I have never used AI, recently shut down all socials besides Substack, even getting rid of my streaming services to get back to real life arthouse cinema, in person. Trying my damndest to stay present, uncomfortable, and ok with not knowing it all. I remember being young and sitting around just pondering things with others, nobody knew the right thing to say...we were spitballing and imaging and if we were really hard pressed we might open an encyclopedia at some juncture.
I know folks like to equate the future with tech, but all of the things it purports to fix were never downfalls in the first place. It invented loneliness then tries to sell you a synthetic friend. It created the need for 24/7 productivity then sells you an assistant that doesn't need a liter of caffeine to get the job(s) done. I loved this piece, and I really resonate with your sentiments. I speak to my dad all the time, I'm also told I shouldn't care as much, it's not a big deal. But, it honestly feels like a trap door's been pulled out underneath me and I've been hurriedly swept under a riptide. I'm not ok. And I think it's normal to be trepidatious about the hasty implementation of such a culture shifting advancement.
Holly, this is beautifully written. Glad to hear this is validating. Please know I feel the same. I don't have a solution, all we can hope for is a societal and cultural course correction that's much much bigger than what individuals alone can do.
I know so many people that yearn to go back to simpler times, when algorithms didn't lock us in, where we had a bit more agency. I have a sliver of faith we'll get to that course correction you're talking about. Though I admit that sometimes it's really hard to believe. So, again, thanks for writing this. It resonates, and then some.
😭 Not me crying into my laptop on multiple levels upon reading this. So beautifully written, but more than that, the topic and themes so skillfully approached with nuance and composure.
Thanks for the read. The era needs a new blood and writers that have a soul and imagination. Where's the fun? Where's the heroes? I just see blame, plain, and repetition. Where's the sexiness? Can AI bring sexy back??? We need voices to scream, speak, laugh, and jump.
All this tech & such little pushback or self-reflection on how we use it. Automation, followed by algorithms, followed by AI...it's the equivalent of a pot of water being brought to boil with us as the frogs.
This is brilliant Sophie. I can feel the frustrations vibrating out of your writing and they're the exact same frustrations I feel towards AI and what it is doing to our society, and how we seem to be zombie walking into it.
I am so disheartened when I see people in my life turn to AI to plan holiday itineraries, for example. It makes me think of the writing Kyle Chayka was doing in 2024 about how algorithms destroy our taste (https://www.theguardian.com/news/2024/jan/16/the-tyranny-of-the-algorithm-why-every-coffee-shop-looks-the-same - 'Why every coffee shop looks the same') and the exponential infectious growth of ChatGPT/equivalents into everyone's life and pocket feels like the final-boss version of this.
Taylor Swift's objectively crappy new songs feel like another metaphor for the AI superlaziness era to me, and was something I was thinking about this week. Here is an artist who used to pore over each one of her records for many years, purposely leaving tracks on the cutting room floor because she felt they weren't good enough to make the final record. Now she just dishes out endless slop, songs that feel like first draft brain dumps, on endless versions of records that also create a huge environmental burden as well. Not directly related to AI but just this endless pursuit of output for output's sake by her feels linked to this AI slop era.
Ah, I could talk about this for days. Such a great piece, will be sending it to some friends!
Ugh thank you so much, Rachel!! This all hits home. I have Kyle's book on my coffee table so that goes to show how much I relate 🤣 Yes that's a great point re: Swift too. The illusion of success is equated by pure output vs effort. Sad!
Have you read Giuliano da Empoli's novel The Wizard of the Kremlin? I return to the penultimate chapter again and again, and I think -- based on what you've written here -- you would, too.
I’m coming around to the idea that if AI does turn out to be superintelligent then it will recognize the venality and greed of the tech bros and hopefully destroy them. And if it’s not truly intelligent, then hopefully humans will figure out a way to harness and control it. I’m probably wrong though.
loved the essay! a lot of anti-utopian movies are showing the same future , like WALL-E , where humans became constant consumers , with no original thought, and indeed AI is one of the sure ways we will be headed towards it unless we speak and act against it.
i’m happy that in creative feels people are already not accepting AI anything.
Great piece. The worst aspect is that it's self-perpetuating super-laziness: the less we think, discuss, explore, the more we'll continue to opt out of it. It's grim.
Humans have always wanted shortcuts to make their lives easier, but from my experience, using AI has only increased my workload in the rare times I use it, because I had to keep verifying the accuracy of its information, that I gave it up altogether.
I dread to think how this is going to impact people's relationships with each other, especially if they're using AI to mediate conversations. I had one friend who clearly used AI to respond to a text I sent, and I'd never been so irritated in my life. At this rate, anything that is '100% Human' is going to become a rarity.
I have never used AI, recently shut down all socials besides Substack, even getting rid of my streaming services to get back to real life arthouse cinema, in person. Trying my damndest to stay present, uncomfortable, and ok with not knowing it all. I remember being young and sitting around just pondering things with others, nobody knew the right thing to say...we were spitballing and imaging and if we were really hard pressed we might open an encyclopedia at some juncture.
I know folks like to equate the future with tech, but all of the things it purports to fix were never downfalls in the first place. It invented loneliness then tries to sell you a synthetic friend. It created the need for 24/7 productivity then sells you an assistant that doesn't need a liter of caffeine to get the job(s) done. I loved this piece, and I really resonate with your sentiments. I speak to my dad all the time, I'm also told I shouldn't care as much, it's not a big deal. But, it honestly feels like a trap door's been pulled out underneath me and I've been hurriedly swept under a riptide. I'm not ok. And I think it's normal to be trepidatious about the hasty implementation of such a culture shifting advancement.
Holly, this is beautifully written. Glad to hear this is validating. Please know I feel the same. I don't have a solution, all we can hope for is a societal and cultural course correction that's much much bigger than what individuals alone can do.
I know so many people that yearn to go back to simpler times, when algorithms didn't lock us in, where we had a bit more agency. I have a sliver of faith we'll get to that course correction you're talking about. Though I admit that sometimes it's really hard to believe. So, again, thanks for writing this. It resonates, and then some.
😭 Not me crying into my laptop on multiple levels upon reading this. So beautifully written, but more than that, the topic and themes so skillfully approached with nuance and composure.
Thanks for the read. The era needs a new blood and writers that have a soul and imagination. Where's the fun? Where's the heroes? I just see blame, plain, and repetition. Where's the sexiness? Can AI bring sexy back??? We need voices to scream, speak, laugh, and jump.
Soooo true!!
All this tech & such little pushback or self-reflection on how we use it. Automation, followed by algorithms, followed by AI...it's the equivalent of a pot of water being brought to boil with us as the frogs.
We're just getting lazier and lazier and we don't even register it 😔
This is brilliant Sophie. I can feel the frustrations vibrating out of your writing and they're the exact same frustrations I feel towards AI and what it is doing to our society, and how we seem to be zombie walking into it.
I am so disheartened when I see people in my life turn to AI to plan holiday itineraries, for example. It makes me think of the writing Kyle Chayka was doing in 2024 about how algorithms destroy our taste (https://www.theguardian.com/news/2024/jan/16/the-tyranny-of-the-algorithm-why-every-coffee-shop-looks-the-same - 'Why every coffee shop looks the same') and the exponential infectious growth of ChatGPT/equivalents into everyone's life and pocket feels like the final-boss version of this.
Taylor Swift's objectively crappy new songs feel like another metaphor for the AI superlaziness era to me, and was something I was thinking about this week. Here is an artist who used to pore over each one of her records for many years, purposely leaving tracks on the cutting room floor because she felt they weren't good enough to make the final record. Now she just dishes out endless slop, songs that feel like first draft brain dumps, on endless versions of records that also create a huge environmental burden as well. Not directly related to AI but just this endless pursuit of output for output's sake by her feels linked to this AI slop era.
Ah, I could talk about this for days. Such a great piece, will be sending it to some friends!
Ugh thank you so much, Rachel!! This all hits home. I have Kyle's book on my coffee table so that goes to show how much I relate 🤣 Yes that's a great point re: Swift too. The illusion of success is equated by pure output vs effort. Sad!
Have you read Giuliano da Empoli's novel The Wizard of the Kremlin? I return to the penultimate chapter again and again, and I think -- based on what you've written here -- you would, too.
I definitely shall!! I'll look it up ❤️
I’m coming around to the idea that if AI does turn out to be superintelligent then it will recognize the venality and greed of the tech bros and hopefully destroy them. And if it’s not truly intelligent, then hopefully humans will figure out a way to harness and control it. I’m probably wrong though.
It could be!!
loved the essay! a lot of anti-utopian movies are showing the same future , like WALL-E , where humans became constant consumers , with no original thought, and indeed AI is one of the sure ways we will be headed towards it unless we speak and act against it.
i’m happy that in creative feels people are already not accepting AI anything.
Great piece. The worst aspect is that it's self-perpetuating super-laziness: the less we think, discuss, explore, the more we'll continue to opt out of it. It's grim.
My response to your piece, Sophie, couldn't be contained within a below-the-line paragraph. It took on a life of its own: https://dariollinares.substack.com/p/a-response-to-welcome-to-the-era?r=1phduq&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true
Humans have always wanted shortcuts to make their lives easier, but from my experience, using AI has only increased my workload in the rare times I use it, because I had to keep verifying the accuracy of its information, that I gave it up altogether.
I dread to think how this is going to impact people's relationships with each other, especially if they're using AI to mediate conversations. I had one friend who clearly used AI to respond to a text I sent, and I'd never been so irritated in my life. At this rate, anything that is '100% Human' is going to become a rarity.