In the AI Apocalypse, I’ll Be Standing on the Right Side of History
Enjoy yourself with silly chatbot friends, but they're coming for all of us.
When it comes to the rapid rise and use of AI, I have been suspicious and distrustful from the start.
After all, when AI was first heavily adopted and becoming mainstream (or at least when I noticed it was happening, in early 2023), I noticed because the income from writing dried up on NewsBreak, and Medium was flooded with AI garbage writing as earnings declined there, too.
But I think what tipped me to into anti-AI territory was seeing people produce and use images made by other people’s stolen art without their consent, and call it their own art. Because that’s also a bunch of garbage.
Oh, you made a cool cartoon? An abstract painting? A deepfake photo?
Okay, cool, keep feeling cool.
You just robbed artists of their work and called it your own after their art was already stolen without their consent.
Super cool.
This morning, the first big story on the news was about AI, and I’m not going to waste any time spinning this - when it comes to eliminating jobs, AI is bringing on “a bloodbath that could eliminate 50% of white collar, entry level jobs”.
The following quote is from Dario Amodei, the CEO of an AI company, Anthropic, at a talk he gave last week:
"We, as the producers of this technology, have a duty and an obligation to be honest about what is coming," Dario Amodei told Axios in an interview published Wednesday. "I don't think this is on people's radar."
The 42-year-old CEO added that unemployment could spike between 10% and 20% in the next five years. He told Axios he wanted to share his concerns to get the government and other AI companies to prepare the country for what's to come.
"Most of them are unaware that this is about to happen," Amodei said. "It sounds crazy, and people just don't believe it."
This man is warning us very seriously and honestly that a product he is building is going to bring ruin to millions of people’s lives - and it’s coming sooner than anyone thought.
Oh really?
Ya don’t say.
Because I’ve been saying this for years.
It’s gonna take your job, I said.
You think those self-checkouts are helpful, but they’re coming for your jobs, I said.
And that was before it even got bad!
Every day that goes by, AI infiltrates our world even more.
I can’t write anything online, anywhere, without it trying to predict my text.
When I search for something on Google, the top half of the page is filled completely with AI generated information, and it’s often much too broad and unhelpful when I am searching for something specific.
Chatbots on websites and “Press 2 for Billing” in lieu of customer service agents?
Fuck. You. Motherfuckers.
Is someone you know feeling broken because someone stuck their face on a naked body and passed it off as being real?
Well, congratulations.
AI has already made your life worse.
My… ex, James, he was very into using ChatGPT as a “tool” for things he did in his life.
He said it was very helpful for him at work because he could take transcripts of meeting notes, pop them into ChatGPT, and in seconds get a summary and breakdown of key points, which otherwise could have taken him hours.
He was proud of it, like he’d unlocked this magical tool that would make his life so much easier, and I’m like… dude, you’re working on eliminating the whole point of you being there.
But at the time, I was like, whatever, it’s just work, it’s just helping him with summaries.
Until he insisted I read something that ChatGPT “wrote” for him, which was a summary of our relationship and reasons for and against staying together.
He told me he’d taken a lot of things he’d written about our relationship, put them into ChatGPT, and wanted to… how did he say it? Something along the lines of, reflect back what he’s been writing in a more concise and organized way.
Long story short, it turned into a fight because I am not willing to have my relationship advised by a robot, and said I didn’t want to hear any more of what ChatGPT had to say.
He was very angry, but I stood firm.
It made me very uncomfortable, and it got worse when he alluded to using it as part of his therapy.
I was horrified.
Only a few days ago, I stumbled onto this subreddit:
https://www.reddit.com/r/therapyGPT/
The horror became terror.
These people are going to ruin their own lives, I thought.
Seriously, some of the posts I read there gave me raised hackles and a feeling of dread for humanity itself.
That whole situation needs its own post, and I need to wrap up and get my ass ready for the daily grind to get by.
At the moment, I am not worried at all about AI stealing my day job.
I have what they call a “client facing role” that can’t be replaced until we have actual robots, androids, or whatever the fuck walking computor freakshow comes first.
The sad thing that just hit me is that when I’m old, I’m going to be taken care of by a generation being educated during the rise and after the takeover of AI.
My generation could be the first to be cared for by robots.
I’d rather disappear into the remaining wilderness and be forgotten by time, because time was a traitor.
I believe this will be the first in a series of “Fuck the Robots” posts because I have a whole lot more to say on the subject.
But, for now:
Enjoy yourself, it’s later than you think
Enjoy yourself, while you’re still in the pink
The years go by, as quickly as a wink
Enjoy yourself, enjoy yourself, it’s later than you think.
- by Carl Sigman and Herb Magidson
I am not turning on paid posts because I’m not willing to commit to anything, but if you’d like to support me and my writing, I would really appreciate it if you would “buy me a coffee” or five by clicking here or on the image below. Good luck out there, guys.
The last few years, I've been feeling like Sarah Connor. I keep saying "Skynet is here." I've been scared by what I'm seeing. Scared by what it is doing to the writing industry and other arms of the arts. I'm right here with you - they're coming for all of us.
Well, here's the thing. Some of these artists charge $1000 to do a picture for you, and most people JUST DON'T HAVE THAT MUCH MONEY.
I write fanfic, for fuck's sake. You aren't ALLOWED to make money doing that.
So if no one will draw you something at a price you can afford, you just can't have an illustrated story. Never mind that the last "artist" I paid to make me something? Took my basic drawing, changed a few things, and sold basically the same thing to the next person!
Okay, enough on that. I follow your general idea. I find it distressing now that THERAPY is being turned over to MACHINES.
Yeah, let's let machines THINK FOR US.
I mean, the RethugliKKKans have already turned half the country into machines to begin with ...