We’re not talking about Joe Theismann asking to check your zip code.
I work for a technologist. Like the vast majority of technologists he’s an optimist. He sees all the good things technology can bring to the world. He leans back in his chair and waxes poetic about how AI can be used to solve so many problems and ills across the globe.
I, on the other hand, know people really want to use technology to entertain themselves and bilk people for money.
If it ain’t one tech bro using AI so you can have a virtual beer with a celebrity, it’s a bunch of bros using AI to scam people out of their money.
An uptick of celebrity deepfakes have spread across the Internet in the last several days. Tom Hanks started this week warning people that a deepfake of his likeness has been used to hock dental plans. CBS News anchor, Gayle King, took to Instagram to warn her followers to not believe a weight loss advertisement featuring her face and voice. And others are going to follow.
Why Are We Doing This?
Sam Altman, Zuckerberg, and the Googlers are falling all over themselves to tout the benefits of this technology, their loyal techno-idolizers are using their tools to replace humans, and for some reason most of us sit back and think this is okay. We just take it.
We gobble up these cute tech toys and lend our likenesses and thoughts to them. We generate cute avatars for our Instagram posts, and plug our ideas into ChatGPT thinking we’re getting some return from them. Meanwhile, the world is crumbling around us. The owners of Microsoft, OpenAI, Google, and Facebook are raking in billions while selling us on the idea of joining them in the meta verse while continuously demand more compute from them which is killing the environment.
We already live in a paradise. People may be screwed up, but they are real. We shouldn’t be replacing ourselves or our world by technology.
If the world’s most cash rich companies can’t come up with ways of making the world a better place with this technology, why are we wasting our time and efforts on it?
You know what. Don’t listen to me. Listen to someone who matters.
Hayao Miyazaki is a master at his craft. He’s the founder of Studio Ghibli and has produced breathtaking art. Five of his animes are the top grossing anime feature films in Japan. Here’s what he had to say to a bunch of tech guys who wanted to create a machine that could paint like humans.
I am in no way exaggerating when I say that if Hayao Miyazaki said this to me about AI I’d quit my job and burn the office building to the ground in hopes of forgiveness pic.twitter.com/9HKcNam4X0
— Kristi Yamaguccimane (@TheWapplehouse) October 1, 2023
Why are we doing this?
-MJ