One of the best ways to communicate with our fellow humans is through the art we make.
Even something as quote a quote primitive as cave paintings can project something so profound by the simple outline of a handprint. That handprint used to belong to someone, someone whose name is all but forgotten, someone whose body has been reduced to bone, should it have even survived long enough to be found by us.
Thousands of souls built the Pyramids. Many people wrote the Bible, which influences the world around us to this day.
Shakespeare’s plays continue to be shown in theaters across the world, they speak to us across time and changes in sensibilities. The folk tales of the Zulus and the Koi San continue to inspire the descendants of those people.
It is why I find the concept of art, indeed most items from books to food being reduced to simple products to be consumed rather than enjoyed abhorrent. Remember when the McDonalds CEO almost gagged on his own “product”? The advent of AI generated content, designed solely to mindlessly, soullessly, entertain the masses is fast food for the brain on steroids.
At least Fast & Furious was made by real people. Not so much the latest trend of outrage bait on TikTok or Facebook.
AI generated content is just that, content, lacking even the human element that makes the escapist candy of Twilight tolerable. And the fact that it is everywhere reduces the ability to engage with reality or think about anything as a serious concern.
It is part of the continued effort towards the financialization of everything within society. The normalization of gambling, ever the eldritch force online, is one such expression of this. Apps like Polymarket are dystopian in the way that encourage the gamification of everything, coupled with the desensitization of very real-world ramifications of say wars or political elections. It is part of the process towards mindless dopamine hits.
Regarding art, a similar pattern emerges, creativity has been very difficult for companies to control, let alone remove the need for paying a human. Now with the advent of generative AI, they have been certainly trying.
Like the gamification of everything on Polymarket, AI generated content removes the soul of the art, replacing it with an empty husk, fit for only the mindless consumption. It is like candy colored gruel that doesn’t even fill. There is no empathy fostered, no connection or understanding, just noise.
Technology companies such as OpenAI, Clickout media and Polymarket have become invasive in the online world. They are all profoundly anti-human in their philosophy. When the sole motivation is profit it must be produced at the lowest cost possible for the highest possible gain. Gambling and AI generated content are best to help formulate numbing hits of dopamine to keep us hooked.
It is abhorrent, and that doesn’t even get into the many other destructive factors included in the creation such as the environment. It is also reason for the rising cost of personal computing.
It is disgusting.
And that doesn’t cover how generative AI is used to help propagate Authoritarianism across the world, replacing critical thought and discourse with mindless fear and regurgitation.
I am glad that there has been an ongoing rejection of AI by my generation, it’s just previous generations that have taken to it like fish to water.
Ironically, they were the ones who warned me about not trusting everything I read on the internet.
Machines need to enrich humanity, not be a parasite to our brains.
We need to be pro-human.
