurs seem to understand that their home kit is fairly standard, so they went for it with their away togs. They should not have done so.

Check out the rest at the ESPN link. There are some decent kits out there and some other fairly boring efforts. Tell us how we did.

Dog Days