Brill, thank you! Very much struck by the idea of AI systems producing averages. This has been much on mind since entering a classroom in a primary school (ages 4-11) a few weeks back and there being an AI-generated trio of songs playing on repeat in the background, after the prompt ‘Goodbye Year 6’. The system in question, Suno AI, claims to be ‘building a future where anyone can make great music.’ All the other terrifying consequences of AI aside (massive ecological damage; theft of intellectual property; widespread diminishing of human workforces; etc.), I couldn’t help feeling sorry for the children. Without asking for it, their school is reeling out this drivel, completely divorced of any context, meaningless sounds created by the law of averages, supposedly empowering them whilst doing exactly the opposite. Rather than reminding them that they can sing, they can improvise, they can learn by listening and watching, they are told that their creative impulses can be realised by typing text prompts, and that’s the end of it. Sleepwalking into cultural nothingness.
What you describe is definitely cause for concern. The same phenomenon has been so destructive for so very long: the assumed imperative, driven by a fusion of technological and economic motivations, not only to adopt new technologies for classroom use but to adopt their embedded ideologies, thus transforming the pedagogical vision and process as a result. We have seen the effects of this not just in the internet age but for more than a century. And they're not pretty. One hopes the very reflectiveness and broadened perspective that ought to be part of what's cultivated in, by, and through education itself will not be pummeled out of existence, but will kick in and bring a needed layer of self-awareness and choice to the situation. But of course, this hasn't been the case for many years now.
Thank you for the wealth of reading/browsing opportunities.
I believe technique, including AI, has an intrinsic tendency to increase its own manifold efficacy beyond all limits and more and more supplant considerations like personal gain and control over a stultified populace, thus stimulating the utmost deployment of human beings' potential (creative and otherwise) which is subdued and fragmented by the divisive pursuit of individual or corporate profit and dominion.
I absolutely agree with the concluding note: the purpose of manifestation can't be one of its contents, however dazzlingly impressive or dishearteningly catastrophic, as each and all of them are inevitably surpassed.
Interesting thoughts on both counts, Gabriele. Like you, I actually have some positive hopes and feelings about the AI revolution, which seriously surprises me since, as I mentioned, my set point has been more of a dour and pessimistic attitude toward the directions of modern technology and its foundational interactions with culture and society at large.
"The purpose of manifestation can't be one of its contents." Liking this a lot.
Brill, thank you! Very much struck by the idea of AI systems producing averages. This has been much on mind since entering a classroom in a primary school (ages 4-11) a few weeks back and there being an AI-generated trio of songs playing on repeat in the background, after the prompt ‘Goodbye Year 6’. The system in question, Suno AI, claims to be ‘building a future where anyone can make great music.’ All the other terrifying consequences of AI aside (massive ecological damage; theft of intellectual property; widespread diminishing of human workforces; etc.), I couldn’t help feeling sorry for the children. Without asking for it, their school is reeling out this drivel, completely divorced of any context, meaningless sounds created by the law of averages, supposedly empowering them whilst doing exactly the opposite. Rather than reminding them that they can sing, they can improvise, they can learn by listening and watching, they are told that their creative impulses can be realised by typing text prompts, and that’s the end of it. Sleepwalking into cultural nothingness.
What you describe is definitely cause for concern. The same phenomenon has been so destructive for so very long: the assumed imperative, driven by a fusion of technological and economic motivations, not only to adopt new technologies for classroom use but to adopt their embedded ideologies, thus transforming the pedagogical vision and process as a result. We have seen the effects of this not just in the internet age but for more than a century. And they're not pretty. One hopes the very reflectiveness and broadened perspective that ought to be part of what's cultivated in, by, and through education itself will not be pummeled out of existence, but will kick in and bring a needed layer of self-awareness and choice to the situation. But of course, this hasn't been the case for many years now.
Thank you for the wealth of reading/browsing opportunities.
I believe technique, including AI, has an intrinsic tendency to increase its own manifold efficacy beyond all limits and more and more supplant considerations like personal gain and control over a stultified populace, thus stimulating the utmost deployment of human beings' potential (creative and otherwise) which is subdued and fragmented by the divisive pursuit of individual or corporate profit and dominion.
I absolutely agree with the concluding note: the purpose of manifestation can't be one of its contents, however dazzlingly impressive or dishearteningly catastrophic, as each and all of them are inevitably surpassed.
Interesting thoughts on both counts, Gabriele. Like you, I actually have some positive hopes and feelings about the AI revolution, which seriously surprises me since, as I mentioned, my set point has been more of a dour and pessimistic attitude toward the directions of modern technology and its foundational interactions with culture and society at large.
"The purpose of manifestation can't be one of its contents." Liking this a lot.