Do we need AI? It doesn't need us

Everything being written about AI (artificial intelligence) will probably seem quaint and stupid a year from now. Especially everything written on this site, which is generated entirely with NaGDoI (not a great deal of intelligence). Still, allow me to blather. 

First, it’s already everywhere. All of us are already interacting with AI every single day, mostly without being explicitly aware of it. This morning, for example, I was scanning my Google news feed and was struck by how many of the “news” cards were in fact listicles – you know, those irresistible rabbit holes with titles like “10 Best Places for Serial Killers to Retire,” or “Seven Signs You May Have Diarrhea.” The one I caught myself reading today was “9 Divisive Seasons of Great TV Shows That Are Worth Rewatching Today.”

The TV shows listed were not particularly great, and the reasons they should be rewatched were not wholly convincing. Oddly generic, in fact. Almost as if – and bear with me here – someone had been tasked with creating that day’s clickbait and had jumped over to ChatGPT or Copilot or Gemini and asked it to crap out a list with the desired parameters.

Which is what I did, and – voila! – pretty much the same list in the same bland style. My triumph in discovering this was somewhat tempered by the realization that I’d spent about 10 minutes sifting the first list for some bit of humor or insight. And, of course, scrolling through the attendant ads at the same time. Snookered by AI! You really have to be careful what you click on. 

Used to be – say, 18 months ago – some poor sap was getting paid to generate and edit lists like this. She, or he, would do a few Google searches and translate the results into something that might be leavened by a bit of snark or some semblance of personality.  That poor sap might still have a job today, but now the job is thinking up prompts. What used to take a half hour now takes a couple minutes, give or take. Which means 30 listicles an hour instead of two! And what if we told the AI to type out the prompts itself? We’re going to need a bigger news feed. 

Of course, an infinite stream of shitty lists is the least of the transformations promised by AI. Think of all the kids who learned to code, who now find that coding is largely obsolete. Ditto with artists who learned to draw and filmmakers who learned to make movies. Or really, anybody who spent any time at all learning a trade or skill that, in the fullness of time, will be done quicker and better without people to screw it up. That’s the big question, isn’t it? What happens when humans are no longer required?

By the way, that illustration up top? Yep, that’s AI. It was either that or steal a better image somewhere online. See, I never learned to draw. And I guess now I’m glad I didn’t waste my time.