In which I try to join the dots between Meta's colossal data theft from creatives, the future of outdoor storytelling, and thinking with simple tools...
Really interesting Alex thanks for this. I have to say that for me AI falls into two categories and I could be wrong with this. There’s AI that generates and then there’s a synthesising of information.
For me being dyslexic, it’s been a massive help assisting me with incredibly overwhelming tasks that generally stopped me from completing numerous creative projects
To my knowledge I’ve never actually used it in what you would call generative sense but I could be wrong. I take the conversations I have with either clients or fellow creatives and use it to help me distil it down so I can look back. I often get lost in conversation and creative Flow and then what to go back and recap which they allows me to do.
This article makes me question my methods in a good way as I can often get caught up the election of having found something that allows me to navigate the Neurotypical world better.
Thanks very much for this perspective – so interesting, as this is a potential area for AI I simply hadn't considered. I think there's always going to be strong arguments for the use of new technologies to help overcome challenges of neurodiversity, and it's certainly not my place to say this is in any way bad! I think the (vitally) important thing is that we keep ourselves intentional about this stuff, keep educating ourselves, and be alert to the unintended consequences. Technology is at its best when it's about empowering individuals, not the rich and powerful (which is a big part of my worry about AI!)
The whole situation with Meta and AI makes my blood boil. If any creative walked into Meta and stole their company data, they'd be quick to sue or call for an arrest. Big tech companies do it and we're expected to go along with it because "other countries are doing it, we can't fall behind them"?
The wider discussion of AI in writing is also bewildering. Every year travel companies release white papers claiming people want original experiences and to support brands with a strong sense of purpose, etc. Yet AI just rehashes what's already out there and creates bland copy.
When AI was introduced the most recurring argument was it would reduce the faffy tasks nobody wanted to do. Yet the whole focus these days is having a machine replicate the tasks that give some people meaning and excitement in life. Echoing Jurassic Park here, but sometimes tech companies seem to be developing AI capabilities based on whether they can instead on whether they should.
I agree 100% with this. Not sure of the origin of the quote, but I've read things along these lines a few times: 'I want AI to do my laundry and dishes so that I can do art and writing, not for AI to do my art and writing so that I can do my laundry and dishes.' (It's another debate entirely whether automating the small stuff is a good idea, because I believe creativity often arises due to the small stuff, but very much agree with the overall thrust of this!)
💯! I spoke about using AI on small tasks with a designer friend recently. While they accepted it would reduce costs and give designers more time for other work, they wondered where new designers would get the experience from to take on the bigger projects in the future. You need the repetition of small tasks to grow your skillset and experience to build the expertise for more complex work.
This is part of the debate I feel is so often ignored... and I wonder how much of it stems from the machine metaphors we use as models for ourselves. After all, we can't be programmed like computers; we're animals, and so much about creativity is embodied. So great to hear that other creatives are thinking about this stuff! Sometimes I worry that it's just me overthinking 😂
A fascinating and alarming piece here. I agree with much of what you say. I do see certain use cases for AI and I also used LibGen as a student, mostly to access text books and resources I couldn't afford to buy outright. For me and many others it has functioned as a library of sorts in that regard. I'm encouraged by your observations about the strength of our position as outdoors writers and that necessary foundation of experience. And I think/hope you're right.
Also, thanks for reading and sharing my Caught by the River essay. You never know who (if anyone) is reading.
I'd be really interested to hear more about the use cases you see for AI, as well as how you used LibGen as a student! What's needed in this debate, IMO, is a range of considered and intelligent views from within the creative sector. And you're most welcome about the Caught by the River essay – found it very enjoyable and interesting.
As a freelance translator I've used machine learning to assist with my workflow for years, and although it still hasn't (and may not) surpassed the need for human input, I would get a lot less done without it. AI translation has allowed things like instantaneous image translation to become reality which is extremely useful for travel. There are definitely other tasks which can be made more efficient by AI.
I think there is also a strong case for AI use for species identification for a lay person - not as a replacement for human expertise, but as a guiderail for the amateur and as a tool for learning. The Merlin ID bird app is an example of an AI-assisted tool adding richness to human experience rather than (in the case of AI slop art or copy) extracting richness. I'm not naiive enough to believe I can become an ecologist using these apps, but they do help me learn.
As for LibGen - our student library at my university was often poorly provisioned and would take weeks or months to find certain textbooks that I wanted for my masters or PhD studies. I also found books on there that were either out of print or whose copyright had expired and downloaded the epub files, seeing it as a type of library. I downloaded a few books that were in print but if I enjoyed them I usually felt that I should at least pay for the digital version, or pick up a copy down the line. I come from a line of booksellers, and the value of print media has been impressed on me since birth! It put my dad and his 7 siblings through college.
LibGen and its sibling SciHub are seen in the academic community as a sort of way to bypass the blatant profiteering of publishing companies, especially academic publishers. It is rumoured that many of the academic documents on there are uploaded by academics who want to bypass their publishers and have their work read.
Once, we found a supplementary book linked to the physics textbook we had been accessing, which contained the answers and upcoming questions to that season's assessment questions, pretty much verbatim..! That was a pleasant surprise.
Thank you very much for this – fascinating and illuminating. My brother's partner is a professional ecologist and has complicated thoughts about Merlin etc., but as a fellow layperson I tend to agree with your stance (much as my inner Luddite prefers to go down the 'just learn stuff yourself' route!)
Your insights about LibGen are valuable, as I had no idea about this side of things. I have a friend in academia so will see if I can learn about his views.
My objections rarely arise due to the technology itself, it's the power structures that confer advantages to the powerful and disadvantages to the less powerful. I'm firmly a believer in the idea that tech should empower ordinary people while enhancing (rather than negating) our humanity and creativity.
A really great piece. Would love to continue this conversation in person. I admire your eloquent rage, but I also know what happened to the Luddites. Have you read Careless People Alex, the Meta expose? I fear it wouldn’t be good for your blood pressure
Many thanks and I'd love to continue this conversation in person. I've found the hill I'm willing to die on 😂 I have not read Careless People yet, but I've seen enough about it to know that it's going to be a must-read for me!
Thought-provoking, what you write about LLMs producing "dead content." Ted Cohen said that words are dead metaphors. I wonder if there's a way to put those together, there could be helpful parallels, both for understanding AI better and ourselves. I agree with you that context is key. Human to human communication. I think looking a the content from AI is like looking at tea leaves that are shifted into place by the statistical associations of words. Cultural mineral/manufactured amino porridge/sludge, in other words, that gets most of its added meaning from the depth of our prompt or question. Sure it can be useful. But I'd rather have food that comes from plants that grew, and I'd rather communicate with other human beings, especially when it comes to reading about their experiences in the outdoors.
Love the quote, "Tyrannies have always failed to contain lovers and writers. We must love to write, and write what we love -- with the writing tools that we love." (Who said this, Richard Polt?)
Really interesting Alex thanks for this. I have to say that for me AI falls into two categories and I could be wrong with this. There’s AI that generates and then there’s a synthesising of information.
For me being dyslexic, it’s been a massive help assisting me with incredibly overwhelming tasks that generally stopped me from completing numerous creative projects
To my knowledge I’ve never actually used it in what you would call generative sense but I could be wrong. I take the conversations I have with either clients or fellow creatives and use it to help me distil it down so I can look back. I often get lost in conversation and creative Flow and then what to go back and recap which they allows me to do.
This article makes me question my methods in a good way as I can often get caught up the election of having found something that allows me to navigate the Neurotypical world better.
Thanks very much for this perspective – so interesting, as this is a potential area for AI I simply hadn't considered. I think there's always going to be strong arguments for the use of new technologies to help overcome challenges of neurodiversity, and it's certainly not my place to say this is in any way bad! I think the (vitally) important thing is that we keep ourselves intentional about this stuff, keep educating ourselves, and be alert to the unintended consequences. Technology is at its best when it's about empowering individuals, not the rich and powerful (which is a big part of my worry about AI!)
Really well, but Alex couldn’t agree more
The whole situation with Meta and AI makes my blood boil. If any creative walked into Meta and stole their company data, they'd be quick to sue or call for an arrest. Big tech companies do it and we're expected to go along with it because "other countries are doing it, we can't fall behind them"?
The wider discussion of AI in writing is also bewildering. Every year travel companies release white papers claiming people want original experiences and to support brands with a strong sense of purpose, etc. Yet AI just rehashes what's already out there and creates bland copy.
When AI was introduced the most recurring argument was it would reduce the faffy tasks nobody wanted to do. Yet the whole focus these days is having a machine replicate the tasks that give some people meaning and excitement in life. Echoing Jurassic Park here, but sometimes tech companies seem to be developing AI capabilities based on whether they can instead on whether they should.
I agree 100% with this. Not sure of the origin of the quote, but I've read things along these lines a few times: 'I want AI to do my laundry and dishes so that I can do art and writing, not for AI to do my art and writing so that I can do my laundry and dishes.' (It's another debate entirely whether automating the small stuff is a good idea, because I believe creativity often arises due to the small stuff, but very much agree with the overall thrust of this!)
💯! I spoke about using AI on small tasks with a designer friend recently. While they accepted it would reduce costs and give designers more time for other work, they wondered where new designers would get the experience from to take on the bigger projects in the future. You need the repetition of small tasks to grow your skillset and experience to build the expertise for more complex work.
This is part of the debate I feel is so often ignored... and I wonder how much of it stems from the machine metaphors we use as models for ourselves. After all, we can't be programmed like computers; we're animals, and so much about creativity is embodied. So great to hear that other creatives are thinking about this stuff! Sometimes I worry that it's just me overthinking 😂
A fascinating and alarming piece here. I agree with much of what you say. I do see certain use cases for AI and I also used LibGen as a student, mostly to access text books and resources I couldn't afford to buy outright. For me and many others it has functioned as a library of sorts in that regard. I'm encouraged by your observations about the strength of our position as outdoors writers and that necessary foundation of experience. And I think/hope you're right.
Also, thanks for reading and sharing my Caught by the River essay. You never know who (if anyone) is reading.
I'd be really interested to hear more about the use cases you see for AI, as well as how you used LibGen as a student! What's needed in this debate, IMO, is a range of considered and intelligent views from within the creative sector. And you're most welcome about the Caught by the River essay – found it very enjoyable and interesting.
As a freelance translator I've used machine learning to assist with my workflow for years, and although it still hasn't (and may not) surpassed the need for human input, I would get a lot less done without it. AI translation has allowed things like instantaneous image translation to become reality which is extremely useful for travel. There are definitely other tasks which can be made more efficient by AI.
I think there is also a strong case for AI use for species identification for a lay person - not as a replacement for human expertise, but as a guiderail for the amateur and as a tool for learning. The Merlin ID bird app is an example of an AI-assisted tool adding richness to human experience rather than (in the case of AI slop art or copy) extracting richness. I'm not naiive enough to believe I can become an ecologist using these apps, but they do help me learn.
As for LibGen - our student library at my university was often poorly provisioned and would take weeks or months to find certain textbooks that I wanted for my masters or PhD studies. I also found books on there that were either out of print or whose copyright had expired and downloaded the epub files, seeing it as a type of library. I downloaded a few books that were in print but if I enjoyed them I usually felt that I should at least pay for the digital version, or pick up a copy down the line. I come from a line of booksellers, and the value of print media has been impressed on me since birth! It put my dad and his 7 siblings through college.
LibGen and its sibling SciHub are seen in the academic community as a sort of way to bypass the blatant profiteering of publishing companies, especially academic publishers. It is rumoured that many of the academic documents on there are uploaded by academics who want to bypass their publishers and have their work read.
Once, we found a supplementary book linked to the physics textbook we had been accessing, which contained the answers and upcoming questions to that season's assessment questions, pretty much verbatim..! That was a pleasant surprise.
Thank you very much for this – fascinating and illuminating. My brother's partner is a professional ecologist and has complicated thoughts about Merlin etc., but as a fellow layperson I tend to agree with your stance (much as my inner Luddite prefers to go down the 'just learn stuff yourself' route!)
Your insights about LibGen are valuable, as I had no idea about this side of things. I have a friend in academia so will see if I can learn about his views.
My objections rarely arise due to the technology itself, it's the power structures that confer advantages to the powerful and disadvantages to the less powerful. I'm firmly a believer in the idea that tech should empower ordinary people while enhancing (rather than negating) our humanity and creativity.
A really great piece. Would love to continue this conversation in person. I admire your eloquent rage, but I also know what happened to the Luddites. Have you read Careless People Alex, the Meta expose? I fear it wouldn’t be good for your blood pressure
Many thanks and I'd love to continue this conversation in person. I've found the hill I'm willing to die on 😂 I have not read Careless People yet, but I've seen enough about it to know that it's going to be a must-read for me!
Thought-provoking, what you write about LLMs producing "dead content." Ted Cohen said that words are dead metaphors. I wonder if there's a way to put those together, there could be helpful parallels, both for understanding AI better and ourselves. I agree with you that context is key. Human to human communication. I think looking a the content from AI is like looking at tea leaves that are shifted into place by the statistical associations of words. Cultural mineral/manufactured amino porridge/sludge, in other words, that gets most of its added meaning from the depth of our prompt or question. Sure it can be useful. But I'd rather have food that comes from plants that grew, and I'd rather communicate with other human beings, especially when it comes to reading about their experiences in the outdoors.
Love the quote, "Tyrannies have always failed to contain lovers and writers. We must love to write, and write what we love -- with the writing tools that we love." (Who said this, Richard Polt?)