Sure. But I can make my own AI image of a cute dog, and where’s the satisfaction in that?
Hence, I think it cracks open a bigger issue than AI: the ‘illusion’ of authenticity on social media. Our squishy brains doomscroll with the fantasy that the stuff is real, and candid, and honest, and gems we found…
But that’s never really been true.
It’s largely staged content designed to go viral and make someone a buck. Or sell something. And it’s served by billion dollar algorithms designed to model and hijack your brain.
My hot take: people are upset that slop smashed that illusion with a hammer. Social media has been addictive fakeness for years; it’s just glaringly obvious now.
If someone tells me a entertaining story that connects with me emotionally, it’s not so much important if the story is true per se, it’s important that it’s told well. The storyteller might have invented the whole thing or based it on something similar and modified/exaggerated it, but that doesn’t take away from the story. If i tell myself a story it wouldn’t be satisfying either (if i’m not worldbuilding or an author, where the satisfaction has other sources).
It’s an interesting thought and would explain why people react so intensely. I for my part was very quickly picking up on the fakeness of facebook - when i was riled up during the arabian spring in Libya, i realized that i get easily emotionally manipulated by the served content, which made me quit.
Nowadays i know much better how to verify information that’s important to me; a dogs picture licking a cat which makes her purr will always emotionally positive for me, because a) it doesn’t matter outside of my satisfaction, just like the well told story, and b) i can’t check it for authenticity either way, so i do not care about authenticity.
I agree. It honestly makes me mad that people get in such a huff over using generative models for fiction; they’re just another generation of storytelling tools.
The issue is blurring fiction and reality.
This isn’t just a problem with AI. See: influencers, tabloids, and “news” that sell caricatures of reality.
But AI makes it too, too easy to distribute fakeness in spaces that are supposed to be real. That is very dangerous. And this is what it ended up being used for.
Nowadays i know much better how to verify information that’s important to me; a dogs picture licking a cat which makes her purr will always emotionally positive for me, because a) it doesn’t matter outside of my satisfaction, just like the well told story.
…I think I’ve used generative models enough to get desensitized to the “feel good” bit. I guess I felt like you once, but having peeked behind the curtain, the feeling has gone away.
But if they make you feel good, good. That’s what arts supposed to do.
Like i said in another answer, maybe that loss of confidence in the authenticity of what we see online has a positive effect in the future where people start rejecting what they see on the web as the truth and start believing in what authoritative people say again; i hope they start listening to their doctors, teachers and scientists again instead of grifters and con-men. In that case anonymous social media will find itself dead in the water, with media using verified and authenticated profiles winning out.
It might cause the combined stupidity - that made things like qanon possible - to fall apart into the small splinter cells of town idiots they were before.
Sure. But I can make my own AI image of a cute dog, and where’s the satisfaction in that?
Hence, I think it cracks open a bigger issue than AI: the ‘illusion’ of authenticity on social media. Our squishy brains doomscroll with the fantasy that the stuff is real, and candid, and honest, and gems we found…
But that’s never really been true.
It’s largely staged content designed to go viral and make someone a buck. Or sell something. And it’s served by billion dollar algorithms designed to model and hijack your brain.
My hot take: people are upset that slop smashed that illusion with a hammer. Social media has been addictive fakeness for years; it’s just glaringly obvious now.
If someone tells me a entertaining story that connects with me emotionally, it’s not so much important if the story is true per se, it’s important that it’s told well. The storyteller might have invented the whole thing or based it on something similar and modified/exaggerated it, but that doesn’t take away from the story. If i tell myself a story it wouldn’t be satisfying either (if i’m not worldbuilding or an author, where the satisfaction has other sources).
It’s an interesting thought and would explain why people react so intensely. I for my part was very quickly picking up on the fakeness of facebook - when i was riled up during the arabian spring in Libya, i realized that i get easily emotionally manipulated by the served content, which made me quit.
Nowadays i know much better how to verify information that’s important to me; a dogs picture licking a cat which makes her purr will always emotionally positive for me, because a) it doesn’t matter outside of my satisfaction, just like the well told story, and b) i can’t check it for authenticity either way, so i do not care about authenticity.
I agree. It honestly makes me mad that people get in such a huff over using generative models for fiction; they’re just another generation of storytelling tools.
The issue is blurring fiction and reality.
This isn’t just a problem with AI. See: influencers, tabloids, and “news” that sell caricatures of reality.
But AI makes it too, too easy to distribute fakeness in spaces that are supposed to be real. That is very dangerous. And this is what it ended up being used for.
…I think I’ve used generative models enough to get desensitized to the “feel good” bit. I guess I felt like you once, but having peeked behind the curtain, the feeling has gone away.
But if they make you feel good, good. That’s what arts supposed to do.
Like i said in another answer, maybe that loss of confidence in the authenticity of what we see online has a positive effect in the future where people start rejecting what they see on the web as the truth and start believing in what authoritative people say again; i hope they start listening to their doctors, teachers and scientists again instead of grifters and con-men. In that case anonymous social media will find itself dead in the water, with media using verified and authenticated profiles winning out.
It might cause the combined stupidity - that made things like qanon possible - to fall apart into the small splinter cells of town idiots they were before.