Now, while that is a little clunky, it is pretty obvious that it isn't going to be too long until AI created conversation is indistinguishable from human content. But it doesn't even have to get that far, because it just has to be better than most of the people are able to either do or they don't have the skills to hear the difference. Generative AI has been out for a while now and improving all of the time, but most of the people who use it can never create content to that level for a couple of reasons. Firstly, they don't have the technical skills to create and secondly, they don't have the experience to create it. A

AI doesn't need experience.

Well, it steals and plagiarizes the experiences of others, by trawling other content and chopping it up into something consumable by an audience that no longer cares if a human created it or not, as long as they get what they want.

Right? But here in lies the problem, because obviously there is a lot of incentive to keep decreasing the cost of producing content, because that is a mechanism to maximize profits. However, the value of content in the economy is people listening to it, engaging with it, sharing it. Essentially, the attention the content receives, and the demand it generates.

The other side of "demand" is of course supply, and as the barrier to create a piece of content comes down to the point that there is no cost in time, energy, or human effort at all, supply is going to increase exponentially. It has already been happening for years on the likes of Youtube, where far more content is uploaded in a day, than any individual can watch in a lifetime, so who is consuming it?

And then, the value of consumption of the content is that people will be able to buy something along the supply chain. But, with so much consolidation of employment due to artificial intelligence and automation, the pool of consumer spending will be far lower amongst the largest populations. And then on top of this, because people will be looking to increase their income, there will be even more "content creators" doing what they can to grab attention.

It is a race to the bottom in so many respects, as not only will content get increasingly poor for an audience that is decreasingly discerning and capable, but the quest for attention will lead to further degradation of behavior. If you would have said twenty years ago that it would quite common for mothers who needed to make ends meet to do cam porn on the internet, you'd be laughed at and seen as a crazy sicko. Yet, here we are.

Is it empowerment, or enslavement?

While it might sound it, that isn't actually a moral judgement on the people who perform on the many sites there are, but rather commentary on how the mishandled financial economy, driven by the maxim to keep increasing profits without consideration to costs, has influenced societal behaviors and changed what is considered acceptable. Some people see this as a new type of freedom, but I see it as the outcome of profit maximization and tells of the consolidation of control and power.

Yet, even in this area, AI, automation and the continual need to lower costs is encroaching, so that people are generating their own models who will do and say what they want in at least digital format, for cheaper, and with more personalization. As the technology gets even better, humans won't be able to compete without catering to increasingly niche and depraved activities - which again point at the consolidation of wealth, control and power.

So many people seem to believe that because their own lives right now are made easier, because there is a tool that can help them be better than they can be without it, that it is going to make their lives easier in the long run. That is rarely the case, as in general, the things that provide a quick fix in the short term, end up costing us more in the long.

Content is approaching zero in terms of its value, even though people believe that what they are consuming improves their lives. It is a strange little conflict, because the irony is that the more we consume, the worse we get, and the more we consume, the better the artificial intelligence gets. This means that almost no matter what we learn, it is going to be irrelevant in terms of being able to help us add value to the economy, which means we are unable to buy from the economy either.

I have predicted all kinds of behavioral changes, like how people will spend more time in their digital avatars, because being themselves is increasingly depressing. Or, people will fall in love with their digital assistants because they will know them the best and listen well. Have sex with robots because robots will do it better than humans and will want nothing in return, except some lubricant. And a hundred other things. Again, people have laughed over the years, not believing that any of this would ever be mainstream.

But how long until it is mainstream?

Human generated content in so many forms has been devalued to the point that there is very little reason for it at all. But perhaps the scary thing is, that in terms of what society is, we are the content and we are devaluing ourselves, so that a few corporations can increase profit and control over us.

Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]