Bloopers & News, June 9, 2024
"Her" and Main Character Syndrome
I’ve written a lot recently about the fun that one can have with AI, whether it’s speaking a foreign language perfectly or replacing vocals on a pop song with your own voice.
AI is also being used in ways that are markedly not fun and are, in fact, horrifying. There have been several stories recently about middle school boys making fake porns out of their female classmates, which is a nightmare combination of exploitation, slut-shaming, child porn, and psychological warfare. It also puts young girls in the position of thinking about themselves sexually whether they are ready to or not. I don’t know how pervasive this problem is yet, but it is a conversation to have with your tween son immediately.
When the grand titans of technology unleashed AI on us, it is safe to say that they were not thinking of many of the consequences, including “What would a 13-year-old boy do with AI?” However, I think any us normals could have seen this development coming.
A second trend in articles is the discussion around Sam Altman’s obsession with Scarlett Johansson and the movie “Her.” He wanted to use the actress’ voice for OpenAI and she refused. So he just made the closest facsimile her could, natch. She sued and he took it down.
But it leads to the question of why do so many tech bros reference dystopian novels and films when marketing their rad new products? For example, Elon Musk claimed his [super stupid and embarrassing] Tesla truck was designed for Blade Runner, since that’s a future we all want.
I read a terrific Substack post from “Men Yell At Me” about this phenomenon:
“OpenAI was developed by a lot of tech guys who didn’t go to college because no one needs that anymore. But they did read a couple of dystopian sci-fi novels and, instead of seeing them as warnings about what technology might do to society, got some really cool ideas.
Yeah, Margaret Atwood, what if women were nothing but rigidly controlled baby-making machines? GREAT IDEA. Sounds perfect. No notes, queen. . .
Ray Bradbury, you lil genius, what if we DID eliminate all sources of complexity, nuance, and confusion, and got rid of all the books so people’s minds could just be blissfully happy, smooth brain, no thoughts. There are famously no problems with this.”
Personally, I think these dudes are well acquainted with these stories and their lessons but couldn’t give a robotic rat’s ass. When we read novels we relate to the protagonist. No one sees Blade Runner or Mad Max thinking, “I would be one of the idiots that dies in the first ten minutes.” We all think we would be the hero that would survive despite horrendous circumstances. Certainly the tech titans suffer from Main Character Syndrome. (I would like to coin “Red Shirt Syndrome,” the belief that you will be an anonymous person destroyed within five minutes of any threatening event.)
I wrote a book series set in a future, dystopian New York and people often ask me why dystopian books and films are still so popular. The closer we get to an unimaginable future (whether it’s a world without water, fuel, books, or body autonomy), the more we crave reassurance. Novels let us imagine that we would be strong enough to endure.
It’s no use crying foul when Sam Altman says that his tech will be just like Her, a movie that ends with the message that AI interaction is not at all a replacement for real human relationships. Altman knows the message of the film but doesn’t care. He knows that his customers would rather imagine themselves as the blissfully ignorant yet happy man of the first two acts, rather than the lonely (yet more enlightened!) man at the end of the third.
Altman, Musk, and their ilk love to claim that they are all about improving the world and saving humanity, but as journalist Kara Swisher says in the opening of her new book, “As it turned out, it was capitalism after all.”
Nailed it!
These days I have fewer and fewer hilarious AI mistakes to share. The errors now are subtle and sometimes just a matter of taste (another reason that I believe “AI curator” is going to be a big profession).
I asked ChatGPT to take the first image above and it and make it “slightly older,” and it went from 25 to Frances Conroy.
AI reflects our society back to itself, and since the dawn of time women have been seen as either young women to conquer or old women to pity. This is why women MUST use AI. We must be part of the training data that teaches AI what all humans are. I dream of a day when a boy tries to create a pornographic image of a classmate and the AI says, “No thank you.”
This Memoir Will Be Written By Robots is a serial art experiment written by Carolyn Cohagan using AI created graphics in order to track in real time the possibilities of the medium. You will also receive bimonthly AI news from this non-techie who is trying to figure out what it means for our daily lives.
This is great. Btw did you listen to Kara Swisher’s interview with AOC ? It’s amazing but particularly when they talk about tech bros and how technology and congress never intersected before and now both parties are like “ummm we screwed up. Everyone hold on”