What the AI ethics & disinfo ranters are on about is that the combo of humans + AI is better. More people will make better writing, art, video, etc. They think this is bad, b/c bad people (= ppl who weren't vetted & gatekept by their favorite institutions) will make better stuff

— jonstokes.(eth|com) (@jonst0kes) February 17, 2023

I agree this is part of it, but to be fair to those people they are rightly worried about corporations holding even more creative and cultural power. Their incessant accusations that AI is “stealing” make little sense, because they don’t know how the new gen of AI works at all, but they are right to be scared that it’ll throw them out of work. It probably will.

Their reasoning about how AI actually functions and the causes of this looming dislocation are all wrong and senseless, but they are correct about the end result. It’s sort of like how nearly none of the leftists who hate the stock market understand in the least how securities or securities exchanges work, but are correct that the stock market is deeply unfair and harmful to many people.

It is funny that they accuse AI of “stealing” when they are doing the same thing in their own minds when they syncretize many past works to create their “original” ones. It’s a fundamental cluelessness that is distasteful in the extreme.

Gahh I have an unwritten essay I've been turning over called "Year 0x0" and now I wish I'd done it. Digital == mutable state w/ very low cost to erase == whoever has root can reset the culture. As software eats the world, more of the culture gets easier to zero out by admins. https://t.co/kSIjVApXUv

— jonstokes.(eth|com) (@jonst0kes) February 18, 2023

The censoring of the Roald Dahl books is just a precursor of what’s to come. With digital you can erase something altogether and deny it ever existed, then prosecute those who have kept any “non-existent” copies.