I literally just wrote a piece about AI art whose bottom line was "maybe we shouldn't automate creative expression because it's like one of the only fun and cool things humans do with their brains anymore and it also threatens the livelihoods of actual artists." Only to start an 130-comment flame war on Reddit and get doxxed by people calling me either an alarmist or an AI-hater... I'm literally an AI researcher. That's my job title.
One thing I keep wondering is: if the media industry thinks the jobs of its creative staff can be automated, why does it think people will still be willing to pay them for that content? At that point they're just a technical middleman between AI and consumers. It only seems like a viable business within a very narrow window of possible futures, where AI is capable enough to produce entertaining content but not capable enough to do that on a commodity basis.
It reminds me of people saying "we can have a AI write technical documentation for our engineering product". My brother in Christ, if AI can write effective documentation then the concept of static documentation is immediately obsolete.
Yeah, I don't see how Netflix packages and uses AI in an entertaining way when any random person could prompt something themself? Feels like a threat to traditional media in the same way video games and social media are -- not something they can use to replace labor.
“My brother in Christ, if AI can write effective documentation then the concept of static documentation is immediately obsolete.” Not if the cost to have AI create the doc is > x, I have n projects, and my docs budget is << nx. I’ll use AI to make doc for a project & move on.
Well yeah but that comes back to my point about a narrow window of possible futures: inference must be cheap enough to write the docs but not cheap enough to provide dynamic consultation.
But yeah the media->documentation parallel is a bit weak, we don't need to predict the future of the technology to decide, we can just do what makes sense in the immediate term. Not so for attempting to obsolete an entire industry's creative staff lol.
Re. Musk and usernames, there was a report that his purported alt account @e was yoinked from someone who was sitting on it (but not using it much) as soon as he bought the company. I think he'd start reassigning them in some midnight fit. There's a kind of social contract that platforms won't do that unless a lot of time goes by and they warn you, but getting that requires emotional intelligence so... you know.
lol if I can close my eyes and plug my ears halfway through a movie and correctly predict every other line of dialogue and who dies etc, it's a shit movie. And being predictable is literally all those LLMs are good at, so. good luck, producers! You'll kick us some crap for a while, and then in 10 years we'll get a new avant-garde HBO and everyone will be falling all over themselves for human writers again.
I literally just wrote a piece about AI art whose bottom line was "maybe we shouldn't automate creative expression because it's like one of the only fun and cool things humans do with their brains anymore and it also threatens the livelihoods of actual artists." Only to start an 130-comment flame war on Reddit and get doxxed by people calling me either an alarmist or an AI-hater... I'm literally an AI researcher. That's my job title.
We're just supposed to be fine with "so and so skeeted on" from here on out?
From the window, to the wall, to the words moving as I scroll, I will not skeet skeet skeet skeet mister writer.
Finally, a voice of reason.
One thing I keep wondering is: if the media industry thinks the jobs of its creative staff can be automated, why does it think people will still be willing to pay them for that content? At that point they're just a technical middleman between AI and consumers. It only seems like a viable business within a very narrow window of possible futures, where AI is capable enough to produce entertaining content but not capable enough to do that on a commodity basis.
It reminds me of people saying "we can have a AI write technical documentation for our engineering product". My brother in Christ, if AI can write effective documentation then the concept of static documentation is immediately obsolete.
I dunno about you, but I definitely think the Disney AI Prompt ChatGPT Midjourney pipeline is totally worth at least $34.99/month*.
*GPU time not included; terms and conditions apply.
Yeah, I don't see how Netflix packages and uses AI in an entertaining way when any random person could prompt something themself? Feels like a threat to traditional media in the same way video games and social media are -- not something they can use to replace labor.
“My brother in Christ, if AI can write effective documentation then the concept of static documentation is immediately obsolete.” Not if the cost to have AI create the doc is > x, I have n projects, and my docs budget is << nx. I’ll use AI to make doc for a project & move on.
Well yeah but that comes back to my point about a narrow window of possible futures: inference must be cheap enough to write the docs but not cheap enough to provide dynamic consultation.
But yeah the media->documentation parallel is a bit weak, we don't need to predict the future of the technology to decide, we can just do what makes sense in the immediate term. Not so for attempting to obsolete an entire industry's creative staff lol.
Re. Musk and usernames, there was a report that his purported alt account @e was yoinked from someone who was sitting on it (but not using it much) as soon as he bought the company. I think he'd start reassigning them in some midnight fit. There's a kind of social contract that platforms won't do that unless a lot of time goes by and they warn you, but getting that requires emotional intelligence so... you know.
Anyway I'm currently dying from Alien: The Musical and especially this reply https://twitter.com/SteveStubbsman/status/1653440004067147779?s=20
If Twitter started taking away registered-trademark usernames and setting them up as fakes, that could get legally fun really quick lol
I just don’t want to waste my precious time on this earth looking at art made by something with no perspective or genuine experience to draw from
I do, however, want to see how a creative person uses it as an instrument.
Reminder that WordPress also owns Tumblr and that Tumblr has said they will probably add ActivityPub.
(Yes I know they technically share a parent company, but WordPress is the OG brand at Automattic.)
https://www.iww.org
By Elon's current reasoning @RealDonaldTrump has been abandoned and can now be reassigned.
lol if I can close my eyes and plug my ears halfway through a movie and correctly predict every other line of dialogue and who dies etc, it's a shit movie. And being predictable is literally all those LLMs are good at, so. good luck, producers! You'll kick us some crap for a while, and then in 10 years we'll get a new avant-garde HBO and everyone will be falling all over themselves for human writers again.
Alien: The High School Play
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/25/theater/high-school-alien-play.html
Shoutouts and solidarity with the WGA. ✊🏾
I’m using the iOS Substack app, and clicking through Twitter links doesn’t work. You can open them in Safari, etc. Weird was to break things, elmo.