Working in communications I feel like it’s only a matter of time before AI has an impact on my role. They’ve blocked ChatGPT for now for security but I’m sure it’s a matter of time.
Loved the mass content drop. Excited to see more of the super secret thing!
I used MidJourney to illustrate my writing for much of 2022 (while I love drawing, I'm simply not as good as I'd like to be), but recently decided to stop using generative AI tools altogether (https://open.substack.com/pub/simonkjones/p/why-i-cancelled-my-midjourney-subscription). Even if I was trying to use the tool 'ethically', it increasingly felt impossible to actually do that when the foundation of the technology appears to be unethical.
I think ChatGPT is going to decimate the professional copywriting world, especially the more generic corporate end. It already copies that stuff so well. More creative copywriters will be fine, at least for a while, because they're not just regurgitating descriptive blurb but are actually engaging in proper communication between their client and audience.
While I'm sure generative AI will get to a point of being technically 'indistinguishable' from human-written prose, poetry and images, I'm not too worried about it. Art is inherently about that communication aspect: humans connecting. No matter how technically accomplished AI generative stuff is, it can't have that by definition. When I read a comic, for example, it's often because I'm specifically interested in those creators and what they have to say about the world.
I'm sure someone once said that storytelling is like a form of telepathy: a way to experience the world from inside someone else's head. That doesn't work for AI stuff, because there's nobody on the other end.
When I hear people say “I used ChatGPT to write a cover letter for this job application” or something like that, I get the feeling that the person doesn’t really understand or want to employ the power of writing. It’s like writing is just some series of inscrutable incantations for them and they’re happy to let the computer do it for them. I don’t think they even consider what a reader might think when they read whatever generated text the model spit out.
Recently Microsoft announced some sort of similar AI integration in the Office suite and people were joking that you’d puff up some banal work communication with paragraphs of automatically generated corporate-ese and then the recipient would use their AI to summarize it to what you’d actually meant to say in the first place.
There’s something really cynical and insincere about all of these AI models coming out recently. It’s like a lot of people only want a facsimile of human connection because it’s faster and more predictable.
Holy moly the Captain Marvel image looks FANTASTIC! Re:AI, I’m a social scientist whose research builds interventions for how people can connect and empathize with each other across difference; most talk on AI in my field is just about how students may use it to cheat for classes. I don’t feel the anxiety quite as much, but I also tend to stay away from social media pretty well.
My thought is: people have a need for authenticity (which I also study), and they haven’t yet seen AI creations as authentic enough to what they’re looking for. Human artists aren’t in danger--don’t believe the doom!
I work for a technical support company, and they leverage AI for the initial chat-bottling amongst other things. What I found amusing is that they sent an AI generated email to a for feedback on the company, and then kept following up to encourage people to engage with the AI, which obviously means no one wanted to.
One thing that’s struck me is that at the core of what AI does to recreate art and what humans do isn’t super different. A lot bands start as cover bands, a lot of artists started out by tracing, early writers ape the styles they like, etc. Yet human experience, and just having an opinion on what is consumed, along with that unknown alchemy that happens in our brains means we produce something that’s really not the same at all as AI.
Another thing that struck me recently is how once again prophetic the Dune series is. In it, all “thinking machines” are banned because there was an AI uprising. Once they were defeated, however, rather than a Skynet they found out that it was the humans who created them who directed them to rebel. That seems very analogous to our current situation, where often it’s just the worst people deploying this tech in the most cynical way possible. Although I’m also not rushing to become a mentat anytime soon.
For a bit of positivity for AI, I think the Vtuber Neurosama is quite entertaining when it interacts with other people, I’ve laughed at quite a few off its exploits in YouTube videos.
Would have missed the Tifa post completely, if not for this post! The Capt Marvel(?) is gorgeous! More super secret things please!
That’s gorgeous!!
Working in communications I feel like it’s only a matter of time before AI has an impact on my role. They’ve blocked ChatGPT for now for security but I’m sure it’s a matter of time.
Loved the mass content drop. Excited to see more of the super secret thing!
I used MidJourney to illustrate my writing for much of 2022 (while I love drawing, I'm simply not as good as I'd like to be), but recently decided to stop using generative AI tools altogether (https://open.substack.com/pub/simonkjones/p/why-i-cancelled-my-midjourney-subscription). Even if I was trying to use the tool 'ethically', it increasingly felt impossible to actually do that when the foundation of the technology appears to be unethical.
I think ChatGPT is going to decimate the professional copywriting world, especially the more generic corporate end. It already copies that stuff so well. More creative copywriters will be fine, at least for a while, because they're not just regurgitating descriptive blurb but are actually engaging in proper communication between their client and audience.
While I'm sure generative AI will get to a point of being technically 'indistinguishable' from human-written prose, poetry and images, I'm not too worried about it. Art is inherently about that communication aspect: humans connecting. No matter how technically accomplished AI generative stuff is, it can't have that by definition. When I read a comic, for example, it's often because I'm specifically interested in those creators and what they have to say about the world.
I'm sure someone once said that storytelling is like a form of telepathy: a way to experience the world from inside someone else's head. That doesn't work for AI stuff, because there's nobody on the other end.
When I hear people say “I used ChatGPT to write a cover letter for this job application” or something like that, I get the feeling that the person doesn’t really understand or want to employ the power of writing. It’s like writing is just some series of inscrutable incantations for them and they’re happy to let the computer do it for them. I don’t think they even consider what a reader might think when they read whatever generated text the model spit out.
Recently Microsoft announced some sort of similar AI integration in the Office suite and people were joking that you’d puff up some banal work communication with paragraphs of automatically generated corporate-ese and then the recipient would use their AI to summarize it to what you’d actually meant to say in the first place.
There’s something really cynical and insincere about all of these AI models coming out recently. It’s like a lot of people only want a facsimile of human connection because it’s faster and more predictable.
Love your posts and hope you are finding the time to take care of yourself.
Holy moly the Captain Marvel image looks FANTASTIC! Re:AI, I’m a social scientist whose research builds interventions for how people can connect and empathize with each other across difference; most talk on AI in my field is just about how students may use it to cheat for classes. I don’t feel the anxiety quite as much, but I also tend to stay away from social media pretty well.
My thought is: people have a need for authenticity (which I also study), and they haven’t yet seen AI creations as authentic enough to what they’re looking for. Human artists aren’t in danger--don’t believe the doom!
I work for a technical support company, and they leverage AI for the initial chat-bottling amongst other things. What I found amusing is that they sent an AI generated email to a for feedback on the company, and then kept following up to encourage people to engage with the AI, which obviously means no one wanted to.
One thing that’s struck me is that at the core of what AI does to recreate art and what humans do isn’t super different. A lot bands start as cover bands, a lot of artists started out by tracing, early writers ape the styles they like, etc. Yet human experience, and just having an opinion on what is consumed, along with that unknown alchemy that happens in our brains means we produce something that’s really not the same at all as AI.
Another thing that struck me recently is how once again prophetic the Dune series is. In it, all “thinking machines” are banned because there was an AI uprising. Once they were defeated, however, rather than a Skynet they found out that it was the humans who created them who directed them to rebel. That seems very analogous to our current situation, where often it’s just the worst people deploying this tech in the most cynical way possible. Although I’m also not rushing to become a mentat anytime soon.
For a bit of positivity for AI, I think the Vtuber Neurosama is quite entertaining when it interacts with other people, I’ve laughed at quite a few off its exploits in YouTube videos.
My brain did a hard reset at the secret (Captain Marvel?????) image. I need whatever this is.
Oh my god the Captain Marvel!!! 😱😱😱😱