This is making me think of the particularly American emphasis on self-esteem, that everyone has to have a whole lot of it. It seems to be so important that everyone feels very good about themselves, whether or not they have all that much to feel good about. And up to a point that's fine, but it seems to lead to a whole thing where people feel entitled to a kind of fake self-esteem where they pretend to themselves and others that they are awesome. The extreme case would be the current president of the United States.
And using AI to "create" something for you and then tell yourself that you created it strikes me as another sort of extreme fake self-esteem. You didn't really create anything but you can pretend to yourself that you did, that you're a real author or artist or whatever, and then you can feel good about yourself in this totally unearned way, but it's OK because everyone has this weird sort of right to feel as though they're great people who have done great things. I think there's something unhealthy about it.
I’ve grown so weary over it all. It’s just so much slop. Thankfully, I’m a sports fan and sports hasn’t been affected as much. But the magic of the internet, of connecting, of stumbling upon something surprising with sheer curiosity, is dying.
We are as more likely to lose our creativity juice in this current wave of AI. Yes we might write the flawless outputs but those output lack the soul of ourselves. It makes us appear creative but not. Your imperfect grammatical mistakes are your edge in this AI era.
This A.I . thing is akin to "spreading the wealth." Both result in widespread mediocrity. On the other hand, truly creative individuals can and will make creative use of most any object or tool they choose to use. The unfortunate fact is that most people do not make many distinctions regarding all this and usually are comfortable with whatever is 'out there' commercially. 'Plus ca change, plus la meme chose.' By the way, these systems are not yet 'intelligent.' Some day they may be, but right now that term is misleading.
In some ways we are on the same track, but I have serious problems with should and shouldn’t. Gatekeepers are also problematic.
There are millions of awful books on the market, even before AI. It's not a problem for gatekeepers. Readers judge book quality and listeners judge music. They are the only gatekeepers we need.
I’ve read awful books that were highly recommended and beloved music that hurts my ears. Who controls that gate? Certainly not me.
I’ve written over a dozen books, and only the first one back in 1980 received traditional publishing. I self-published all the rest, or they would not have seen the light. Are they any good, some seem to think so, but there may be some who think one or more suck. They have a right to their opinion, even to express it. Fortunately, they don’t have the right to close the gate.
AI may well expose us to tons of sludge, but we’ll just have to deal with it as we always have.
This is making me think of the particularly American emphasis on self-esteem, that everyone has to have a whole lot of it. It seems to be so important that everyone feels very good about themselves, whether or not they have all that much to feel good about. And up to a point that's fine, but it seems to lead to a whole thing where people feel entitled to a kind of fake self-esteem where they pretend to themselves and others that they are awesome. The extreme case would be the current president of the United States.
And using AI to "create" something for you and then tell yourself that you created it strikes me as another sort of extreme fake self-esteem. You didn't really create anything but you can pretend to yourself that you did, that you're a real author or artist or whatever, and then you can feel good about yourself in this totally unearned way, but it's OK because everyone has this weird sort of right to feel as though they're great people who have done great things. I think there's something unhealthy about it.
I’ve grown so weary over it all. It’s just so much slop. Thankfully, I’m a sports fan and sports hasn’t been affected as much. But the magic of the internet, of connecting, of stumbling upon something surprising with sheer curiosity, is dying.
We are as more likely to lose our creativity juice in this current wave of AI. Yes we might write the flawless outputs but those output lack the soul of ourselves. It makes us appear creative but not. Your imperfect grammatical mistakes are your edge in this AI era.
democratizing creativity = dehumanizing humanities
another point: all the pointless, "just-because-I-can" activities are actively destroying not only our minds but also our habitable environment.
This A.I . thing is akin to "spreading the wealth." Both result in widespread mediocrity. On the other hand, truly creative individuals can and will make creative use of most any object or tool they choose to use. The unfortunate fact is that most people do not make many distinctions regarding all this and usually are comfortable with whatever is 'out there' commercially. 'Plus ca change, plus la meme chose.' By the way, these systems are not yet 'intelligent.' Some day they may be, but right now that term is misleading.
Stephen,
In some ways we are on the same track, but I have serious problems with should and shouldn’t. Gatekeepers are also problematic.
There are millions of awful books on the market, even before AI. It's not a problem for gatekeepers. Readers judge book quality and listeners judge music. They are the only gatekeepers we need.
I’ve read awful books that were highly recommended and beloved music that hurts my ears. Who controls that gate? Certainly not me.
I’ve written over a dozen books, and only the first one back in 1980 received traditional publishing. I self-published all the rest, or they would not have seen the light. Are they any good, some seem to think so, but there may be some who think one or more suck. They have a right to their opinion, even to express it. Fortunately, they don’t have the right to close the gate.
AI may well expose us to tons of sludge, but we’ll just have to deal with it as we always have.
Bill