I own a Kindle Paperwhite. Usually, when I pick up the Kindle, I see an image of a book that some algorithm thinks would be perfect for me. Sometimes I even click on that image if it sounds intriguing.
That is, until recently. Now the image that usually shows up is some kind of AI-generated cover of a story that looks like it probably follows a formulaic storyline and does not even have an author’s name on it.
The future of books is here, and it is depressing.
The algorithm used to not bother me too much. I mean, of course, it would promote the books of people who pay for higher promotion or books from Amazon’s stable of authors, or occasionally best-sellers. That’s to be expected. The reality is that independent authors, no matter how talented they are, will always get lost in the algorithm unless they have the means to continually promote themselves.
But now it seems as if the algorithm pushes aside human-authored books for these generic-looking AI-generated books.
If that doesn’t worry you, it should.
Assist or Replace
I don’t believe that AI bots are going to eventually come together and take over the world in some kind of futuristic robot rebellion unless humans stupidly let it happen. I wouldn’t put it past us to do that.
You see, the more work I do training language learning models (chatbots), the more I realize that technology will never be able to completely replicate humanity. The creative capacity of humankind is not replicable even with the most advanced AI systems. AI art is usually identifiable, and although the images created may be amazing, they can only be achieved by scraping the work of human artists that already exist (a problematic issue in itself). While AI may be better or faster at finding information or solving linear and scientific problems, it falls short when tasks become very complicated or require flexible thinking.
In other words, there are certain things that humans will always be better at doing. In a sane world, AI bots would simply assist humans in achieving tasks rather than replace them.
The Human Problem
Unfortunately, humans are the best at doing everything they can to destroy themselves in the name of money. The coolest new toy, or technology, easily seduces us before we bother to think about the repercussions on society.
This especially applies to huge companies that only think of the bottom line. Who needs authors if a computer can generate a book that costs us pennies to produce? Who needs artists if we can create fake masterpieces and never pay a single royalty? Who needs an operations team if an AI bot can handle all of the assignments and communications?
I offer this partially fictional scenario:
A group of young technology experts realizes that AI is about to have its heyday and decides to create a company that will help train AI models for various developers. To keep overhead costs down, they choose to recruit hundreds and hundreds of contract workers (many with higher degrees), who will be paid hourly for their work (at decent prices), will get occasional bonuses, but will not be offered any benefits. In a time when many people are struggling from paycheck to paycheck (because late-stage capitalism only really helps the wealthy), they find people flocking to do this work, and all seems to go well. They move some of these recruits up in the ranks to become team leaders (TL), and things seem to be going well.
Sounds good so far, doesn’t it? But between those upper management gurus and the TLs are AI bots that randomly assign people to tasks, put people on teams, and switch things around. And the projects keep changing. And the customers grow bigger and become more demanding, wanting more work done in shorter times (forgetting that the workers are actually human). And things aren’t going exactly right. And technology crashes. And the stable of contract workers are getting frustrated, or don’t have tasks, or are moved from task to task in random and confusing ways, or aren’t getting paid correctly, or aren’t attending unpaid training, and so on . . .Suddenly, it’s all chaotic. The problem could easily be solved if there were human beings who knew the whole vision for the company, and who could intervene and ensure problems are solved promptly. One would suppose that would be the role of the TLs, but they are powerless to solve problems and are overloaded because of the influx of human contract workers.
Meanwhile, the AI bots continue to randomly move people around, perhaps under orders of the management, but there doesn’t seem to be anybody in the upper roles who knows how to communicate any of this. The bots themselves say nothing because nobody has told them to.
If you haven’t figured it out, one problem with this scenario is that the company has come to rely on AI bots to do work that requires a human touch. Another is that developers, who focus on the bottom line, want human workers to be as quick as AI bots, but quality does not necessarily equal quantity. Humans may be slower, but they can also be more thorough.
And more creative.
And kinder.
And... well, more human.
Redefining Work
I assume that, eventually, the AI frenzy will slow down. People will recognize that just because we have technology, that doesn’t mean we should always use it for everything.
Eventually, someone will figure out the best ways for AI technology to best assist humanity, and that can and should open up new possibilities for how humans live their lives.
But to achieve that, the world needs to remember a few truly important things:
If AI replaces jobs, then there must be other ways for people to make a living, or our system that focuses on money must change.
AI will never have the capacity to replace human creativity; therefore, creative work must be supported and respected, and those who do it should be paid for the work they do. The future of work is creative collaboration!
Companies need to stop putting profit over people, or AI will take over, and we will find a world where we are all struggling to survive.
Perhaps I am being a tad dramatic. All I know is that every time I see something that is AI-generated, I wonder what talented, creative soul has lost money because technology can do things faster, if not better.
What do you think?
the human touch.