*By Max Godnick*
Alexa, be funnier.
That's the directive Amazon seems to want its tech to follow with its investment in [Botnik](http://botnik.org/), a studio that uses predictive text algorithms to make original comedic content with remixed language.
"I think that Alexa would be wise to use as much of our technology as she can," founder and CEO, Jamie Brew said Wednesday in an interview on Cheddar.
The concept for Botnik is based on that of a smartphone's auto-fill feature: using software to predict what users might want to type next.
Brew said that he noticed phones were only using the software in a "really narrow context," limited to the dry syntax typically used in texts and e-mails.
"What if you could do that for everything, and what if you can do that for art?" he asked.
So, instead of anticipating a texter's conversation, Botnik synthesizes certain primary sources ー ["Seinfeld" scripts](http://botnik.org/content/seinfeld-1.html), [Tinder profiles](http://botnik.org/content/tingle-tinders.html) and even ["Fortnite"](http://botnik.org/content/fortnite.html) ー and issues recommendations to its team of in-house human writers. In this case, the human element is just as important as the mechanical one.
"The creations of our writers and users are the result of people collaborating with machines, not machines running on their own," Brew said in an email to Cheddar.
Brew ー formerly of The Onion and its provocative, Buzzfeed-esque offshoot ClickHole ー and his team just released its first [music video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BtybvwLJC30), with lyrics entirely based on Morrissey songs and Amazon reviews for the fitness program "P90X." The humans at Botnik selected which predicted lyrics were funniest, and then composed an original melody.
"We saw that these were two of the best text sources that we could find in the entire world," Brew said.
The unlikely pairing generated wistful lyrical gems like: "Will I be a wonderful shape after completing P90X?" and "I've gotten bored with this desire to get ripped."
Botnik Studios even worked its magic on Cheddar's own content. After analyzing the transcripts of a week's worth of our news scripts, Brew and his collaborators (both human and machine) shared a warped take on the news.
Brew said that Botnik Studios is not working on any Alexa-specific collaborations at the moment, but his still-young company expects to have "all sorts of" partnerships in the future.
For full interview [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/predictive-text-an-algorithm-for-laughs).
Joe Cecela, Dream Exchange CEO, explains how they are aiming to form the first minority-controlled company to operate an exchange in U.S. history. Watch!
A Michigan judge is putting sponges in the hands of shoplifters and ordering them to wash cars in a Walmart parking lot when spring weather arrives. Genesee County Judge Jeffrey Clothier hopes the unusual form of community service discourages people from stealing from Walmart. The judge also wants to reward shoppers with free car washes. Clothier says he began ordering “Walmart wash” sentences this week for shoplifting at the store in Grand Blanc Township. He believes 75 to 100 people eventually will be ordered to wash cars this spring. Clothier says he will be washing cars alongside them when the time comes.
The State Department had been in talks with Elon Musk’s Tesla company to buy armored electric vehicles, but the plans have been put on hold by the Trump administration after reports emerged about a potential $400 million purchase. A State Department spokesperson said the electric car company owned by Musk was the only one that expressed interest back in May 2024. The deal with Tesla was only in its planning phases but it was forecast to be the largest contract of the year. It shows how some of his wealth has come and was still expected to come from taxpayers.
At 100 years old, the Goodyear Blimp is an ageless star in the sky. The 246-foot-long airship will be in the background of the Daytona 500 — flying roughly 1,500 feet above Daytona International Speedway, actually — to celebrate its greatest anniversary tour. Even though remote camera technologies are improving regularly and changing the landscape of aerial footage, the blimp continues to carve out a niche. At Daytona, with the usual 40-car field racing around a 2½-mile superspeedway, views from the blimp aptly provide the scope of the event.
You'll just have to wait for interest rates (and prices) to go down. Plus, this deal's a steel, the big carmaker wedding is off, and bribery is back, baby!
