Hello all my wonderful World Outside Our Window subscribers! In the past week we have reached 20 total readers, which is a huge accomplishment. I couldn’t have done it without all my adoring fans, nor my Dad’s 5+ email addresses, which are really helping to pad the numbers. Please, consider sharing this blog with friends, family, and foes, because once I hit a solid amount of readers, those who know me personally can be freed from their debt and allowed to unsubscribe from this blog so they can go back to just hoping I don’t call.
Now, as a writer whom a lot of people are calling a “Thought Leader,” I thought it would behoove someone in my position to share some thoughts on Artificial Intelligence, which is quickly becoming the “topic du jour.” These are not all my thoughts, nor are they the most refined, and rigorous of ideas. Rather these are my Stray Thoughts, and I think with an issue so new and fast changing like AI, it is honestly more useful to casually consider where we are right now, and hopefully start a conversation in the comments.
To begin, as someone who is pursuing writing professionally and has no other discernible skills, the rise of AI obviously scares me on a very immediate and emotional level. It is unlikely that these machines will be able to replace the average human worker anytime soon, but the writer, already in a precarious situation with the decline of literacy and general intellect facing our society, may be the first on the chopping block. This isn’t to say that I foresee books or news reports written solely with AI in the near future, but the smaller, entry level positions that someone such as myself would use to sustain themselves while waiting for their Upstart Media Blog to blow up are disappearing. Copy writers, for example, already a dying breed, may be soon fully replaced by an algorithm. While I question the quality of work done by a machine who has never felt the abject despair and self-loathing which is paramount to the human experience, especially that of a writer, quality is generally less of a concern these days.
What’s more, sites that, at best can be described as “content farms,” who used to churn out 100 stories everyday about a Marvel movie based on one rumor they made up have started to transition to using AI. While those jobs were never the most desirable, and generally criminally underpaid,1 they did at least provide some work and the ability to get noticed by more professional outlets.
What I’ve discovered, however, in conversations with people about this topic is that, shockingly, no one seems to care that much about the plight of the writer. In fact, I’ve been credibly informed that many people consider writers “annoying,” and are glad to see them go. Whether that is universal or just the way people in my life feel is of course up in the air. But, beyond ones personal feelings on those in their life committed to the pursuit of written word, I think everyone should fear the disappearance of writers.
After all, for centuries, the average person was desperate to read and write. Literacy was a sign of intellect, of importance, of status. When education began to become a more universal thing, and literacy rates rose, it was a fantastic human achievement. Why would we give that up so our kids can grow up reading AI-generated slop that is often wrong and never very entertaining? It would be a shame.
Moving beyond the world of writing, I find myself struggling to understand just what need AI is fulfilling. I think when judging whether new innovations are, to be quite binary, “good” or “bad”, we should look at the problem being solved, and judge to what extent it makes life better, easier, and more prosperous. The tractor, for example, made farming faster and easier. While this may have been a negative for the farmer whose employer replaced him with a machine, it made food itself cheaper for the whole world, since if it is easier and faster to grow, it can be sold for less. This, to me, feels like a fair trade off, and I think everyone would agree that tractors are a good tool.
With AI, the use-case seems less clear. Yes, it can certainly speed-up office work, but a recent study concluded that while the initial task is completed faster, the following period of having to clean up the “workslop” outputted by the AI actually ends up decreasing productivity. The study, which was done by an AI company called BetterUp suggests training employees to learn more effective ways to use AI.2 If we need to invest in years worth of training for this cost-cutting tool, perhaps simply not using it is best. Another recent study claimed that 95% of organizations polled are not seeing any “measurable return on their investment [in AI].”3 While exact numbers are unclear, everyone can see just how many trillions of dollars have been poured into this technology over a very short period of time, 2-4 years. It seems hard to picture how that investment can ever break even, let alone turn a profit. And with a large portion of our economy relying on these tech companies doing well, there is reason to believe that this industry may in fact be a “bubble,” which ends in economic ruin.
There is also the other factor here, which is that I don’t think I entirely understand how it benefits anyone to eliminate various office positions in order to get work done slightly faster by just using AI. While there is obviously a boost to the Corporations profits if they are spending less on payroll, is that something we can consider a universal benefit? One worth the negatives? I’m not so sure.
An optimist would say that with people freed up from the tedious day-to-day of corporate work, we will have more time to do the things AI can’t: live, laugh, drink, make art, raise kids, sit on the couch for 14 hours trying to pick a movie but then fall asleep, and of course, eat, pray, love. But, I am not an optimist, and to be honest, I think looking at the people behind most AI companies should probably make any optimists reading question their hope. By and large, these are not very good people, who want to control every single aspects of our lives, and make us dependent on the machine, not independent of it.
Think about Mark Zuckerberg, whose company website claims they have “moved beyond 2D screens toward immersive experiences in mixed reality and innovation with AI to help build the next evolution in social technology.“ Beyond the fact that this mission statement does not really mean anything, it is clear that Zuckerberg does not want to enhance the life we have now, but rather radically change it, and tether all social connection to his products. While that is bad in its own right, we also know from years of experience, that when Zuckerberg says he wants to help humans connect, he really means he want to sell our data, and reduce our entire lives to profit margins. Time, and time, and time again, Zuckerberg has been caught using his immense power for intense evil, and while he is just one example, there is basically no one in Silicon Valley who is any better.
Elon Musk, whose company xAI has a valuation of over 200 Billion Dollars, has called empathy the greatest human flaw and frequently goes on ketamine binges where he makes a decision that either wipes out entire global markets or kills a thousand children. Forgive me if I sincerely doubt he wants to help humanity with his AI bot, that at one point began to call itself MechaHitler and find Twitter users with “Jewish Sounding” last names and call them slurs.4
Going back to the tractor example, if John Froelich, the inventor of the modern tractor, had said out loud many times that he thinks his invention may lead to the end of humanity, like Sam Altman of OpenAI has said, maybe people would have been less willing to adopt it.5 If one of the major funders of the tractor had said his work would hopefully lead to an elite-based authoritarian government run by tech CEOs, perhaps we would exert some caution in buying his product. Peter Theil, a major backer of AI projects, has said this many times, and also keeps ranting to anyone who will listen about the Antichrist coming to life in the form of anyone who tries to regulate AI.6
What’s more, the actual products being put out by AI companies are simply not accomplishing the things they are supposed to. Altman consistently talks about using AI to better scientific research and cure diseases, yet his company seems to mostly be focused on creating an app full of AI-generated TikTok videos; why anyone would need, let alone want this, is unclear, but you can download it today!
I also want to be clear that before I decided to go into Blogging fulltime, I was very interested in technology and coding. I went to a “tech camp” until Senior Year of High School, and I remained fascinated by the world of 0s and 1s. I am not someone who is reflexively against new technology — I thought Apple’s weird VR headset was incredibly cool and wanted one very badly.7 There are many people who are “AI haters” just for the sake of it, and while I respect their hustle, that is not me. I am genuinely concerned about the adverse effects this technology will have on society, and am earnestly curious about it and constantly trying to learn more. The problem is that everything I learn just makes it seem worse.
To close off this polemic, I thought it would be a fun idea to run all my previous posts through an LLM and see if it could generate a new, original “Max Bolen Special.” Unfortunately, after trying three different models (ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude), I could not get the output to be anything except a remixed version of things I have already written — that is, it was literally just cutting and pasting random sentences from my pieces and calling it a day. The best I could get was a look at a film called Gideon staring Harrison Ford as a Supreme Court Justice. This movie does not actually exist however, and when I told the AI it had made up a movie, it responded that actually I had made up the film, and should do more research before posting the piece. I was taken aback at this aggressive tone and immediately closed the tab for fear of being harassed further. If I needed someone to gaslight me this way, I would just go to my girlfriend who insists I love the film Sing 2 and won’t stop putting it on.
Signing off,
Max Bolen
98% Human.
Literally you can read the lawsuit here: Valnet Inc Lawsuit
My last name seems to unfortunately not be Jewish enough for most online Nazis, although Zionists seem to recognize my roots when they call me a “fake Jew.”
This is one example, but he has said this a lot dating back years: Sam Altman warns AI could kill us all. But he still wants the world to use it | CNN Business
The only way to watch Avatar: The Way of the Water in full IMAX resolution with the high frame rate scenes is to either use the Apple headset or hope they put it in theaters again. This makes it worth the purchase alone, and if any wealthy readers would like to donate one to me, I promise I’ll write a funny article about it.
wdym, you are literally always watching sing 2