AI takes in input and spits out content. Realize that what often gets inputted is you. From Charles Hugh Smith at oftwominds.com:
AI is not so much a tool that everyone uses in more or less the same way, but a mirror in which we see our own reflection–if we care to look.
Attention has been riveted on what AI can do for the three years since the unveiling of ChatGPT, but very little attention has been paid to what the human user is bringing to the exchange.
If we pay close attention to what the human brings to the exchange, we find that AI is not so much a tool that everyone uses in more or less the same way, but a mirror in which we see our own reflection–if we care to look, and we might not, for what AI reflects may well be troubling.
What we see in the AI mirror reflects the entirety of our knowledge, our emotional state and our yearnings.
Those who understand generative AI is nothing more than “auto-complete on steroids” (thank you, Simon), a probability-based program, may well be impressed with the illusion of understanding it creates via its mastery of natural language and human-written texts, but it’s understood as a magic trick, not actual intelligence or caring.
In other words, to seek friendship in AI demands suspending our awareness that it’s been programmed to create a near-perfect illusion of intelligence and caring. As I noted earlier this week, this is the exact same mechanism the con artist uses to gain the trust and emotional bonding of their target (mark).
What we seek from AI reflects our economic sphere and our goals–what we call “work”–but it also reflects the entirety of our emotional state–unresolved conflicts, dissatisfaction with ourselves and life, alienation, loneliness, ennui, and so on, and our intellectual state.
The ChatGPT logo reminds me of a cloaca.
Garbage In Garbage Out.