A couple of points. I think some of what you have described has already transpired. ‘AI’ has not so much arrived as we have awoken to it. Social media has been a giant interaction between ‘AI’ and humans which I believe has coarsened language, although perhaps added some clarity and concision. Trump is quite a good example of the degradation of language, even though I realise his ascent was not purely due to social media.
My second point, I would not refer to AI as a tool. My interpretation of a tool is a technology that is fully understood by the person using it, and does not encourage a particular behaviour. A knife fits this definition: it can be used for cooking or murder. The choice is entirely down to the person using it. AI is understood by few people - perhaps nobody - and influences the behaviour of its users (e.g., social media).
If I prompt an artwork, I consider it vain to imagine I created that work in any meaningful way. The greatest effort came from centuries of artists whose work is being used by the system - which makes me object to the word artificial. Then there are the programmers who created the system, who have a huge influence on the output. Only after this does the prompter enter the equation, and I’d consider them of limited significance.
Have you read The Machine Stops? I came to this short story late, but it strikes me as very relevant to the scenarios you are writing about!
If we compulsively wish to see machine intelligence and robots in our image, what happens when the reverse occurs? As digital consumption increased on mobile phones increasingly and our habits became increasingly trained by, over the past decades one does wonder what generative AI will do to us? Given how people are using chatGPT one can already tell..... What is the new version of the infinite scroll instead of those favorite apps going to be? How will it further interrupt our humanity, socialization and capacity for human intimacy?
Just made a first quick read, will be back later when I will have more time.
I am thinking that the underlying issue is the scale issue. With IT we can move back and forth from statistics to the individual. This is something new that is hard to understand. It has political ramification that we don't get : typical example is the covid crisis. We have counts of death (precise to the unit), models and electronic passes. Everything is mixed up : you can be as precise as the individual level (each vaccine pass can be updated on your smartphone live) and at the same you have people trying to exchange with whole crowds (like E. Musk and his experience on Twitter). All this being mediated by AI... What a strange world indeed.
Very interesting read - thank you for sharing.
A couple of points. I think some of what you have described has already transpired. ‘AI’ has not so much arrived as we have awoken to it. Social media has been a giant interaction between ‘AI’ and humans which I believe has coarsened language, although perhaps added some clarity and concision. Trump is quite a good example of the degradation of language, even though I realise his ascent was not purely due to social media.
My second point, I would not refer to AI as a tool. My interpretation of a tool is a technology that is fully understood by the person using it, and does not encourage a particular behaviour. A knife fits this definition: it can be used for cooking or murder. The choice is entirely down to the person using it. AI is understood by few people - perhaps nobody - and influences the behaviour of its users (e.g., social media).
If I prompt an artwork, I consider it vain to imagine I created that work in any meaningful way. The greatest effort came from centuries of artists whose work is being used by the system - which makes me object to the word artificial. Then there are the programmers who created the system, who have a huge influence on the output. Only after this does the prompter enter the equation, and I’d consider them of limited significance.
Have you read The Machine Stops? I came to this short story late, but it strikes me as very relevant to the scenarios you are writing about!
If we compulsively wish to see machine intelligence and robots in our image, what happens when the reverse occurs? As digital consumption increased on mobile phones increasingly and our habits became increasingly trained by, over the past decades one does wonder what generative AI will do to us? Given how people are using chatGPT one can already tell..... What is the new version of the infinite scroll instead of those favorite apps going to be? How will it further interrupt our humanity, socialization and capacity for human intimacy?
Just made a first quick read, will be back later when I will have more time.
I am thinking that the underlying issue is the scale issue. With IT we can move back and forth from statistics to the individual. This is something new that is hard to understand. It has political ramification that we don't get : typical example is the covid crisis. We have counts of death (precise to the unit), models and electronic passes. Everything is mixed up : you can be as precise as the individual level (each vaccine pass can be updated on your smartphone live) and at the same you have people trying to exchange with whole crowds (like E. Musk and his experience on Twitter). All this being mediated by AI... What a strange world indeed.