https://www.theverge.com/2018/3/11/17099578/ai-generated-podcast-procedural-storytelling-art-sheldon-county >Sheldon County is a podcast that will never sound the same twice. Every time someone listens to it, they’ll begin by typing a random number into a website. This “seed” will set in motion a Rube Goldberg machine of calculation that will create characters, relationships, jealousies, betrayals, and maybe even a murder or two. These plot points will be turned into a text narrative, read aloud by a voice synthesizer, and then zipped up into an audio file. Each time it will be a unique version of Sheldon County’s story. A podcast made just for you. >That’s the dream anyway — the current execution still needs work. So far, only a few episodes of this procedurally generated podcast exist (you can listen to two below), and its creator, PhD student James Ryan, is still working on a website. He says the back-end software is mostly finished, but a few finishing touches are needed, like creating a program to automatically add the music to each episode. “Right now I’m proving the concept,” he tells The Verge. “And then I’ve got a dissertation to start.”