Saved by Chad Hudson and
AI and the Rise of Mediocrity
This AI boom has set off an existential crisis in me.
Some background: I’ve been teaching writing for the past six years. In that time, I developed frameworks for how to write well and a reputation as a good teacher to learn from. Partially because of the AI wave, I decided to stop teaching. It has only been four months since I shut down my busine... See more
A legitimate concern with AI models is not their potential to create “better” novels/essays/pictures/songs
Rather that they will create new habits and media experiences that invalidate traditional consumption
So it’s less about competition, more so about utter indifference
From Ezra Klein:
AI might be able to churn out content faster than we can, but we still need a human mind to sift through and figure out what’s good. In other words, A.I. is going to turn more of us into editors. But editing is a peculiar skill. It’s hard to test for, or teach, or even describe. But it’s the crucial step in the creative process that
... See moreIn its desperate hunger for clicks, much of the media has decided to endorse a maximalist interpretation of what AI might do. I’ve cataloged them before: disrupt every industry, eliminate poverty and need, send us off of into the stars, end death. Or, alternatively, threaten everything we’ve built, provoke dystopia, exterminate humanity. Take your ... See more
Our Dystopian AI Future Isn't Skynet. It's a "For You" Algorithm Stomping on a Human Face Forever
When it comes to AI, we need to aim higher than the question: “What if you could press a button to generate an essay?” AI can produce infinite amounts of content; quantity is its game. Quality, intention, taste, originality, vision—that’s where we come in.
Our interfaces should facilitate prose-sculpting, meaning-architecting, memory-augmenting, and
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