Agreed. I hate AI. I only use it once in a blue moon. It's so intrusive everywhere you go on the internet. No, Gmail. I don't want to use AI to write a simple email, thank you.
And also, Gmail, I do not need you to summarize someone else's three sentence email for me. I am convinced that many of my students are having AI summarize emails for them - since they often have quite clearly not read what I actually wrote to them.
Last night I read a local TV station website news story: tragic workplace accident - a worker at I guess a sand pit* was buried when a retaining wall gave way, which the headline chose to style as “Male dead in collapse”, doubling down on “the male” throughout the story: “other workers tried to free the male”, “the male had worked there x years”, the male’s identity has not been released, etc.
Of course the commenters were quick to note this bizarre locution, which lent the sad story a ridiculous note.
I can only imagine AI played a mysterious part.
Intriguingly, it just occurred to me that it was announced yesterday that the selfsame news outlet had streamlined operations with a number of layoffs.
*The reporter, if there was one, did not mention this detail - that was left for a commenter to supply.
Why in the world do you feel compelled to use the f-word in a perfectly nice family-oriented space like this blog? I would consider embracing AI if it contributed toward cleaning up obscenity laced vitriol like this.
Oh—I thought you were addressing this to me, and I was thinking, Wait, did I use the f-word?! I thought maybe autocorrect (or AI?!) was playing tricks on me. Whew! 😂
Our water fountain at work displays how many bottles are not used whenever we refill our cups. I'd like AI to show how many cups/pints/gallons of water are wasted with each search. -ai -ai -ai
As I’ve said elsewhere (I think so anyway, the comments recede into the void or rather pointless storage in unwanted data centers) in its essentials it is an attempt to create a life form without any cost. But that is not how life works, it pays its way - it is not free - of course the costs *to be paid by others, and not simply humans* - are enormous, and various.
I’m not a Luddite and in many ways I an an early adopter. I agree with your premise 100%. I’m willing to bet that in almost any endeavor, if the billionaires want it, I don’t. Do you read Charlie Angus? He posted this on Substack today.
Eight. I caught eight of your allusions. To be honest, I only caught the title because Picard quotes it in the ST:TNG episode “Hide & Q”. And I couldn't have told you the source of many of those I spotted. My knowledge of literature goes neither out far nor in deep.
I’m watching the Minnesota State Boys’ Hockey Tourney this week. I'm struck by how—similar to the rest of life—we celebrate the superstars while the ‘competent many’ do the heavy lifting. If some want to denigrate the majority to elevate themselves, that’s their own karmic burden, and we aren’t required to listen to their BS.
I recently read Cory Doctorow’s take (‘The Reverse-Centaur’s Guide to Criticizing AI’) where he argues that AI should make us ‘Digital Centaurs’—tool-enhanced humans who do useful things better. Instead, he warns that current deployments are creating ‘Reverse Centaurs’, turning humans into meat-bots serving the AI.
This isn’t fate: we get a vote on the shape of the future! We vote with regulations on public resources (zoning, power, water), we vote with our dollars by choosing which companies to support, and we vote with how much of our attention we give to an AI. We don’t have to allow data centers, nor must we accept AI replacing a swath of our workforce. But agency requires engagement. Staying ignorant is just a vote for servitude to the ‘new economy’.
P.S. Scanning random QR codes is one of many phone activities I don’t indulge in.
P.P.S. I’m currently re-evaluating my own AI use. I enjoy bouncing weird questions off the tech—ironically, I recently used it to flesh out an ethical framework for dealing with ‘problematic’ creators like Lovecraft or Gaiman. Perhaps my next chat with the machine should be about the ethics of its own existence.
P.P.P.S. I need to stop typing soon, but I had to give you credit for 'oleaginous'. I was only able to figure it out with help from the Latin root prefix 'ole-', as used in 'oleic acid' and 'oleomargarine' (which my mom shortened to 'oleo' as a synonym for margarine). Context took me home from there.
Thanks for this inspiring comment! Yes, we have to become active to defend our humanity and to keep AI where it belongs, as a useful tool and nothing more.
And thanks for the Cory Doctorow recommendation! I loved his novel Big Brother and will check out A Reverse-Centaur’s Guide!
You're very gracious and I'm very long-winded. ;-) I either have nothing to say, or too much.
Loved 'Little Brother', and the stories in Doctorow's 'Radicalized' were prescient. I think some of the points he makes in 'Reverse-Centaur's Guide' are substantially similar to points you've made in previous columns.
I assume you caught the literary allusion in my original comment. I'm also not very subtle.
I think I used it effectively in context of my relationship with literature. Poetry in particular is opaque to me. I remember this poem because it reflects back my mere surface appreciation of the genre.
Agreed. I hate AI. I only use it once in a blue moon. It's so intrusive everywhere you go on the internet. No, Gmail. I don't want to use AI to write a simple email, thank you.
And also, Gmail, I do not need you to summarize someone else's three sentence email for me. I am convinced that many of my students are having AI summarize emails for them - since they often have quite clearly not read what I actually wrote to them.
Thank you! It’s actually enjoyable to use our minds!
Last night I read a local TV station website news story: tragic workplace accident - a worker at I guess a sand pit* was buried when a retaining wall gave way, which the headline chose to style as “Male dead in collapse”, doubling down on “the male” throughout the story: “other workers tried to free the male”, “the male had worked there x years”, the male’s identity has not been released, etc.
Of course the commenters were quick to note this bizarre locution, which lent the sad story a ridiculous note.
I can only imagine AI played a mysterious part.
Intriguingly, it just occurred to me that it was announced yesterday that the selfsame news outlet had streamlined operations with a number of layoffs.
*The reporter, if there was one, did not mention this detail - that was left for a commenter to supply.
Yeah, that is weird and dehumanizing language, especially when reporting on such a terrible accident.
It’s crazy, isn’t it? We can write our own dang emails! And learn from one another instead of from a machine. It’s more fun that way anyway.
Why in the world do you feel compelled to use the f-word in a perfectly nice family-oriented space like this blog? I would consider embracing AI if it contributed toward cleaning up obscenity laced vitriol like this.
Fixed
Oh—I thought you were addressing this to me, and I was thinking, Wait, did I use the f-word?! I thought maybe autocorrect (or AI?!) was playing tricks on me. Whew! 😂
Many thanks
Our water fountain at work displays how many bottles are not used whenever we refill our cups. I'd like AI to show how many cups/pints/gallons of water are wasted with each search. -ai -ai -ai
Exactly. I suspect that if the price were transparent, none of us would find these AI searches worth the money.
As I’ve said elsewhere (I think so anyway, the comments recede into the void or rather pointless storage in unwanted data centers) in its essentials it is an attempt to create a life form without any cost. But that is not how life works, it pays its way - it is not free - of course the costs *to be paid by others, and not simply humans* - are enormous, and various.
I’m not a Luddite and in many ways I an an early adopter. I agree with your premise 100%. I’m willing to bet that in almost any endeavor, if the billionaires want it, I don’t. Do you read Charlie Angus? He posted this on Substack today.
https://charlieangus.substack.com/p/its-time-to-quit-chatgbt?r=c0oh&utm_medium=ios
Wow—I just read it. Very shameful how Sam Altman has capitulated. I have never used ChatGPT and don’t plan to, now more than ever.
Thanks for the link! I will check it out!
Eight. I caught eight of your allusions. To be honest, I only caught the title because Picard quotes it in the ST:TNG episode “Hide & Q”. And I couldn't have told you the source of many of those I spotted. My knowledge of literature goes neither out far nor in deep.
I’m watching the Minnesota State Boys’ Hockey Tourney this week. I'm struck by how—similar to the rest of life—we celebrate the superstars while the ‘competent many’ do the heavy lifting. If some want to denigrate the majority to elevate themselves, that’s their own karmic burden, and we aren’t required to listen to their BS.
I recently read Cory Doctorow’s take (‘The Reverse-Centaur’s Guide to Criticizing AI’) where he argues that AI should make us ‘Digital Centaurs’—tool-enhanced humans who do useful things better. Instead, he warns that current deployments are creating ‘Reverse Centaurs’, turning humans into meat-bots serving the AI.
This isn’t fate: we get a vote on the shape of the future! We vote with regulations on public resources (zoning, power, water), we vote with our dollars by choosing which companies to support, and we vote with how much of our attention we give to an AI. We don’t have to allow data centers, nor must we accept AI replacing a swath of our workforce. But agency requires engagement. Staying ignorant is just a vote for servitude to the ‘new economy’.
P.S. Scanning random QR codes is one of many phone activities I don’t indulge in.
P.P.S. I’m currently re-evaluating my own AI use. I enjoy bouncing weird questions off the tech—ironically, I recently used it to flesh out an ethical framework for dealing with ‘problematic’ creators like Lovecraft or Gaiman. Perhaps my next chat with the machine should be about the ethics of its own existence.
P.P.P.S. I need to stop typing soon, but I had to give you credit for 'oleaginous'. I was only able to figure it out with help from the Latin root prefix 'ole-', as used in 'oleic acid' and 'oleomargarine' (which my mom shortened to 'oleo' as a synonym for margarine). Context took me home from there.
Thanks for this inspiring comment! Yes, we have to become active to defend our humanity and to keep AI where it belongs, as a useful tool and nothing more.
And thanks for the Cory Doctorow recommendation! I loved his novel Big Brother and will check out A Reverse-Centaur’s Guide!
You're very gracious and I'm very long-winded. ;-) I either have nothing to say, or too much.
Loved 'Little Brother', and the stories in Doctorow's 'Radicalized' were prescient. I think some of the points he makes in 'Reverse-Centaur's Guide' are substantially similar to points you've made in previous columns.
I assume you caught the literary allusion in my original comment. I'm also not very subtle.
No! I totally missed it! Unless it was “the competent many”? Please enlighten your clueless friend!
'Neither Out Far Nor In Deep' by Robert Frost.
I think I used it effectively in context of my relationship with literature. Poetry in particular is opaque to me. I remember this poem because it reflects back my mere surface appreciation of the genre.
Oh wow, that is a beautiful poem, and like so much of Frost it is unexpectedly deep.
The interpretation of the poem I'm using is, of course, only a subset of its full meaning. In alluding to it I was trying to say:
"I am standing on the shore, I see what you’re doing out there, but I’m not going to pretend I can touch the bottom of every reference."
I love Frost and will look up this poem! Thank you!
This is a good read, glad I found you