“Nothing vast enters the life of mortals without a curse.”
—Sophocles
“Nothing vast enters the life of mortals without a curse.”
—Sophocles
I asked GPT-4, with the BrowserOp plugin enabled, to read my blog and write three new posts in my style. Its initial response leads me to believe it only considered about the last two months of posts when emulating me, but that's good enough.
The first post summarizes my views on technology very well, albeit imperfectly. I'm struck by how gentle it is, and I wonder if I should strive to write more like this:
The Paradox of Progress: As we advance into an era of unprecedented technological growth, I find myself pondering the paradox of progress. On one hand, technology has undeniably made our lives more convenient. We can communicate instantly, access vast amounts of information, and even use AI to mimic human creativity. Yet, with every leap forward, there seems to be an unintended consequence. The same platforms that connect us also divide us, feeding us tailored content that reinforces our existing beliefs and isolates us from diverse perspectives. The tools that promise efficiency often lead to increased distractions and decreased human interactions. It's a reminder that progress isn't linear, and with every innovation, we must pause, reflect, and ask ourselves: Is this truly betterment, or just change? As the great thinker Aldous Huxley once said, “Technological progress has merely provided us with more efficient means for going backward.”
The second post is interesting. It makes the case for minimalism, which is important to me, but it also loses focus and veers off at the end:
The Ephemeral Nature of Digital Memories: In an age where every moment is captured, shared, and stored in the vast expanse of the digital realm, I've been contemplating the true essence of memories. Physical photographs once held a tangible weight, each one a frozen slice of time, carefully chosen and cherished. Now, with the ease of digital photography, we capture hundreds of moments, only to let them get buried in the depths of our devices. But does this abundance dilute the significance of these memories? Or does it simply offer a richer tapestry of our lives? As I sift through old digital photos, I'm reminded of the words of the poet Maya Angelou: “We are more alike, my friends, than we are unalike.” Perhaps, in this digital age, our shared experiences and memories serve as a bridge, connecting us in ways we've yet to fully understand.
The third is my favorite. I hadn't considered this, exactly, but I agree almost completely:
The Quiet Power of Solitude: In our hyper-connected world, moments of true solitude have become increasingly rare. The constant pings, notifications, and digital chatter often drown out the quiet introspections that once defined our quieter moments. Yet, it's in these moments of solitude that creativity often sparks, and self-reflection deepens. Virginia Woolf once wrote about the need for “a room of one's own” for deep thought and creation. Today, perhaps we need not just physical, but digital solitude—a space free from the relentless influx of information, where our minds can wander, explore, and simply be. As we navigate this digital age, it might be worth seeking out these pockets of quiet, for it's often in the silence that we truly hear ourselves.
Soon, I won't be needed at all. AI John will trade words with AI Zuckerberg without either of us lifting a finger. (I'm not worth the real Zuckerberg's time, but AI Zuck might have some cycles to spare.) On the other hand, maybe my digital mind will debate someone who's not so oblivious, who actually appreciates the dangers posed by today's weapons of mass distraction. Now there's a zinger GPT couldn't come up with!
For the time being, at least, when using ChatGPT and other AIs, we need to remember a simple rule: trust, but verify.
I dislike the political baggage associated with the phrase, but there's not much I can do about that. It's good advice.
As a curious person, ChatGPT is an incredible resource. When I want to debug a computer programming problem or get into the weeds of a philosophical issue, I often start by engaging with the chatbot. I've learned important things this way, but I've also noticed ChatGPT making major mistakes. In one particularly bad “hallucination,” as they're called, ChatGPT invented a horrific quote and attributed it to someone who said no such thing.
These things happen, and technologists don't currently have a solution. For that reason, I strongly recommend double-checking any important claim made by one of these mechanical minds. Trust, but verify.
In recent weeks, I've spotted one Etsy retailer and one physical retailer selling art under their own names that I'm almost certain were wholly generated by AI. (For now at least, it's sometimes not hard to spot when you know what you're looking for.)
We live in strange times.
Let's hope you never leave, old friend Like all good things, on you we depend So stick around 'cause we might miss you When we grow tired of all this visual You had your time, you had the power You've yet to have your finest hour Radio!
—Radio Ga Ga by Queen
I've loved this song since hearing it in the film Bohemian Rhapsody. The music is great, but I'm even more attracted to the message. There really is something special about audio as a medium. Podcasts are huge for a reason. Interviews, drama, news, comedy, true crime. Freddie was right.
I wonder if people will lose interest in podcasts when truly hands-free, self-driving cars become more widely available. I myself will certainly have fewer reasons to listen and more opportunities to be distracted by my phone. How strange is that? As a result of having more free time, I may spend less time doing something I enjoy. The attention economy at work?
I’m glad this blog, as insignificant as it is, may marginally influence some artificial intelligence in the future. After all, it’s my understanding that LLMs like ChatGPT and Bard are trained on public data. Perhaps the next ChatGPT will be just a bit more informed about issues that I care about.
I've written before that AI could be used to produce new Beatles albums, and now Sir Paul McCartney says artificial intelligence has enabled a 'final' Beatles song.
A while ago, I wrote that artificial intelligence may soon author new Beatles albums. In hindsight, I feel silly for suggesting that only 50 such records might be produced. If an AI could create 50 new albums in the style of the Beatles, and in their voices, it could create 10,000. It could create them on demand. Want to hear the band singing about hoverboards in a collaboration with Skrillex? Sure.
Today, this is even closer to becoming reality. As Andy Meek writes in BGR, “Thanks to the increasingly creative potential of artificial intelligence… Beatles fans like me can get a small taste of what it might have been like had the Fab Four either stayed together, or gotten back together, to produce new music.”
His article includes some amazing AI-generated mashups as examples, like Paul singing “Imagine,” as well as an unreleased song that AI was able to finish from an incomplete fragment. I'll admit that the reporting is light on details, and there's plenty of “fake AI” stuff going around on social media (no surprises there), but for the moment, I'll take Meek and the creators at their words. If any of these songs was not created with substantial help from AI, they might as well have been, and a future AI will be able to do the same, given how quickly things are accelerating. Our difficulty distinguishing between “real AI” and “fake AI” says something on its own.
I recommend reading his full article, As a lifelong Beatles fan, this AI-generated Beatles music is blowing my mind, or at least listening to the audio. We're still a little ways off from artificial intelligence producing entirely new songs, but it may not be very long.
“I want to leave the world better than I found it.”
I used to say that, but I've come to appreciate that many things are not within my control. Through no fault of my own and despite my best efforts, the world may very well worsen in the future. Society may be devastated by climate change, nuclear war, artificial intelligence, or social media. Would that be a personal failure? Of course not.
I later settled on alternative wording: I want to leave the world better than it would have been without me. Even that sometimes seems impossible, given my contributions to pollution and my consumption of limited resources, given the number of ants I've inadvertently stepped on, and so on. Still, it seems like a more reasonable goal.
I'm intrigued by Boring Report, a news aggregator that uses artificial intelligence to offer “boring” coverage of current events, free of sensationalism and clickbait. As one example, it offered the following headline:
Shakira and Lewis Hamilton Spend Time Together in Miami
for an article originally titled:
Newly-single Shakira enjoys cosy boat trip with Lewis Hamilton just days after pair were spotted at secret dinner
It's not perfect, but I like it. Imagine if all news read this way. How much more normal would the world feel?