THE WORST KINDS OF DUELS are the ones where everybody loses. Thus far, the debate over generative AI can be split into two camps. There are those who believe that tech like GPT-4 and Stable Diffusion is overrated, empty, a “blurry JPEG of the web” rich in simulated insight and low on substance. And there are those who claim it could (possibly literally) take charge of the planet—an all–knowing expert ready to rearrange every aspect of our lives. Every computer-generated Balenciaga promo, each machine-mastered SAT, is another bullet whistling through the air, glittering with algorithmic gunpowder.
Both views presuppose the same future: a world where “artificial intelligence” is a relatively singular thing. Perhaps it will be an Oracle, shaping wise sausages out of the lips and assholes of human experience. More likely we’ll have constructed a mechanical shill, a mindless parrot, or a “firehose of discourse,” as Andrew Dean put it in the Sydney Review of Books, spraying “university mission statements until the end of time.” We know some things for sure: the AI will be controlled by large companies. It will rely on closed datasets, dubious labor practices, and grievous energy consumption. And these hallowed, expurgated, optimized creations will be homogenous and interchangeable, like microwaves or search engines or limping late-capitalist democracies.
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