I recently read this post by Owen Elgie about AI.
Would AI be less scary if it’s got a name? Are people scared of Alexa, or Siri in the same way as the unnamed AI? Many people are quite happy to have them in their house.
Like you, I am more worried about the effect of AI on the Arts, especially writing. There are already books being churned out ‘written’ by AI.
I feel, that at the moment, AI can’t tap into the nuances of human behaviour and emotions. It doesn’t understand ‘feelings’. A bit like Mr Spock in Star Trek, only more so. As a result, the books written by AI aren’t that good.
But will it learn about these things, and the nuances of language? In English, we have words that have very similar in meaning, but have a subtly different sense. Can it learn when to use run or sprint? Can it learn about interpreting body language?
And art. Will it be able to add those subtle things that turn a painting from a simple realistic scene to one that stirs the emotions? And the same for an abstract.
One poet of my acquaintance (and I’m sure he’s not the only one) wrote a poem, and gave AI the same brief. His was so much better.
I expect things will develop as AI learns, but it’s got a long way to go, as yet. Mind you, judging by a few badly written books that have become best sellers in recent years, I’m not entirely convinced that many of the reading public are bothered about the writing.
Of course, we already use AI. Many people use it for research, although I’m unsure about that as I understand it’s not always as accurate as it might be.
What about spell checkers and programs such as Grammarly and Hemmingway? They are AI, too.
And games programs, too, many of which learn. Even my car learns about my style of driving and how it differs from that of my husband. (It knows which key has been used to unlock and start it.)
How do you feel about AI? Does it scare you?
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Dragons Rule OK. V.M.Sang (author) 
Hi Vivienne. Thank you for your interesting thoughts on AI.
I do own an Amazon Echo (Alexa). I find it great for playing music and I also use it for listening to books from Audible. However, if I ask it a complex question it often will not know the answer. For example, I asked my Echo “what was the Action T4 Programme”, and it was unable to tell me that this was the programme under which the Nazis murdered and sterilised the disabled. I am therefore not especially impressed with the abilities of Alexa.
One can put the same query into Chat GPT or similar online AI and it will come up with the correct answer together with links. This is impressive and potentially useful. However, an internet search will in my experience still bring up more comprehensive results than will entering a query into Chat GPT or similar AI.
AI also gets things wrong. I confess to having asked Chat GPT “who is poet Kevin Morris”? It came up with quite a bit of information about me and my poetry together with links. However, several of the books it attributed to me where not in fact mine, unless I have been writing and publishing in my sleep! So one needs to be wary of the results produced by AI!
As regards the future of creativity, I believe that even if AI can in the future produce good art people will still wish to read human generated content. It may even command a premium in the same way as beautifully made furniture does now.
A final thought. I think we need to be wary of taking what the investors and others with a vested interest in AI say about it. Yes it has (and will continue to change the world). However, there are those in whose interests the hyping of AI’s capabilities is in the interests of, for example buying the latest laptop equipped with AI when one’s present machine may well be perfectly fine for one’s needs.
Kevin
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We’ll just have to wait and see how things go, Kevin.
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I’ve always been apprehensive about AI.
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Yes, we don’t really know what we’re unleashing. I don’t mean things like you see in films where the robots try to take over, it’s the other, little things that are scary. AI producing writing, paintings, music, designing stuff like buildings. If that happens a whole bunch of people will be unemployed.
I watched a TV programme that showed an enormous warehouse. Fork lift trucks and other vehicles were zooming around picking up goods and taking them to where they were loaded onto trucks, or boats.
Not a single person was there.
If they start to be used for programming, a whole lot of programmers will be out of work.
We’ve been using AI, though for ages. Decades, even. Spell check, Grammarly, etc. Predictive text, although it doesn’t always get it right. It does learn. The predictive text on my tablet will suggest words I often use together.
Thanks for your comments.
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You’re welcome. You make some good points.
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