Not long ago, the great fear about Artificial Intelligence was that it would grow so much smarter than mere humans that it would seize control of the world. Maybe it still will, someday. But now that AI is out of the box and generating a tsunami of "content," we're confronting a more immediate danger: It is polluting the internet and dumbing down our culture with synthetic, soulless, error-filled, imitative junk. A backlash has begun. In the right context, AI can be an invaluable tool for sorting through vast archives of data, connecting the dots, and helping scientists, doctors, engineers, and financial institutions do their work. But when harnessed to cheaply and quickly crank out articles, images, music, and art, AI replaces human creativity and self-expression with sterile imitation. "Great art, or even not-great art, springs out of an individual's personality/history," the author Joyce Carol Oates recently posted on X. "AI is a machine that can mimic, but has no emotional history."
None of that matters to corporations seeking cheap content — that execrable word — to fill the vast maw of the internet and popular culture. With nothing unique or personal to express, AI churns out uncanny mashups of writing and images in its data set — often laced with "hallucinations," or falsehoods. AI-generated writing and art are to real writing and art what Hot Pockets and McDonald's are to food. It is Tang in the place of orange juice. Every creative occupation — including screenwriters, photographers, illustrators, artists, and authors — fears replacement and intellectual theft by AI. Google is already paying newspapers to publish AI-generated "journalism," and AI summaries of real books are polluting Amazon. Before long, movie studios will feed successful scripts into AI and ask it to write a blockbuster. Instead of killing humanity off with Terminators, AI is numbing us with swarms of countless chatbots. It may diminish its creators by simply making us dumber.
This is the editor's letter in the current issue of The Week magazine.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
The AI bubble and a potential stock market crashToday's Big Question Valuations of some AI start-ups are 'insane', says OpenAI CEO Sam Altman
-
Quiz of The Week: 23 – 29 AugustQuiz Have you been paying attention to The Week's news?
-
The Week Unwrapped: Could robotic dogs help clear landmines?Podcast Plus, what can we learn from a new approach to urban renewal? And how much power rests with political spouses?
-
Broken brains: The social price of digital lifeFeature A new study shows that smartphones and streaming services may be fueling a sharp decline in responsibility and reliability in adults
-
The Hermit Kingdom's laptop warriorsFeature American firms are unwittingly hiring IT workers with a second job—as North Korean operatives
-
Supreme Court allows social media age check lawSpeed Read The court refused to intervene in a decision that affirmed a Mississippi law requiring social media users to verify their ages
-
Deep thoughts: AI shows its math chopsFeature Google's Gemini is the first AI system to win gold at the International Mathematical Olympiad
-
Big Brother is watching: Wi-Fi signals can track you in your homeUnder the radar It could open the door to mass surveillance
-
The jobs most at risk from AIThe Explainer Sales and customer services are touted as some of the key jobs that will be replaced by AI
-
Why AI means it's more important than ever to check terms and conditionsIn The Spotlight WeTransfer row over training AI models on user data shines spotlight on dangers of blindly clicking 'Accept'
-
Are AI lovers replacing humans?Talking Points A third of Gen Z singles use tech as a 'romantic companion'
