Mass Technology = Mass Tomfoolery

I’ve talked about AI before, and I probably will again, but it’s definitely not my favorite topic. Why? Frankly, because I probably know more about it than I should, mostly because of some well-educated friends and family. Does that give me the right to talk about it? Not necessarily, but isn’t that the beauty of the internet and free speech? Anyone can comment on anything at any time. So here’s something I’ve learned about artificial intelligence recently that a) further increased my fury regarding how frivolous people can be with it and b) introduced a new level of despair regarding barriers to its ability to do good…

AI WAS NEVER INTENDED TO BE A TOY – THIS WAS SO NOT THE POINT

A close friend of mine has done a fair amount of digging into the history of artificial intelligence, and what baffles her the most about today’s surge of ChatGPT and whatnot is that widespread use was never really the goal with AI. Apparently, it started out as pure science, a way for experts to program machines to perform tasks more consistently and accurately to aid in specific fields.

That’s crazy, right? No, you don’t think so? No one ever does at first — most of our fun/silly inventions and trends started with a nobler pursuit — but think about where we are with artificial intelligence and how harmful it is. It’s terrible for the environment. It’s terrible for critical thinking. It’s terrible for originality. Socially and culturally, it is absolutely disastrous (in my opinion), but there are some genuinely wonderful and much-needed uses for it. In the medical field, business, legalese, mechanics, the sciences, even education… this technology can be so incredible.

Except it can’t be, not really, because the general public is using it for all the wrong shit! Can you imagine how much they could do with AI (“they” as in people who have ideas/uses for it that are genuinely in service to the greater good) if corporations weren’t pumping out popular-use products that skyrocket AI’s harm? We wouldn’t have to make so many bold moves against artificial intelligence — raging against its power/fuel intake, fighting for real creatives to be valued for real work, double-checking all our technology to make sure we’re not accidentally contributing to the problem through automatic AI-generated features — if the people in power were only using it within the bounds of its original conceptualization/intent.

To be clear, I’m not talking about all smart technology here. Believe it or not, we made it a very long time with basic customer service chat bots and fun chess-playing robots and manual photoshop. Let me ask you, though (and this is not a trick question)…

Is it at all necessary to have AI-generated videos of babies walking at a fashion show dressed as food? Does that serve any real purpose in society?

If you answered “well no but what’s the harm”, then you’re not paying enough attention. If you answered “well no but AI-generated book covers and character designs help writers who can’t afford commissions get a real shot at publishing success” [you can substitute your own creative or creative-adjacent examples; this is just the one I’m most familiar with as a querying author], I get that. But also… who’s stopping you from taking up old-school graphic design? Or befriending a budding artist on social media and negotiating a trade? Or using plain old Canva?

Is it harder? Yes. Does it matter? Yes. Will lessening our use of unproductive/nonessential AI help society and our planet in the long run? God, I certainly hope so…

TL;DR – Stop using AI with the same energy you scroll Facebook for cute animal videos, so people who actually have good ideas can experiment with it without actively pushing us toward extinction.

Oh, and find an actual expert (not me) who can teach you more things and make this make more sense! They exist, promise. Probably not in your uncle’s “you won’t believe your eyes” Facebook group, though…

-Love, Claire 💜