I was listening to the new Beatles single “Now and Then” (there’s a phrase I never thought I’d ever say!) and marvelling at the AI technology that was used to bring back to life John Lennon’s voice. And then I had a flashback to 1980s TV show which never seems to get mentioned…1983’s The Whiz Kids. An American show about a group of teenagers who became amateur detectives using computer technology to solve mysteries. It only lasted one series before it was cancelled, which maybe explains why it never gets mentioned!

Inspired by the film War Games, it included a genius teenage hacker, Richie, who built his own advanced computer, Ralf. The flashback I had related to an episode called “Return of The Big Rocker”, a story about how the Whiz Kids foil an unscrupulous record company who use AI technology to create new recordings of deceased rock stars, then falsely launch them as “the lost album of…”

We get excited about new technology developments like the use of AI in bringing back the Beatles, but I love the fact that many of these ideas have been around for many years waiting for the technology to catch up with our creativity, like with the Whiz Kids.