“To create anything … is to believe, if only momentarily, you are capable of magic. … That magic … is sometimes perilous, sometimes infectious, sometimes fragile, sometimes failed, sometimes infuriating, sometimes triumphant, and sometimes tragic.”
The problem with A.I. art is that it can only look backwards. It’s like an art forger who can make a painting that looks like a Cézanne, but who, no matter how skilled with a brush, will never be the next Cézanne. That said, in this first phase of the A.I. “revolution”, A.I. will look pretty good, because it’s mostly training (stealing) from real human work. But as the slop floods all outlets, the machines will end up just making more garbage derived from the garbage they already made. Will this be good enough to sell tooth-whitening strips on YouTube? Sure. But the real stuff: the artistic works we keep close to our hearts for generations, is under no threat.
I took the quiz and I ended up selecting some of the AI passages. I’m also concerned by this but wanted to add some thoughts on why I think that happened—I think a big part of it is that you can’t really compare a short passage like that to a whole novel, and part of what appeals to me about human writing is the personal stories (which are hard to get from super short passages like that). Also, while I recognize that some of those passages were from classical works that are arguably very good, I don’t enjoy reading that type of writing (I prefer more modern, fast-paced books). So in the quiz, for some of them, I didnt love either option. Again, totally owning up to the fact that these are popular classical works that are great—just not great to me. And that may have factored into other voters in the quiz! I think I would have done better in categories I enjoy reading more, like modern science fiction/fantasy (like Octavia Butler, Silo series, Harry Potter) or personal essays/memoirs
Completely agree with your first point--easy enough for AI to write a few lines out of context that can pass off, harder for it to sustain that performance, make it rise to the level of a compelling story as a whole (across plot, character development, etc.). Also agree that taste comes into play here! Look out for part 2 coming soon :)
“To create anything … is to believe, if only momentarily, you are capable of magic. … That magic … is sometimes perilous, sometimes infectious, sometimes fragile, sometimes failed, sometimes infuriating, sometimes triumphant, and sometimes tragic.”
Another way to view magical thinking :)
The problem with A.I. art is that it can only look backwards. It’s like an art forger who can make a painting that looks like a Cézanne, but who, no matter how skilled with a brush, will never be the next Cézanne. That said, in this first phase of the A.I. “revolution”, A.I. will look pretty good, because it’s mostly training (stealing) from real human work. But as the slop floods all outlets, the machines will end up just making more garbage derived from the garbage they already made. Will this be good enough to sell tooth-whitening strips on YouTube? Sure. But the real stuff: the artistic works we keep close to our hearts for generations, is under no threat.
Only Reddit's finest for AI training!
Fear not. AI is the tool.
The content is merely a result of a human interaction.
The question is not what is the quality of the output, but rather the merit of the input.
And of course, this includes driving the more creative and aesthetic qualities o the output.
When everyone has the same tool, the standard will be elevated and the usual subjective evaluations will apply.
So true. Tools have no inherent meaning without a meaning-maker to assign it... More on this in part 2 coming soon :)
I took the quiz and I ended up selecting some of the AI passages. I’m also concerned by this but wanted to add some thoughts on why I think that happened—I think a big part of it is that you can’t really compare a short passage like that to a whole novel, and part of what appeals to me about human writing is the personal stories (which are hard to get from super short passages like that). Also, while I recognize that some of those passages were from classical works that are arguably very good, I don’t enjoy reading that type of writing (I prefer more modern, fast-paced books). So in the quiz, for some of them, I didnt love either option. Again, totally owning up to the fact that these are popular classical works that are great—just not great to me. And that may have factored into other voters in the quiz! I think I would have done better in categories I enjoy reading more, like modern science fiction/fantasy (like Octavia Butler, Silo series, Harry Potter) or personal essays/memoirs
Completely agree with your first point--easy enough for AI to write a few lines out of context that can pass off, harder for it to sustain that performance, make it rise to the level of a compelling story as a whole (across plot, character development, etc.). Also agree that taste comes into play here! Look out for part 2 coming soon :)