The app for independent voices
A few questions and thoughts, in no particular order, about AI, spurred on by this (oversimplified) image that seems to go viral each and every week:
Why ought the writer’s and artist’s domains be kept “safe” from AI, and the housekeeper’s shouldn’t?
If AI removes all of the mundane limitations from our lives, will there be any art worth making?
A public education system that teaches that “use” is tied to “value” is in for an existential crisis. It’s not going to be pretty.
But isn’t AI, at least at the moment… similar to many other (digital) mediums?
AI is the night-terror version of the nightmare social media has caused amongst young people. The consequences will be (are?) catastropically worse and arrive much sooner than what we saw with social media.
If we’re going to pick a fight with “AI,” why aren’t we picking it with transhumanist initiatives that seek to merge humans with technology? Whether or not I should be able to create a picture with AI seems like… a distraction.
Many (Most?) anti-AI hot takes collapse under their own weight. “All AI art is plagiarism” might get likes, but it isn’t an argument… it’s outrage packaged for virality. Perfect for social media, but not for changing people’s minds (or hearts).
I generally agree that the way AI is being pursued is problematic, but it seems to me that most of the AI arguments are taking place in the shallow end of the pool… and many of the anti-AI interlocutors suffer from severe cognitive dissonance.
