Somewhere around six months ago, we casually walked over the AI tipping point. If the climb to the moment ChatGPT and DALL-E arrived was steep, the descent is basically vertical. Things are moving very quickly now and rapidly growing beyond our ability to rationally control them.
As Joe Biden was announcing its reelection campaign, the Republican National Committee took the unusual step of releasing a video generated almost entirely by AI. It depicted a dystopia triggered by Biden’s reelection.
There’s no evidence that the RNC tried to hide the video’s AI origins. They may have touted it, possibly, because it doesn’t matter. People are moved by images regardless of their provenance or truth. The RNC is smart enough to realize that, and so it found the shortest distance between idea and creation.
AI is now a powerful tool that, thanks to a wide array of readily available and incredibly easy-to-use tools, can be used by almost anyone to rapidly prototype and distribute a finished product that tells exactly the story they need it to.
All that’s required is a scenario and an idea and the AI does the rest.
I’ve been covering powerful AI tools for years, but this may be the first time where I’m truly worried that they could have a devastating effect on humanity. This upcoming presidential election season will be a proving ground for some of the most audacious uses of AI we’ve ever seen. It will be almost impossible for the average voter to tell the difference between what’s real and what’s been AI faked.
And with some trusted news sources struggling financially, walking away from social media, and usually not trusted by exactly the people who need to know the truth, the future of fact and reality looks very dim indeed
I have a very bad feeling about this.
On the bright side?
It’s not all doom and gloom. Recently, some engineers figured out how to put ChatGPT inside Boston Dynamics Spot robotic dog. I don’t think it really enhances Spot’s utility that much, but at least the normally mute bot can sort of carry on a conversation.
Perhaps someone should try integrating conversational capabilities into all the police robots NYC started deploying a few weeks ago. I saw them in person in Manhattan. One was a Spot, but the others resembled imposing rolling trash cans. They move slowly, crowd your space, and don’t offer much in the way of feedback. Some large language model systems might make them more friendly or at least a tiny bit less scary when they’re chasing you through Times Square.
Podcasts
I don’t do a single mundane task without a podcast in my ear. This audio entertainment makes everything go faster, even more so than a steady stream of music would. I’ve been listening to podcasts for years and before that I hosted or regularly appeared on a couple, first PCMagRadio and then MashTalk. I really loved the medium, and I may return to it someday.
So now I listen to a bunch of them, including Marc Maron’s WTF, Smartless, Serial, How did this get made?, and, perhaps my favorite, The Moth which is real people telling true stories in front of live audiences. They are often deeply moving.
I’ve tried interesting my wife in that podcast, but she’s shown no interested; this despite her being an almost Olympian podcast listener. In a way, she’s a monster of my own creation. I first suggested she start listening to WTF years ago. She initially said no but was soon hooked and is now a massive Maron fan. She also listens to more podcasts than I do.
That’s the thing about podcasts, they’re one of the few additive forms of entertainment that is perfectly designed to be consumed while doing something else. If my wife and I are house cleaning, we’re both listening to podcasts. It’s simply not possible to do that with movies, TV, or books.
In any case, getting back to The Moth, I may never get my wife to listen, but I encourage you to do it. Every time I listen, I think I might someday deliver my own live story. Maybe someday.
That’s all for now.
Be good to each other.