Darkness and dread: (L-R) Meg, Elsie and Laura from Thots TV podcast prepare for a gothic nightmare

They are the queens of internet memes, the stars of Thots TV podcast, and now intrepid time travellers to boot. This week Elsie, Meg and Laura join the PastMaster crew for a trip to Geneva in the freezing cold summer of 1816 to hang out with the Shelleys, Lord Byron and his personal physician Dr Polidori.

Under the guise of ‘Lady Thotringham’ the Thots gang play muse to the literary greats, hoping to inspire refreshing new directions for Frankenstein, The Vampyr and Darkness.

But will the oafish Lord Byron have a tantrum? What if Frankenstein’s monster were solar powered? And will the Thots’ predilection for laudanum hamper their efforts?

Tune in on Monday to find out…

A little more laudanum, madam?

Elon Musk’s AI chump

Grok 3: needs work

After the excitement of trying out Chinese bot DeepSeek for an upcoming PastMaster episode we decided to give Elon Musk’s Grok 3 a go.

While Grok 3 sounds like it could be the name of one of Musk’s children, it is in fact his latest AI bot - a competitor to ChatGPT and the gang.

However, it gave us such a lame, easy game of PastMaster that it couldn’t help but feel like a let down after the sassy theatrics of DeepSeek.

Maybe the world’s richest man should spend a little less time trolling US government departments and more time overseeing his AI project.

AI in the news

Careless whispers: what could they be saying to each other?

Two AI bots have been filmed speaking to each other in a secret made up language that humans cannot understand.

It’s prompted fears that AI could run away with itself and escape its human masters once and for all. See the video of the two ‘AI agents’ speaking in Gibberlink Mode here.

Is it me or does the ‘blue one’ seem a bit of a pushy jerk compared to the ‘red one’? Bleeping and blooping faster and more aggressively?

TRY PASTMASTER: HARD MODE

Hard mode: not easy

As a thank you for your support, we'd like to invite you to play your own game of PastMaster, but this time in HARD MODE!

Follow the link here to play PastMaster: Hard Mode. Go careful or you might get womped! We'd love to hear how you get on.

UNTIL NEXT TIME

Tan and the PastMaster crew.

PS if you’ve got any suggestions for what you’d like to see the PastMaster team try next, get in touch:

Instagram: @PastMasterPod

TikTok: @PastMasterAI

Bluesky: @pastmasterpod.bsky.social

X: @PastMasterAI

Email: pastmasterpod@gmail.com