These Traces 106

Jun 13

“You’re either the person who creates energy. Or you’re the one who destroys it.” Ryder Carroll

I tend to have strong views about certain topics, and I admit a lot of this is subjective. Opinions are like that. Still, banning books feels like a universally recognized warning sign within most of polite society. So do any societal changes veering towards exclusion, intolerance, incivility... or worse, violence—which is where incivility inevitably ends, unfortunately.

To no one's surprise I harbour similar concerns about what we're currently labelling as AI. I know, I know, but hear me out. Thing is, I've been a creative my entire life, always embracing technology as an enabler, a tool that would extend our reach, unlocking ever-evolving possibilities. So this apprehension is entirely new to me. And it's disconcerting.

I'm still processing my reaction to some of the aspects of Apple Intelligence—those I wrote about in the previous post. There's obviously nothing dramatic about tidier notes, and I don't believe in some dark, hidden agenda meant to degrade humanity in order to better control it. Basic run-of-the-mill greed from too many actors? Oh yeah, definitely. But what I fear isn't Judgment Day, it's a lack of prescience about the long-term effects of this technology on our abilities, in spite of our intentions. I guess what most troubles me is how we're quickly moving from form to content—rewriting our words, replacing our doodles, or even leaving all of it to an AI. I fear the impending habit of delegation.

Some of these functionalities are obviously benign. To use a musical analogy, they're similar to quantizing a take: you're fixing a few tempo issues here and there, tightening up a performance, no biggie. Others, however, remind me much more of Auto-Tune: a tool initially meant to fix "mistakes" that expands into creative use (good), but becomes ubiquitous to the point where it's hard to distinguish one voice from another (not so good). Actually, it's not even that great of a comparison, because despite the levelling applied, there's still a human voice behind the plug-in, adding nuances and rhythms. Individuality, albeit camouflaged. What many companies now propose is to eliminate the singer altogether.

Or the journalist.
Or the illustrator.
Or the coder.

Those who rely on generative AI to create are not creators any more than a person that commissions a portrait is an artist. (Edward Zitron - Are we watching the Internet die?)

Look, I want to be "the person who creates energy". I don't want to be The Destroyer. This new minefield we seem so hellbent on forging ahead into stirs up feelings that bother me greatly, which probably explains why I keep coming back to this particular topic. They make me question who I am or who I'm becoming. The guy-who-rages-against-change is not a definition I feel comfortable with. At all. And yet...

The point of this post? Man, no idea.
I think I'm just waiting for answers.