"Ghoulishness and greed" indeed. Thank you for this sane and sobering gaze at AI slop content. I want to believe that we will get sick and tired and offended and ultimately reject it, but I'm not optimistic. Welcome to zombieland.
It’s all sounding a bit like Orwell’s “versificator”, isn’t it? Panem et circenses. At first I was ambivalent. I didn’t want to seem like an out of touch Luddite. In recent months, though, I’ve become extremely wary of the sheer volume of slop coming from many and varied sources. I’ve eliminated 90% of my social media presence and am reading more thought provoking literature from (I hope) deep thinking humans who haven’t been fully caught up in the tsunami of marketing propaganda.
It at least seems that most of what is prominently displayed and peddled is low effort, low quality content-for-profit. If the profiting was a by-product of actually growing and improving humanity, I’d have no problem with it. I’d cheer it on.
Alas, instead, my amateur observations have led me to conclude that nearly every wildly popular algorithm is instead playing to humanity’s base urges and encouraging a backward regression in civility, deep thought, altruism, and human progress.
I’m not all doom and gloom, though. I perceive an opportunity for those who recognize and choose not to be prostituted for financial gain, or at least avoid it to every reasonable degree. To borrow from the Matrix, I think I just took the red pill. “Welcome to Wonderland.”
I am almost gen z and on youtube I've been putting the "not interested" option to work on this AI slop as soon as it started trying to invade my suggestions a few years ago because for some reason I didn't like the "shiny" look. The rest of my generation can explore this shiny, new AI media without me, and I am not reading a lot here that is making me regret missing out. I dodged spotify for no better reason than a specific group of rappers I listened to didn't upload their tracks to that platform. I have been making my first purchases of vinyl and physical books after I read "The Shallows" a year ago and started swimming against the tide. If Silicon Valley has forgotten what "garbage in, garbage out" means, then I will continue to turn my attention to vintage media formats. One of the first things my friends notice is the absence of ads. A better attention span for the first time in my life has been too tempting for this other slop to be more intriquing. The tech overlords had better hope for their own sake that I am one of the only ones in my age bracket doing this.
The key word "taste" begs a comparison to the development of fast and ultra-processed food, which may have proven that the wide masses will pretty much gobble up anything vaguely satisfying and affordable... I hope I'm wrong, though.
We've seen, though, at least among a subset of the population, a recognition of the ills of processed foods and a shift toward more natural foods. So maybe that's cause for hope.
"Ghoulishness and greed" indeed. Thank you for this sane and sobering gaze at AI slop content. I want to believe that we will get sick and tired and offended and ultimately reject it, but I'm not optimistic. Welcome to zombieland.
It’s all sounding a bit like Orwell’s “versificator”, isn’t it? Panem et circenses. At first I was ambivalent. I didn’t want to seem like an out of touch Luddite. In recent months, though, I’ve become extremely wary of the sheer volume of slop coming from many and varied sources. I’ve eliminated 90% of my social media presence and am reading more thought provoking literature from (I hope) deep thinking humans who haven’t been fully caught up in the tsunami of marketing propaganda.
It at least seems that most of what is prominently displayed and peddled is low effort, low quality content-for-profit. If the profiting was a by-product of actually growing and improving humanity, I’d have no problem with it. I’d cheer it on.
Alas, instead, my amateur observations have led me to conclude that nearly every wildly popular algorithm is instead playing to humanity’s base urges and encouraging a backward regression in civility, deep thought, altruism, and human progress.
I’m not all doom and gloom, though. I perceive an opportunity for those who recognize and choose not to be prostituted for financial gain, or at least avoid it to every reasonable degree. To borrow from the Matrix, I think I just took the red pill. “Welcome to Wonderland.”
Amazing. Thank you.
I am almost gen z and on youtube I've been putting the "not interested" option to work on this AI slop as soon as it started trying to invade my suggestions a few years ago because for some reason I didn't like the "shiny" look. The rest of my generation can explore this shiny, new AI media without me, and I am not reading a lot here that is making me regret missing out. I dodged spotify for no better reason than a specific group of rappers I listened to didn't upload their tracks to that platform. I have been making my first purchases of vinyl and physical books after I read "The Shallows" a year ago and started swimming against the tide. If Silicon Valley has forgotten what "garbage in, garbage out" means, then I will continue to turn my attention to vintage media formats. One of the first things my friends notice is the absence of ads. A better attention span for the first time in my life has been too tempting for this other slop to be more intriquing. The tech overlords had better hope for their own sake that I am one of the only ones in my age bracket doing this.
Rotten was right all along. The sneer, the taunt, and the scorn.
He knew that most the rubes wouldn't know they been cheated and those that had wouldn't even have the decency to mind. A great swindle indeed.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2JcNVaKgkXE
Too early for a sonic reducer pun? Love your posts and your books. Preorder of Superbloom in place at my local bookstore. XOP
Thanks, Pete. Rob Horning used "Sonic Reducer" as the title for his post, so I had to forgo it, despite the temptation.
"What’s really being tested here is human taste."
The key word "taste" begs a comparison to the development of fast and ultra-processed food, which may have proven that the wide masses will pretty much gobble up anything vaguely satisfying and affordable... I hope I'm wrong, though.
Virtual slop and real slop.
We've seen, though, at least among a subset of the population, a recognition of the ills of processed foods and a shift toward more natural foods. So maybe that's cause for hope.
Photo at top of story is not AI. Am I right?
That’s Entertainment.
Don't tell anyone else but, yes, you're right, it's real.
I think.