[Second One] More Human Than Human - Issue #2
Skepticism about AI
Hello Internet.
It’s been a bit of time.
Time is an illusion in Matrix-like speak, so much has happened and is happening.
ChatGPT
WARNING - To clarify this out of the gate - NONE of this was written with any AI help.
I’m ethically feeling many ways about this technology and truly believe it should come with some sort of caveat before using it.
GPT4 has limitations, which they list at the very bottom of their website after all the flashy stats and marketing speak.
“GPT-4 still has many known limitations that we are working to address, such as social biases, hallucinations, and adversarial prompts. We encourage and facilitate transparency, user education, and wider AI literacy as society adopts these models. We also aim to expand the avenues of input people have in shaping our models.”
They also have safety standards.
“We will build safety into our AI tools where possible, and work hard to aggressively reduce harms posed by the misuse or abuse of our AI tools.”
…hard to aggressively? *raised eyebrow*
I’ve always thought that every social media site should come with a warning and I think this limitation above should be known by all before treading into the waters of this technology.
When social media became a large piece of the web there was a documentary that came out called, “Terms & Conditions May Not Apply” by Cullen Hoback about how long each website legal is and how long it would take to read each one.
There’s a wonderful scene at the end where Mark Zuckerberg runs away from him and asks him to stop recording but he doesn’t and Mark thinks he does - just like Facebook. Here’s the trailer if you’re interested in watching it.
We’re at the same tipping point here.
There’s a lot behind this technology that we’re not going to all read and learn about as the tool is… right there.
Enter your prompt in the box.
Get the information.
Use the information.
Efficiencies abound.
STOP. Do you trust the information though? Should you? Does it sound right when it comes through? I’m going to take this new level of tech slowly and I hope you do too. This quote isn’t enough to influence me either Mr.
Great point I heard on this webinar - “These are random generations of text” - Britney Muller. She goes on to say that this technology should be treated with some skepticism and that these require heavy supervision and fine-tuning. You should not, “set it and forget it” - BANG ON. There’s your warning.
I remember Tay and you should too.
Musical AI?
Soooo at the bottom of the OpenAI website, there’s a link to their Soundcloud. I went down the rabbit hole for you, and it’s not great.
It’s making really crappy music.
This “Jazz” is algorithmic at best.
It’s using their MuseNet technology which I have so many questions about.
As a lifelong music listener, fan and supporter - all of this is hard to listen to.
There’s no heart, no emotion, no groove, and I’m sorry Ella Fitzgerald for what’s being added to your talent. Please don’t do this. The music business is already difficult enough to navigate and there are a lot of people who are involved like this …
She’s right. We’re not ready for where this is going and now we’re going to add AI MUSIC ON TOP OF IT?
He’s right. The music “business” isn’t ready for this and neither are we. Also, you should signup for Dan’s newsletter it’s a fantastic perspective on music.
*NEW* Disney Robot
Oh, Disney has made robots before but this time… It feels the most like an episode of Black Mirror yet. They’re covering it with words like “storytelling” and “human emotion” at SXSW but I’m not buying it. Maybe I’ve just watched too much The Simpsons mock this endlessly though.
It’s cute and the crowd aw’s when someone picks up the robot and puts it on its shoulders their goal is to have better interaction with guests.
It’s cute and you can interact with it but I’d honestly rather interact with a human. Maybe it’s just me. Even if that human is having a rough day I’d take that over a robot manufacturing feelings. Give me the Seven Duffs.
It makes for a genuine experience and a real story later. “Cinderella was trying today, but wow she had something else going on” - is genuine! And human.
With this robot character, someone had to code this to pretend to be “learning” how to skate and it’s not real. As we move back to more and more in-person events, I really don’t want a robot pretending to be friendly.
Here’s the whole video so you can watch it for yourself. (6:13) is where the robot aka “character” comes out.
More Human Than Human
With all these AI/algorithmic changes it may be the old(er) person in me that’s saying this but it all makes me think back to Josie & The Pussycats and Foo Fighters.
Stick with me here.
Josie & The Pussycats the movie used the auto-tune machine to make better/faster/stronger music to fuel the music machine, but it blew up on them because of HUMAN issues.
Foo Fighters have spent years going against the push on technology and made a whole album on tracks, in their houses, not digital to make the album sound real. They loved the sound of “mistakes” on the record and it not sounding perfect. THAT’S REAL.
These are my north star since the end goal of all of this is for humans.
Until I’m selling software to robots, I’ll be treading carefully through this new tech.
Let’s add a bit of skepticism like Homer to all this new tech before we let it fully in.
Thank you for reading.
Jess Joyce
SEO Consultant
https://jessjoyce.com