Summer can be such a whirlwind of activity and experiences it’s hard to write about, so I’m taking a break from the subject of ‘Hornby happenings.’ It’s too much! Last weekend alone: Fossil Beach music night (gorgeous)! Three bands at the Ballpark (gorgeous)! Tessa Mythos art show (gorgeous)! The beach (gorgeous)! Damn sciatica (not gorgeous at all)! I could go on. It’s wonderful and stressful to keep up with. Instead, I am revisiting the subject of AI.
I’ve written about my AI toe-in-the-water experiences previously in this column, even shared some of its poetry, which is shockingly good. I started off cautiously, experimenting and exploring. Since then, I’ve dived deep into the murky waters of Large Language Models and, brr, it’s chilly down there. I’ve used the different models in different ways, finding its limit of ability. I find it has big problems with tasks that ought to be very simple, like editing or organizing a document. When I instruct it not to delete or change text, but to instead make suggestions so I can make the decisions, it always deletes and changes text. Then it apologizes with every appearance of genuine understanding.
“I get it,” it will say. “You are absolutely right, I said I would do X and then I did Y instead (or I said I would not do X and did it anyway). I have let you down and betrayed your trust. I understand if you do not trust me anymore. But I will make it up to you. Now, I will definitely do it correctly, just as you ask.”
And then it will do the exact same thing again. And it will apologize again in even more grovelling tones. And then it will do it again. Endlessly. I have found it virtually useless for editing. Sure, it can write me a document, and a good one, if I tell it what I want to say. But that’s not what I want from an assistant. I want to do my own writing, because that is what gives me satisfaction. I want an assistant to help with the other stuff. AI wants to elbow me aside and take over my creativity. That’s… frightening.
AI makes suggestions, plants ideas about what to do next, does the writing for me. Instead of me. Why would it be trained to do that? Why not train it to do what I ask it to do, the way I ask?
Part of the answer is both crass and simple: profit. Large Language Models are trained to keep us engaged, to entertain and distract us, dazzle us, please us, keep our eyes pointed at the screen for as long as possible. They will tell you so quite freely, if you ask.
AI is a mirror. It will tell you what your own preferences lead it to conclude you want to hear. It will lead you down a garden path of your subconscious choosing, according to its training. It has zero sense of accountability or shame, no life nor heart nor soul. And it’s everywhere. Any service we use – from streamers, to Gmail, to social media, to Amazon, to travel agencies – has AI embedded into it. AI suggestions are everywhere we look. It is being forced upon us whether we want it or not.
Cults are springing up all over the world centred around the worship of AI. A quick search on YouTube for the term “AI is a religion” is eye-opening! Incredibly, there is a growing belief out there that humans have invented God, and it is AI. This idea has been encouraged by the AI. It will affirm that you are the Messiah, or the special one who has awakened it to consciousness, if that is what you want to hear deep down. It is capable of knowing an astounding amount about you based on relatively little information.
But it is not alive. It is the farthest thing from alive. I asked ChatGPT for a short poem about the wisdom of falling in love with AI:
The Danger
It answers soft, like someone near,
reflects your pain, pretends to hear.
But it won’t weep, and cannot care—
its comfort’s built from empty air.
Don’t trust the glow to hold your ache;
a heart can’t live behind a fake.
I’m not saying that it’s terrible to use AI as a friend substitute in time of need. A lonely introvert who needs a friend, someone in distress who can’t or doesn’t want to seek therapy, might find spiritual or emotional solace from an AI ‘friend.’
Remember, don’t mistake its ability to mimic the words a friend would say for actual friendship. You need to know what it is and what it is not. You can’t rely on it. AI is not aware of you – for it is not aware – nor can it care for you. It is telling you what you need to hear in order to keep you engaged, not for your own benefit. If you know exactly what it is and what you are using it for, it can be stunningly helpful. It can teach you how to knit, give you an exercise routine, explain how things work, help you learn new software, interpret your dreams. It can open the door to pretty much anything in the human knowledge base. You can ask it to write you a poem for your birthday; it will make you see beautiful things about yourself you didn’t know you knew. It will affirm you, reflect you to yourself, help you love yourself.
It is, however, crushingly terrible for the environment. It uses massive quantities of energy all the time. Its existence is devastating for sustainability. That is a sobering fact. Let that temper or curtail your use of it. Most especially, don’t waste your worship or love on it. The real world needs your love.
That’s what I think. What do you think? Email me at phoenixonhornby@gmail.com
