I don't disagree that the current fad of general-use AI will likely break down into more specific use cases as time goes by, but at the same time, the ramifications of extensive AI use might not be as benign as assumed. The article is about what the destruction of privacy, in tandem with new AI tech, might be doing to us psychologically.
In a series of essays written over the course of the last decade, How to See Like a Machine makes the case that the rise of modern AI has ushered in an age in which the intersubjective nature of imagery is being replaced by something fundamentally new, something deeply alien, the psychological and political implications of which are yet to be realized. AI-generated images are not the unique product of a human mind but a reflection of training data that, in many cases, is deeply infected with the ugliest of human biases.
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Until now, anyone looking at an ochre handprint on a cave wall, a painting of an apple, or a photograph of bombed-out buildings could know with certainty that another human being had created the image. That is no longer the case.
A profusion of cheaply made AI-generated text, images, audio, and video across the internet is washing us away into a kind of epistemic purgatory, Paglen argues in his new book, where our once relatively stable tethers to a shared reality are being replaced by individual bubbles of algorithmically governed social media feeds.
Even more concerning for Paglen is what he regards as the subtle forces behind these algorithms: they are not objective—as much as big tech companies might claim otherwise—but are rather driven by the logic of commodification and surveillance. Every moment of our lives, even the most private and intimate, becomes an opportunity for the harvesting of personal data. “Smart” devices track our sleep rhythms and exercise habits, apps track our online shopping habits and sexual proclivities, and chatbots learn about our unique emotional triggers and anxieties.
https://gizmodo.com/when-you-gaze-into-the-ai-slop-the-ai-slop-also-gazes-into-you-2000772663
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