"Robot-prompted or not, the realm of reflection will always be reserved for the human. And most importantly, it will still be hard— thank God! Art made without struggle isn’t worth the canvas it’s inked on." -- This is, to me, what takes fear out of the equation and makes your scenario awesome. Another magnificent essay, Michael.
...down for the deanbot especially if it can come with a customizable jukebox...i think the main thing your a.i. enthusiasm has shown me is that a future with a.i. as assistant could be quite useful/pleasant (maybe a little lonely too) vs. a.i. as replacement where i think the arguments around here (here being there) are a little less successful (ie; netflix is a great example of a place where as data makes decisions the content has decreased in quality and joy aka any comedy they shart out on a weekly basis that feels algorithmically edited)...
besides my very public 'AI blows' brand at stake here, I have...doubts. In no particular order:
- isn't the magic of a piece that some squishy unintelligible thing creates some baffling connection between two things that makes no sense but actually makes so much sense it blows your mind and wham now you've got something crazy cool to write about? If the AI editor did that for me, wouldn't the 'whoa balls that's insane' realization of connection not be as powerful or exist at all? so much of writing works because you surprise yourself into it, and if a tool could make that surprise easy peasy no lemons needed, then might we as individuals and as a culture grow numb to it and/or seek surprise somewhere else?
like what if the ai god thing made it so that insanely beautiful essays were the norm? i'd probably try to write a terrible 5 paragraph essay because the form of what I was doing would be surprising? And in that surprise there would be meaning?
i know i said there'd be a few ideas here in no particular order but there really is just the one
I was in a conversation the other day where I needed to reference a Latin word used in Cicero's On Duties and Matthews Gospel. I was able to pull from those very two specific insights but it took me ten seconds. What if the machine could make it in an instant and the flow of conversation was never broken?
wonderful essay as always. You went over 500 words and specifically told me to address you if you did this. so here I am. Call me soon. lol
A very interesting and provocative post, Michael. Now I can see the outlines, at least, of the grand plan represented by your journaling. You're creating training data for your AI DeanBot. Fascinating.
Your post reminded of SBF's and Richard Hanania's argument based on Bayesian statistical analysis that Shakespeare wasn't that great, because so few people were literate when Shakespeare was writing. I realize you're not making that case yourself, but I wonder if it's embedded in the notion of vast personal training data being used to train an AI Editor G*d.
Send me the beta link. I’m ready to check it out
I fully expect a Sklar Bot in the future (sarcasm optional)
Otherwise known as Chris Wong!!! Also, love the concept of an "AI prepper"
"Robot-prompted or not, the realm of reflection will always be reserved for the human. And most importantly, it will still be hard— thank God! Art made without struggle isn’t worth the canvas it’s inked on." -- This is, to me, what takes fear out of the equation and makes your scenario awesome. Another magnificent essay, Michael.
lol I want Chris Wong
...down for the deanbot especially if it can come with a customizable jukebox...i think the main thing your a.i. enthusiasm has shown me is that a future with a.i. as assistant could be quite useful/pleasant (maybe a little lonely too) vs. a.i. as replacement where i think the arguments around here (here being there) are a little less successful (ie; netflix is a great example of a place where as data makes decisions the content has decreased in quality and joy aka any comedy they shart out on a weekly basis that feels algorithmically edited)...
besides my very public 'AI blows' brand at stake here, I have...doubts. In no particular order:
- isn't the magic of a piece that some squishy unintelligible thing creates some baffling connection between two things that makes no sense but actually makes so much sense it blows your mind and wham now you've got something crazy cool to write about? If the AI editor did that for me, wouldn't the 'whoa balls that's insane' realization of connection not be as powerful or exist at all? so much of writing works because you surprise yourself into it, and if a tool could make that surprise easy peasy no lemons needed, then might we as individuals and as a culture grow numb to it and/or seek surprise somewhere else?
like what if the ai god thing made it so that insanely beautiful essays were the norm? i'd probably try to write a terrible 5 paragraph essay because the form of what I was doing would be surprising? And in that surprise there would be meaning?
i know i said there'd be a few ideas here in no particular order but there really is just the one
I, for one, welcome our new Editor G*ds
Brilliant, Michael
"I’m a nerd of the craft turned AI prepper."
Great line! Love how this piece turned out.
I was in a conversation the other day where I needed to reference a Latin word used in Cicero's On Duties and Matthews Gospel. I was able to pull from those very two specific insights but it took me ten seconds. What if the machine could make it in an instant and the flow of conversation was never broken?
wonderful essay as always. You went over 500 words and specifically told me to address you if you did this. so here I am. Call me soon. lol
I have to say, I am itching for the day that my own personal AI starts connecting my dingleberry of thoughts, bc right now it’s just scat 🤣.
A very interesting and provocative post, Michael. Now I can see the outlines, at least, of the grand plan represented by your journaling. You're creating training data for your AI DeanBot. Fascinating.
Your post reminded of SBF's and Richard Hanania's argument based on Bayesian statistical analysis that Shakespeare wasn't that great, because so few people were literate when Shakespeare was writing. I realize you're not making that case yourself, but I wonder if it's embedded in the notion of vast personal training data being used to train an AI Editor G*d.
OK, for the sake of participating since you asked:
Does this ease any existential anxiety around the future of writing? No
Would you trust an AI-powered editor? No
I think I need to write about why those answers come with such decisiveness.
And the first part of the answer is that I'm just too old.
But there's more to it than that which I should probably explore.