I wonder what this group thinks of some of the new AI writing applications. Mem X now has Smart Write and Smart Edit. See this video:

https://youtu.be/V0xLfaSShAs

As I wrote in the comments for that video, this feels like the end of civilization to me. I meant that somewhat facetiously, but I do wonder what this means for the genuine written word.

Steve Z.

A great man once said, "A man ain't nothing but a man, but before I let a steam drill beat me down I'd die with a hammer in my hand."

I may die with a pen in my hand, but I'll die with ringing prose, a plot nations could go to war over, and when my lifeless head finally sags into my keyboard you can rest assured every word was crafted by a real writer, every last worddddxxlkjlkarelkjej.....

Heh heh heh – loved it!

Amontillado wrote:

A great man once said, "A man ain't nothing but a man, but before I let
a steam drill beat me down I'd die with a hammer in my hand."

I may die with a pen in my hand, but I'll die with ringing prose, a plot
nations could go to war over, and when my lifeless head finally sags
into my keyboard you can rest assured every word was crafted by a real
writer, every last worddddxxlkjlkarelkjej.....

We have AI-generated deep fake images and video, AI-generated writing, etc. Of course, we also have the problem of perception and reality that has been a core philosophical problem in many cultures since forever.

I noticed that you left off one of the most common AI uses; in trading markets. There's actually a reason for this AND it's the reason that AI painting & AI writing programs also are ... and likely WILL be ... a disaster far (far) into the future. They're unreliable AF. Literally billions and billions and billions of dollars have been lost attempting to make AI trading profitable. It isn't, because machines are laughably inferior to the human brain.

Deep fake videos might be a thing, but writers -- like traders and painters -- will be safe for tens/hundreds of generations. Or until U.S. Republicans finally kill of the planet with their climate change denials; within 50 years or so. In fact, Arizona has about 20 years before Phoenix and a bunch of other AZ counties will be uninhabitable. Coastal areas have about 40 or so years before they're flooded in America.

Worry about that more than AI because the future will be a terrible time to be alive, thanks to America's lack of leadership because of its Republicans. It ain't politics, it's science.

IMHO: I don't know jack about trading programs (and it does appear they're not very effective at trading) but I think generative AI is going to go in a very interesting directions. Please see the following: https://danielmiessler.com/blog/ai-art-just-opened-the-threat-to-human-work-we-were-expecting-from-agi/

Iron gall on vellum was so much nicer than cuneiform on clay. Then came the bittersweet moment when geese celebrated keeping their feathers the day we traded quills for fountain pens. We, least of all the geese, failed to recognize the noble goose lost a little bit of meaning in life.

So eagerly we traded typewriters for word processors, heedless of the nascent brain within the machine, brooding in eight bits then 16, 32 then 64, and soon in dark, inscrutable quantum energies.

And just as eagerly our word processors will set writers aside as casually as we discarded Windows for Workgroups.

Be the goose, it's our only hope. Cherish the organic pain that begets the quill and hence the written word.

PS - Quick shout-out to spell checkers. I misspelled "inscrutable." Automated processes overseeing every word I write caught the error, saving my embarrassment.

Gotta love spell checkers. I'm only human!

Apropos: Notion just released its integrated AI writing tool: https://www.notion.so/product/ai (waitlist)

Certainly a growing trend that raises lots of questions...

Recent essay on the topic:

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2022/11/02/opinion/what-we-lose-when-machines-do-writing

Or without paywall:

https://archive.ph/NoTPw