AI hellholes
it is what it sounds like.
AI hellholes
Just a moment...
walzr.comAre you smarter than an AI? ((quiz))
I think what we're witnessing isn't just an extension of the attention economy but something new - the simulation economy. It's not just about keeping you glued to the screen anymore. It's about convincing you that any sort of real-world effort is unnecessary, that friction itself is obsolete
kyla scanlon • The Most Valuable Commodity in the World Is Friction
This is all economically quite weird. The credential still costs money and at least now, still signals value. It still unlocks jobs, internships, visas, and salaries (although the wage premium has eroded over time). But the effort that used to underwrite that value has vanished.
This is a misalignment problem. The economic signal (the diploma) stil... See more
This is a misalignment problem. The economic signal (the diploma) stil... See more
kyla scanlon • The Most Valuable Commodity in the World Is Friction
the value of a college degree still exists despite that the work underlying that value is no longer there
one student said college now feels like “how well I can use ChatGPT.” Others describe writing essays as a coordination problem: get the prompt, feed it to the bot, skim the output, add some filler, hit submit. No thinking required, just interface management.
kyla scanlon • The Most Valuable Commodity in the World Is Friction
thinking, analyzing information —> coordination of information. moving bits around
When Mark Zuckerberg's Meta builds frictionless social interfaces, that cognitive smoothness is subsidized by somewhere, somehow, right?
kyla scanlon • The Most Valuable Commodity in the World Is Friction
subsidized by the earth, by the climate, by the communities poisoned by data centers
AI is the newest terrain in a decades-long race to eliminate all forms of cognitive resistance
kyla scanlon • The Most Valuable Commodity in the World Is Friction
With big technology companies working hard to get us to use — and trust — their products, they have an interest in rhetoric that makes their products come across as not just human-like but as human-like in ways that support our goals; they’re leaning into this particularly hard with AI models that generate language. To call big technology companies... See more
The Best Book I've Read This Year
on describing AI as a “collaborator” — an inherently human role, by definition — in writing (and why companies are desperate for us to agree)
“AI mirrors you. You're being sold back to yourself. It will only increase hyper-individualism and isolation.”
kyla scanlon • The Most Valuable Commodity in the World Is Friction
especially relevant re: Zuckerberg’s Meta AI companions that he is positioning as filling the gap between demand and supply of friendships.
(to-read) about AI as ideology, and one that tracks with our other ideologies about inequality, race, injustice