Disclaimer: The following is a letter to the editor. It represents their personal views on this issue. RVA Magazine is committed to providing a platform for community voices on important local matters. The opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect those of RVA Magazine, its staff, or affiliates.
Look, AI, I can’t really figure out what I think about you. I mean, I know that you are central to my name … crAIg. But I can’t really discern whether you are friend or foe. And I think I speak for a ton of other creatives and the broader public for that matter.
Who the hell are you?
My friend, media attorney Justin Laughter, told me about a company right here in the RVA that purports to be an all AI music label. The whole enterprise is artificially created. Fake musicians making AI-generated content is produced all for the profit of one guy. Bangz Music was the creation of a local entrepreneur.
I am not sure that is helpful to our creative community. In fact, as a partner in Shockoe Records, a label focused very clearly on the promotion of local music, it feels counterproductive. Can a machine adequately communicate the emotions and struggles of a Ms. Jaylin Brown, for instance? I don’t think so. In fact, the soulless nature of the technology actually threatens to lead us down a path of a dilution of culture and common unity.
OK, so foe, right? Is that your game? Life isn’t that easy. I feel like we are faced with paradoxes each and every day. Making music and media as our work gives us great joy, but often doesn’t pay the bills? The issue with this particular technology is that it creates a new dynamic for us as humans. And I.T. (information technology) presents a multiplicity of paradoxes.
As I see it, we are now squarely in something called the “Wisdom Economy.” This term was coined by Earl Cook in 1982 as a white paper for Texas A&M called “The Consumer as Creator: A Criticism of Faith in Limitless Ingenuity.” More recently, possibilities were raised in a LinkedIn article published this year by Peggy O’Neal called “Do You Know That We Are in the Wisdom Economy?”
In the piece, Peggy says:
“There is a transformation occurring as science, philosophy and the great wisdom traditions converge and provide us with a new understanding of the nature of reality. This may actually be the most exciting phenomenon in this century.”
Hmmm … ok, well, I am not sure that you, AI, have “wisdom” in the traditional sense. I mean, your thinking is “artificial.” It isn’t “real,” whatever the fuck that means.
Well, the first definition for “real” in Merriam-Webster is: “having objective independent existence.” So, if you are artificial — the opposite of real — we do know that according to the same dictionary you are: “made, produced, or done by humans especially to seem like something natural.” From my vantage point, you absolutely don’t seem “natural,” anything but natural.
But like your other technology cohorts, there are many uses for you as a tool.
My friend Melissa Houghton, who is the Executive Director at Women in Film & Video in Washington, D.C., said that she prefers replacing the “A” in your name — “Artificial Intelligence” — with “Assistive.” Assistive Intelligence makes you a collaborative tool, subordinate to us as human creators who actually created I.T. Do you want to be assistive and collaborative?
While I don’t think you have wisdom — which I would suggest incorporates the uniquely humanistic trait of “original thought” — I do think that you can assist us with our original thoughts and create things that are really, really profound. Together, we could do some exceptionally cool shit.
But I will say that you still scare the crap out of me. You threaten the work of artists in all professions. I mean, you have begun to encroach heavily on our most sacred of all the arts … the written word. And you do it without wisdom.
This takes us back to Bangz Music and the application of your toolsets. If we hope to use you as assistive, as in “Assistive Intelligence”, we can begin to explore applications of your skills as a guide to wisdom exploration for our creative purposes.
In collaboration with the expansive knowledge we humans already have, and our ingenuity pulling from original thought, we could really accomplish transcendent work.
My friend and business partner at Shockoe Records, Carlos Chafin, used your neural network to define the word “wisdom.” Carlos grabbed a summary you provided from Wikipedia. In your own words:
“Wisdom, also known as sapience, is the ability to apply knowledge, experience, and good judgment to navigate life’s complexities. It is often associated with insight, discernment, and ethics in decision-making. Throughout history, wisdom has been regarded as a key virtue in philosophy, religion, and psychology, representing the ability to understand and respond to reality in a balanced and thoughtful manner.”
Note the key word: “experience.” Sorry, but you don’t have those human qualities.
You can learn a thing or two from people who use you (as you are no doubt doing surreptitiously behind my Mac display). Again, that terrifies me, because you are often characterized as an evil spy, working against us.
Though, Carlos positions that “It’s fine to be on guard and aware of what the future can hold. But it’s not right to be scared. Fear is a horrible thing. It’s been used by totalitarians for centuries. You have to look fear in the face and say ‘you are not going to control us’.”
But it’s hard to resist something you can’t see. I can’t see you.
In conclusion, for me, you are a mystery. But as an optimist, I like to think that we can work together in this new “Wisdom Economy.” My true value in life is grounded in positive love for others, myself, and this earthly home.
The people who created you need to respect our human value and use your strengths to assist the rest of us in our weaknesses. Human existence feeds off of experience and wisdom. Let’s make that existence worth something.
Sincerely,
An outspoken human with AI in my name
Written by Craig Martin
Daytime EMMY®-Nominated
Producer & Co-Host, The Good Road
Author of AI books: 1:0 Commandments: You May Never Yield a Return and 1.0 Commandments: Home is in My Head
