The Internet and other technology has already come for and destroyed much of what I'd call culture, particularly in the west but also all over the world.
Tech replaces almost every human-to-human dependency with a human-to-machine dependency, many voluntary human-to-human interactions with human-to-machine interactions and most of the remaining human-to-human interactions with human-through-machine-to-human interactions.
AI as an advancement in tech is accelerating this.
I fight for culture by making music and food with other people at every opportunity.
bko · 28m ago
Who defines our culture today?
Large media corporations. It's a bit frustrating at times. Sometimes when I read the news or try to find something on Google, I can sense an editorial bias or narrative. A lot of times it's subtle, like something being omitted or a tangential issue addressed.
A prime example of this are modern "fact checks". For instance if you wanted to explore if people are arrested for mean tweets in the UK, you can Google "fact check arrested for mean tweets", which brings you to a fact check that is a cherry picked case of an 11 year old getting arrested for "suspicion of violent disorder" and listed as "Misleading". But there are no follow ups, like what is the definition of "violent disorder" or are there any other cases where people were arrested for mean tweets. And since it's deemed as "Misleading", you're left to believe that people are not being arrested for mean tweets, which is just not true.
I feel LLMs allow you to ask follow ups and reason from pure principles much easier than the canned narrative from some giant corporation. Even when you do run up against a narrative, it's pretty easy to poke holes through it with follow up questions.
Of course the reverse is that you can probably find some evidence that feeds into your existing world view. But I think on the whole AI will be a positive impact on culture in this regard
something deeply ironic about this piece using an AI generated video at the top of the page.
like, of course AI is coming for culture if even the New Yorker, a very well known American cultural magazine, is willing to leverage it to avoid paying an artist to create a short video.
fortran77 · 1h ago
I think that was the point, as explained in the caption to the photo:
> "If A.I. continues to automate creative work, the total volume of cultural “stuff” will increase. New forms, or new uses for existing forms, will pull us in directions we don’t anticipate. Visual by David Szauder; Generated using A.I."
medhir · 37m ago
I definitely understand the intention, it still just feels a bit intellectually lazy to me.
Maybe it’s just my own aversion to using AI for creative work coming through… I can’t get myself to even add an AI generated image to a personal blog post.
Tech replaces almost every human-to-human dependency with a human-to-machine dependency, many voluntary human-to-human interactions with human-to-machine interactions and most of the remaining human-to-human interactions with human-through-machine-to-human interactions.
AI as an advancement in tech is accelerating this.
I fight for culture by making music and food with other people at every opportunity.
Large media corporations. It's a bit frustrating at times. Sometimes when I read the news or try to find something on Google, I can sense an editorial bias or narrative. A lot of times it's subtle, like something being omitted or a tangential issue addressed.
A prime example of this are modern "fact checks". For instance if you wanted to explore if people are arrested for mean tweets in the UK, you can Google "fact check arrested for mean tweets", which brings you to a fact check that is a cherry picked case of an 11 year old getting arrested for "suspicion of violent disorder" and listed as "Misleading". But there are no follow ups, like what is the definition of "violent disorder" or are there any other cases where people were arrested for mean tweets. And since it's deemed as "Misleading", you're left to believe that people are not being arrested for mean tweets, which is just not true.
I feel LLMs allow you to ask follow ups and reason from pure principles much easier than the canned narrative from some giant corporation. Even when you do run up against a narrative, it's pretty easy to poke holes through it with follow up questions.
Of course the reverse is that you can probably find some evidence that feeds into your existing world view. But I think on the whole AI will be a positive impact on culture in this regard
https://mleverything.substack.com/p/anatomy-of-a-fact-check
like, of course AI is coming for culture if even the New Yorker, a very well known American cultural magazine, is willing to leverage it to avoid paying an artist to create a short video.
> "If A.I. continues to automate creative work, the total volume of cultural “stuff” will increase. New forms, or new uses for existing forms, will pull us in directions we don’t anticipate. Visual by David Szauder; Generated using A.I."
Maybe it’s just my own aversion to using AI for creative work coming through… I can’t get myself to even add an AI generated image to a personal blog post.