Bot News
Robot Rock Critic: Edgy But Accessible

By Brian Proffitt

Sometimes you just have to do something for the fun of it.

This is the concept behind the Robot Rock Critic, an automated critique generator from the Ink Syndicate. Put together by Webmaster John Gorenfield, the Robot Rock Critic "can write an essay on 'The Year in Pop' in less than 15 seconds, running off an ordinary AC adapter," according to the blurb on the Web site.

This kind of tongue in cheek attitude is prevalent throughout the output of the Rock Critic, which takes the user's input of artist, artist gender, and general tone of the review and spits out a review so full of clichés and mixed metaphors, you'd swear it came from Rolling Stone.

Entering my favorite artist into the Rock Critic came up with a funny, yet eerily authentic sounding, review of a fictional album called Greetings, Program:

"...This one's getting a lot of rotation at the office. Imagine the aching swagger of Bob Seger's Night Moves grafted, as if by a mad scientist from the bayou, to the crass hip-hop assault of the No Limit Tank Soldiers, and you haven't come close to describing the sounds on Greetings, Program..."

If you are looking for a point to this bot, one could get philosophical and lament about the rote mechanization of media participants today and how easily simple bots can masquerade as these soulless critics who would not know art if it hit them on the side of the head. One could say that, but one would be taking himself far too seriously.

The long and short of it is, this is simply a bot that does exactly what it sets out to do: amuse you.

Something we all need a bit more of.