35 Comments

I think I sit somewhere awkwardly between you and Joel. I would have made the perfect referee for your smackdown. I use AI in some fashion on a daily basis for work and experimentation, and Iā€™m often delighted in the same way Iā€™m delighted by a magic trick. But like a magic trick, the output of AI feels like empty calories. I think the reason I stay engaged with it is because it is evolving rapidly, and none of us can accurately predict what is possible. Right now it is a tool and an echo chamber of all the great ideas humans have produced, but I think it has the potential to be a looking glass for us to examine consciousness. Or not. šŸ˜œ

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Such a thought-provoking post! I love the 'Bleak House' references - you've taken me right back to A-level English Lit - goodness me, I had never resented 884 consecutive pages so much, either before or since.....! šŸ¤£

Although I've been a subscriber to Life Litter for ages I have just had to re-subscribe myself twice in order to comment, even though I'm an existing subscriber - I rather think that yesterday's Substack outage might've given it a bit of a lingering headache! šŸ¤£

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It increasingly appears to be an artful tool. Think on this and shudder: scientists are learning ChatGPT is giving better answers when you tell it to answer as Captain Kirk and so forth.

That is not good, and I am not joking. We have no idea what weā€™re playing with.

Burn this after reading.

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I'm with you, Jill - *bleep bloop* šŸ¤–

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Love this!

"But a tool performs a function ā€” art is the extra. Hell, itā€™s right there in the name: exTRA." I agree 100% I also think art stems from not-knowing. Because ChatGPT has imbibed innumerable facts and plots and papers etc., it knows all and the "art" it spits out lacks that essential hole in the center.

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When you finish I'd love to discuss and compare views.

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I don't get involved in other couples' fights, but I couldn't possibly spend more time than I do on the technical and philosophical issues involved in what they call "AI" and IMO you are correct. The cool thing is that time will tell; we don't have to persuade one another of anything!

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Good show. I don't know who is right on AI, but we'll probably find out in our lifetimes. I hope that you are right, and agree that there is no soul, no extra. It's still too easy to recognize the bland AI pictures, words and music. It's easy to mimic how we think- we're pretty stupid. Hard to mimic how we feel and the spark/soul that ignites us- we're pretty wild. Joel seems very smart, though, so I'm not betting against him.

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I want to ask ChatGPT to generate a conversation on AI between Jill and Lauren Hough, but I'm concerned it might burn a wormhole in the space-time continuum.

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I am on your side regarding "AI" ... until it's self-aware it's just Google on steroids and should not be called AI.

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Yes yes yes. Couldn't agree more

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Hi Jill,

Bleak House itself has a soul or at least it's part of Dickens' soul.

I want more awkward encounters! Life is boring without them.

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Very well put. It reminds me of the Young and Rubicam poster 'Computers Can't Cry'

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Fight the fight!

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Hi Jill. I read somewhere that the creator of chat GPT said something along the lines of, people won't be that impressed with it once they discover that it's not very good.

As for AI generated art ...not for me, but maybe I'm a luddite šŸ˜†

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