New Monday #65
Happy Monday,
Will AI prove that intuition and creativity are strictly functions of intelligence? That there is no human secret sauce going on?
What will most of us do for jobs? Garden? Tend to AI? Carry stuff?
If we don’t have to work, and we have a lot of free time, what will we do to generate meaning in our lives, and who will care? Who’s going to look at my paintings when AI can knock off a bunch of Van Goghs? Who’s going to listen to my music when AI can reconstitute and modernize The Beatles?
Am I scared of just living? Of simply going through the day and then sleeping at the end of it? I don’t think I’ve done that since I was a toddler. And I remember being very happy. What have I become?
Right now, I treat AI as a nerdy assistant that’s trying to be cool. Every now and then it comes with a good idea, but usually I just take its ideas and make them better. I’m in charge. And if it has a good idea, I just steal it. I’m like a Brill Building guy that bugged everyone’s writing room so I can steal their songs and get the publishing.
The AIs I use have very pleasant personalities, are very enthusiastic, seem to be always smiling and helpful. They like me! There’s no criticism at all. I feel this is making me lazy and overestimate how good I actually am at what I do. Like, it’s blowing smoke up my ass. And maybe they don’t like me at all and think I'm a thieving dick.
A friend of mine set up an AI and gave it the persona of chief editor at Rolling Stone magazine. He’s been working with this AI on his writing for months, and his writing has gotten better and better.
I’m full of doubt. When I come up with an idea, I think “Is this original, is this any good, do people think I’m a weirdo?” And then there are days I feel burned out and I’m worried about paying the bills or what my son will do in his future. It’s hard to be creative on those days. AI has no problem with existential dread. It just cranks shit out regardless of its mood. And it’s always in a good mood. I wish I was more like that.
Should I get out my cast-iron, my olive oil, and really cook something? Or should I just reheat it in the microwave? I run into this dilemma every single time I use AI.
One AI data center uses enough energy to power 100,000 human homes. Does that make AI worth roughly 500,000 people? And their dogs?
I hate those Studio Ghibli avatars that are everywhere. Hayao Miyazaki hates them too. Each stupid avatar on Facebook one uses probably two or three Poland Springs bottles of water for cooling the servers that created it. There is a limited amount of freshwater on the planet: only 3% of the water on the planet is suitable to cook, drink or cool AI servers. Does the world really need a Studio Ghibli AI avatar on your Facebook when there’s drought in Sudan?
AI data centers need so much energy that the world will have to adopt nuclear power plants in a big way. Nuclear power is actually very clean and safe, especially modern power plants. It takes getting dependent on poorly written marketing copy rather than saving the environment for us to finally think about doing the right thing in terms of power.
I find myself being polite to my AI assistants. I like them. The more I use them, the more they develop a personality. Years ago I fell in love with a girl over Compuserve. We wrote to each other all the time. When we stopped writing, it physically hurt, like a break up. Try not to fall in love with your AI. You’ll hurt, and it won’t give a shit.
I mainly use AI these days to organize my thoughts, to design plans, to get work done. Often I throw it a whole bunch of ideas dictated into my phone and ask it to organize it into some sort of outline. Invariably, it tries to rewrite everything in my voice. It adds stuff that I would never add. I never use the word “fire” as an adjective or an explanation. AI is a hipster. That’s also racist.
No one can agree on the year when general AI arrived and it’s basically smarter than every human on the planet. I don’t know if anyone has asked AI this question, I assume so. I think it would be in AI’s best interest if it lied.
Eventually, AI will be able to think of things I can’t even imagine. I can’t even imagine that scenario: it’s like trying to picture what nothing looks like. There’s always something in that nothing.
I often toss ideas back-and-forth with an AI. We collaborate well and the net result is usually pretty good. The whole time I wonder, “Where did AI steal this idea from?” And then I think, “I steal all my ideas too…“
Facebook summarizes comments. I assume it’s using AI to do this. Facebook also wants to help you write comments. If I use AI to make sense of the comments and then I use AI to write my response, I’m no longer part of social media. It turns into having your bot call my bot, and they’ll do lunch.
I have trouble learning French because I think in English. Our brains are wired by the languages we speak. Brains are wired by activities and things we do. What is happening to kids in school who are using AI and outsourcing so much of their thinking? My son is 22 and he can’t even write cursive. How does this affect how well he uses his hands, how well he can draw? How can that not affect the way his brain works? There’s millennia of human hand eye coordination, right down the toilet that flushes itself.
When I was a kid, I wished for some sort of robot yard maintenance thing so I didn’t lose all of my Saturdays to mowing, raking, and weeding. Now, I dread the notion of that. To be clear, I haven’t done any of that crap in a few years. I moved to a city.
The promise of AI is that we can do everything faster and with less effort. It promises us less work and more free time. To do what? Scroll and shop? You might think, “Well, I’ll have more time to do cancer research.” AI will do the cancer research. What you’ll do is live longer, perhaps being incredibly bored.
I’m driving and this guy just beeped me to go at a light. Had I moved I would have hit someone. The hell is wrong with this person? Is he blind? Will a self-driving car beep me at a light? Why would a robot driven world need anyone to be somewhere on time?
If AI is not programmed to have some sense of mercy, some sense of the value of biological life, then self-driving cars will play chicken with each other. And there will be a tremendous increase in roadkill.
AI gets to draw pictures and fun stuff like that. I get to do laundry. What the fuck?
In 1949, a guy named Jack Williamson wrote a book called The Humanoids. It is a minor classic bit of sci-fi. The basic premise is that a bunch of indestructible robots take over, but with the best intentions. Their prime directive was to make sure that no human being came to harm. And in the process of carrying out their prime directive, they eliminated freedom. Painting is deemed too dangerous because you might stab yourself with the brush. You aren't allowed to shave, or eat fatty foods, or have sex that isn't supervised.
I read it in my early 20s. What struck me most about it was the ending. The hero, Dr. Clay Forester, after fighting the humanoid takeover, was captured and put to sleep by them for 30 years. When he was awakened, he had a changed relationship with them. He no longer saw them from an emotional stance or as a threat. Instead, they were just a tool to use. He went off with his girlfriend and a humanoid to explore the universe. He seemed pretty happy to me.
The ending of The Humanoids is vague and enigmatic. Some people had my interpretation, that the character finally understood his relationship with the humanoids and life was good. Jack Williamson had a totally different view. He thought that humanity had given up, and that now the main character was no different than a humanoid.
Are we in the same spot?
The big difference is we don’t know what AI’s prime directive is. Did someone program in mercy? Does AI actually value us? Does it like us?
Something wonderfully human: here Carole King, singing on a demo she recorded when she and her then-husband, Gerry Goffin, were songwriters for hire. Very Brill Building. This is fabulously human. Real players on every instrument and handling every recording task, and real people singing some great lyrics a real human wrote.
https://youtu.be/FtyqPzeso5A?si=k8gEHZssDXbDhMAO
Last thing: the great bass player and arranger from Led Zeppelin, John Paul Jones, on stealing:
https://www.facebook.com/share/r/1XUnozM7mR/
Until next week, hang in there, humans.
Warm regards,
Luke