After listening to that I'm going to have to dig out my old copy of Raoul Vaniegem's The Revolution of Everyday Life. “The same people who are murdered slowly in the mechanized slaughterhouses of work are also arguing, singing, drinking, dancing, making love, holding the streets, picking up weapons and inventing a new poetry.” Delighted that you are podcasting Helen! Looking forward to future episodes.
Excellent comments around 21 minutes. They remind me of all the 'aids' in modern cars that mostly deskill drivers; alarms, cameras etc, but with AI this massively expands and replaces whole blocks of critical thinking. You may well be familiar with this essay by the artists Kate Crawford and Trevor Paglen, and it's now four years old, however, it relates to the issues of reinforcing prejudices that are discussed in the podcast, specifically in relation to AI images https://excavating.ai/
On a more mundane note, what's the music at the beginning of the podcast please?
Fascinating stuff. My AI-style synopsis runs no further though than to say that AI enables stultifying fakery, at scale, whch is derived from shoddy approximations, and enables the removal of agency from actual people so that they can be more effectively disadvantaged and oppressed.
Interesting that your AI summary does exactly as Dan says and converges to the norm of liberal criticism - the problem is inaccuracy and fakery, and the removal of agency - losing the bite of his actual critique.
Great interview, Helen. I admit I’m not much of a podcast listener, but I was really compelled by the whole conversation and felt you asked the questions I wanted to throughout. That should be no surprise having been on the other side of the mic with you!
What if it’s not all ‘crap?’ It seems pretty early to judge! There are lots of applications like drug discovery and environmental monitoring that look promising and beneficial, to set against the story of hype, bubble, and bust. Notebook LM can give writers excellent feedback on their drafts so they can write better texts. If we look at AI becoming more powerful over time, as most technologies do, and having both good and bad outcomes, then instead of talking about resistance, we should be talking about safety, control, and trying to make AI human compatible. Rachel Kushner’s recent novel Creation Lake is a good rumination on the limits of traditional leftist critiques of techno-capitalism, and different frames for understanding and even outlasting it!
After listening to that I'm going to have to dig out my old copy of Raoul Vaniegem's The Revolution of Everyday Life. “The same people who are murdered slowly in the mechanized slaughterhouses of work are also arguing, singing, drinking, dancing, making love, holding the streets, picking up weapons and inventing a new poetry.” Delighted that you are podcasting Helen! Looking forward to future episodes.
Thank you Julian, so am I!
Excellent comments around 21 minutes. They remind me of all the 'aids' in modern cars that mostly deskill drivers; alarms, cameras etc, but with AI this massively expands and replaces whole blocks of critical thinking. You may well be familiar with this essay by the artists Kate Crawford and Trevor Paglen, and it's now four years old, however, it relates to the issues of reinforcing prejudices that are discussed in the podcast, specifically in relation to AI images https://excavating.ai/
On a more mundane note, what's the music at the beginning of the podcast please?
Fascinating stuff. My AI-style synopsis runs no further though than to say that AI enables stultifying fakery, at scale, whch is derived from shoddy approximations, and enables the removal of agency from actual people so that they can be more effectively disadvantaged and oppressed.
Psychogeographers of the world unite!
Interesting that your AI summary does exactly as Dan says and converges to the norm of liberal criticism - the problem is inaccuracy and fakery, and the removal of agency - losing the bite of his actual critique.
Well, I did say it was in the AI style. :-)
Great interview, Helen. I admit I’m not much of a podcast listener, but I was really compelled by the whole conversation and felt you asked the questions I wanted to throughout. That should be no surprise having been on the other side of the mic with you!
What if it’s not all ‘crap?’ It seems pretty early to judge! There are lots of applications like drug discovery and environmental monitoring that look promising and beneficial, to set against the story of hype, bubble, and bust. Notebook LM can give writers excellent feedback on their drafts so they can write better texts. If we look at AI becoming more powerful over time, as most technologies do, and having both good and bad outcomes, then instead of talking about resistance, we should be talking about safety, control, and trying to make AI human compatible. Rachel Kushner’s recent novel Creation Lake is a good rumination on the limits of traditional leftist critiques of techno-capitalism, and different frames for understanding and even outlasting it!