Artless 11 - AI vs human culture 14th January 2025

Opinion

We are racing towards a mediocre middle

In the time of AI, we are now at a junction where humans are being asked to compete with machines to keep their jobs. We are being told that unless we get good at doing what machines do (with the help of machines of course), we will be left behind. Machines, in turn, are being made to look and act like humans. Where this will lead is anyone's guess. But if there is a zone of mediocrity between humankind and machinekind, both would seem to be headed there.

The ethic of various technologies has for a long time been pushing us towards that no-man/no-machine zone. People look and sound more mechanical and machines look and sound more human. Machines try (with the aid of people) to learn how to act more human and humans try (with the aid of machines) to look and sound more mechanical. The catastrophic middle has been approaching for decades.

I think that the thing that makes you you should not be lost. Compete all you want, but do not compromise your core. However, in order for you to be capable of protecting your core, you first need to know what your core is. The ones who lose it are the ones who don't know what it is and where it is. If you don't know who you are, you might give away that part of you without a second thought. So put time and effort into learning yourself. Learning what makes a human a human.

Links

Netflix rewards people for being mindless

"Until Netflix, one of cinema’s essential qualities, the thing that distinguished it from television, was the way it commanded an audience’s attention."

A great overview of the way Netflix functions, and why the detrimental effects it has on our viewing habits are not an accident. They're apart of deliberate policy.

90% of content will be AI generated by 2025

Nina Schick said this a year ago. We are already seeing signs of this. For creators who go with the flow, this will be a race to the mediocre middle. For those who don't and double down on their humanity, this is an opportunity to shine.

Human-made Content Could Be The New Hype

_"Many of us will probably come to value human-generated content. According to media analyst Jan Birkemose, real human beings will become an important selling point when it comes to e.g. media content, because humans simply prefer human content:

“Good journalists are people that media users can feel and relate to. They are professionals with ethics, experience, empathy and the ability to deliver credible and relevant stories time and time again,” Birkemose writes in his newsletter."_

A badge to announce that your content is Not By AI

I don't know who the people behind this project are but here is what their website says: Download and add the Not By AI badge to showcase your AI-free & human-first approach to content creation (writings, art, photos, paintings, videos, and music).

Anurag Kashyap is angry

Anurag Kashyap on how corporates made sure that his films made in the Hindi belt for Hindi audiences didn't get released in Hindi belt. He also speaks about his view of the Hindi film industry and how it is being ruined by people who don't understand creativity and treat films like short form videos.

How TikTok ruined books

On how TikTok ruined books by turning the reading of them into something to show off.

Ted Chiang on AI and art

To create a novel or a painting, an artist makes choices that are fundamentally alien to artificial intelligence.

"Many novelists have had the experience of being approached by someone convinced that they have a great idea for a novel, which they are willing to share in exchange for a fifty-fifty split of the proceeds. Such a person inadvertently reveals that they think formulating sentences is a nuisance rather than a fundamental part of storytelling in prose. Generative A.I. appeals to people who think they can express themselves in a medium without actually working in that medium. But the creators of traditional novels, paintings, and films are drawn to those art forms because they see the unique expressive potential that each medium affords. It is their eagerness to take full advantage of those potentialities that makes their work satisfying, whether as entertainment or as art."

Next Floor - A short film by Denis Villenueve

On, I think, how Capitalism survives each economic crisis and continues down the greed road even as the world around it continues to collapse. Do you think Villenueve is an accelerationist?

What Onlyfans does differently

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