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The information age is nothing new (for us), neither is media culture generally, or even silicon valley. AI will now be some new part of the complex. It seems
by woopsn 3y ago
The information age is nothing new (for us), neither is media culture generally, or even silicon valley. AI will now be some new part of the complex.
It seems obvious to me that a significant step to combat this effect would be not calling the thing "artificial intelligence". I like the term gpt because it is descriptive and accurate. Gpt doesn't suggest in any sense that we can rely on the thing or are comparable, in the same way "cell phone" doesn't. Imagine if we really bought into the idea that phones are truth receivers, or called them the closest friend. But that seems to be the idea with AI.
Keep speaking up too. Just calling bullshit on the thing implicitly gives people permission to turn it off. The tech will not cause knowledge collapse among a population that doesn't need it. I do use it by the way, eg GitHub Copilot which is nice.
- TaylorAlexander 3y ago> The tech will not cause knowledge collapse among a population that doesn't need it. Every google search now returns loads of AI generated websites fill of low quality information. You could call the things "bullshit generators" and the people who really want to make websites full of bullshit will still use them to flood the internet with that bullshit. We all suffer the degradation of the internet when that happens.
- thomquaid 3y ago> Every google search now returns loads of AI generated website That is a google problem, not an AI problem.
- TaylorAlexander 3y agoIt’s society’s problem, enabled by changes in technology around AI and LLMs. We have the potential to build the world’s greatest repository of knowledge and what little progress we had made has been eroded in recent years by Ai technologies. It seems reasonable that chatbot style LLMs can help, but they currently do this by replacing a sea of web pages with a single corporate interface. I think it’s worth asking questions about how our data is being used to fuel corporate interfaces to that data, who owns the rights to that data and those systems, and consider how we might maintain independent creators on such a system. Will iFixit still have the resources and means to take high quality documentary photos and write ups for new devices if everyone consumes that information via an Apple, Google, or OpenAI interface? How will you post a structured, expandable, localizable repository of your own data to share, aka how will you publish web pages and how will people find them? I believe society will solve these problems via the actions of many individuals and organizations, but with certain organizations holding so much power it’s important to consider and inquire on how that power is being used.
- woopsn 3y agoI'm with you. I started moving away from Google a few years ago. That's what I mean I guess -- when something becomes so full of it, what can you do but turn it off? It's Google's own conceit that without it we'd be in the dark, Facebook's that without them we are lonely and alienated, missing out, etc. In actuality they are entirely dependent on you and are terrified you'll look away. They are enormous media companies and nothing more. Again, it's good that you call bullshit on it. Things are not as set in stone as they appear -- the tech is finicky and expensive, and we still have the wealth of "legacy knowledge" online and offline. There is enormous investment being made in this sector currently. Remember the huge amount of bullshit that was spread all over during the height of the cryptocurrency craze, uberization, social media, war on terror, etc. As I said, "AI" is a new part of the complex. Turning these things off is a way to stay sane, no more or less.