3 ms·

It could have the exact opposite effect. If movie-quality content is easy to generate, then what is left to separate the good from the bad? Probably story, ch

It could have the exact opposite effect. If movie-quality content is easy to generate, then what is left to separate the good from the bad? Probably story, characters, originality, etc. Generative models could, across the board, commoditize the aesthetic leaving only substance as a discernible trait. This could be positive for the world in both encouraging people to create things of substance and consume things of substance. When instagram pictures are so easily made perfect, why bother posting? Or watching? What credit do you get for looking the way you do? When shallow political arguments are made in a comment, why not just assume they are computer generated? We could become blind to vapid content like we are blind to billboard ads.

krapp 3y ago
What happened to the quality of journalism once it went online? When news media had to compete against bloggers and social media. It went into the toilet. What happened to the quality of video games once game frameworks became easily available? The market got flooded with low-effort garbage. Youtube and Tiktok and other social media platforms make global video distribution easy, but most of it is uninteresting and uninspired, when not low-effort clickbait or ragebait. Making things easy doesn't lead to more substance, only exponentially more of what sells, which is shallow, low effort aesthetic. What point is there in encouraging people to create things of substance when that substance will only be consumed, commoditized and shat out by AI? Every time you see authentic, human generated art online now, it just gets assimilated. It's a sign of something forever tainted and blighted from the collective human soul. We can't be blind to vapid content when the systems and algorithms that generate our culture optimize only for it. The only hope is that somehow AI fails to follow through on its promise. Maybe it will never be able to create content of high enough quality, quickly enough or at a low enough cost. Given the evolution of technology, and the capability of LLMs in particular, that seems unlikely. Only another AI winter can save us. As long as AI remains deeply integrated into all possible electronic and online means of communication, creativity and expression (as it seems destined to be) then human expression just feeds the machine, and becomes as impossible to find in the ocean of machine-generated slime as non-commercial content on Google.
- MichaelZuo 3y ago
  This was already the case for human made art before? The vast vast majority of 'art' online, including youtube videos, wasn't even worth spending a few seconds looking at in 2021. So we go from 98% not worth looking at to 99.9% not worth looking at, or whatever the figure is.
  - speff 3y ago
    Anyone who's dealt with multiple 9s knows how big of a jump 98->99.9% is. This isn't making the point you think.
  - sumtechguy 3y ago
    Most of what is made is not that good. For every shawshank redemption we have 20 'leonard part 6' movies or worse. People just do not realize how much content there is out there in the big budget space. In the low budget space that ratio is even worse. Most of it is not good. We are going to see the volume of low effort items cranked to 11.
    - TheOtherHobbes 3y ago
      And the Shawshank Redemption movies will stop being made. Or if they are being made, they will be ignored. I read a blog today and it was high-quality long form tech journalism - something I haven't seen for a long time, tucked away on a no-mark site in a far corner of the Internet. I didn't agree with all of the content, but it was so good to see something written at that level. 50 years ago it would have been normal for tech publishing. Today most tech journalism is gossip and clickbait. It's not thoughtful and referenced long form analysis of where the industry may be heading, written with original critical insights.
      - sumtechguy 3y ago
        I picked that movie because it is considered one of the best movies on IMDB. However, it did very poorly on release. It was years later it did much better. Gems are made. But they also do not always get the recognition they deserve. With AI we are about to get a lot more rubish to dig thru. However, we may be surprised too. At this point is kind of too soon to tell. But my gut reaction is 'a small bit of good tons of bad'.

krapp 3y ago

What happened to the quality of journalism once it went online? When news media had to compete against bloggers and social media. It went into the toilet. What happened to the quality of video games once game frameworks became easily available? The market got flooded with low-effort garbage. Youtube and Tiktok and other social media platforms make global video distribution easy, but most of it is uninteresting and uninspired, when not low-effort clickbait or ragebait. Making things easy doesn't lead to more substance, only exponentially more of what sells, which is shallow, low effort aesthetic. What point is there in encouraging people to create things of substance when that substance will only be consumed, commoditized and shat out by AI? Every time you see authentic, human generated art online now, it just gets assimilated. It's a sign of something forever tainted and blighted from the collective human soul. We can't be blind to vapid content when the systems and algorithms that generate our culture optimize only for it. The only hope is that somehow AI fails to follow through on its promise. Maybe it will never be able to create content of high enough quality, quickly enough or at a low enough cost. Given the evolution of technology, and the capability of LLMs in particular, that seems unlikely. Only another AI winter can save us. As long as AI remains deeply integrated into all possible electronic and online means of communication, creativity and expression (as it seems destined to be) then human expression just feeds the machine, and becomes as impossible to find in the ocean of machine-generated slime as non-commercial content on Google.

MichaelZuo 3y ago
This was already the case for human made art before? The vast vast majority of 'art' online, including youtube videos, wasn't even worth spending a few seconds looking at in 2021. So we go from 98% not worth looking at to 99.9% not worth looking at, or whatever the figure is.
- speff 3y ago
  Anyone who's dealt with multiple 9s knows how big of a jump 98->99.9% is. This isn't making the point you think.
- sumtechguy 3y ago
  Most of what is made is not that good. For every shawshank redemption we have 20 'leonard part 6' movies or worse. People just do not realize how much content there is out there in the big budget space. In the low budget space that ratio is even worse. Most of it is not good. We are going to see the volume of low effort items cranked to 11.
  - TheOtherHobbes 3y ago
    And the Shawshank Redemption movies will stop being made. Or if they are being made, they will be ignored. I read a blog today and it was high-quality long form tech journalism - something I haven't seen for a long time, tucked away on a no-mark site in a far corner of the Internet. I didn't agree with all of the content, but it was so good to see something written at that level. 50 years ago it would have been normal for tech publishing. Today most tech journalism is gossip and clickbait. It's not thoughtful and referenced long form analysis of where the industry may be heading, written with original critical insights.
    - sumtechguy 3y ago
      I picked that movie because it is considered one of the best movies on IMDB. However, it did very poorly on release. It was years later it did much better. Gems are made. But they also do not always get the recognition they deserve. With AI we are about to get a lot more rubish to dig thru. However, we may be surprised too. At this point is kind of too soon to tell. But my gut reaction is 'a small bit of good tons of bad'.