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by tumult 1109 days ago
You make it sound like some force of nature is causing this to occur. These things exist because people are making them, despite there no longer being a healthy reason for doing so.

(I’m not saying there’s reason for AI development in general to stop, but these generative things that are designed to slot neatly into the role of human artists specifically have no reason to be developed further beyond proving it was possible, and that happened a while ago.)
2 comments
arcanemachiner 1109 days ago
The force of nature is that our society will utilize any technology before even considering its ramifications. "Touchscreens in cars? Let's do it!"

I think you might enjoy Neil Postman's book "Technopoly", which discusses the subject of weighing the pros and cons of a subject instead of just diving in headfirst every time some new technology is developed. His YouTube talks are also great.

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tumult 1109 days ago
I think that’s more of an emergent behavior, not a force of nature. But I agree that enough people might do stupid stuff to create this kind of emergent behavior, which seems to be happening now. Like maybe 90% or more of people think these art AIs are distasteful, but enough people can’t stop themselves from filling in the blank square where something is possible to create but hasn’t been created yet, so people keep trying to make it. Even though there doesn’t seem to be any upside or goal, since I’ve never gotten an explanation of one.

And I think if you’re going to create something that has a little bit of potential to harm at least a few people, you should at least have a decent goal or reason for creating it.

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BHSPitMonkey 1109 days ago
Humans creating and sharing new technologies (and ideas, and works of art, etc.) across societies _is_ a force of nature.
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tumult 1109 days ago
“Force of nature” generally means some phenomenon of physics or some natural disaster outside of human control, which is what I meant.

“A big and powerful cool thing” is not what I meant, and not what force of nature usually means.

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popalchemist 1109 days ago
Life is a force of nature. Evolution is a force of nature. The development of society (across species, not just human) is a force of nature. The development of technology is an aspect of that. In other words, macro-economic trends such as the development of automation ARE in fact an aspect of evolution, aka, a force of nature.

Doesn't matter if that's not the sense in which the phrase is used, these things are arising out of the collective unconscious, not as the result of mere individual will.

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tumult 1109 days ago
You just made that up. That's not what the phrase "force of nature" means.
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