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theinternet-review-w06lf0.txt (10396B)

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 I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got on October 29, 2024
 
 It’s the “1998” of the AI Revolution. So Why Can I Safely Ignore It?
 
 Ah, I remember 1998 like it was yesterday.
 
 Windows 98!
 
 Bondi Blue iMac!
 
 The “[6]Cuban Missile Crisis” 😏
 
 [7]You’ve Got Mail!
 
 But we’re not here to reminisce. We’re here to consider why the so-called “AI
 Revolution” of today is not like the Internet Revolution of 26 years ago.
 
 1998 was a pivotal moment in time for me. It was when I’d gotten my start as a
 professional Web developer, working on projects for friends and new leads
 alike. And I was writing quite a bit for new online publications. (Alas, I
 hadn’t yet [8]rebooted iReview as a BeOS-themed destination.)
 
 1998 was also right in the middle of the first big Internet boom. AOL was
 riding high and acquiring companies right and left—including Netscape in a $4.2
 billion deal. Microsoft had spent a few years pivoting mightily from a primary
 focus on big box (offline) software to a major consumer play where they hoped
 to fulfill their vision of “a computer in every home” connected to the nascent
 World-Wide Web.
 
 Apple was also just beginning its “Second Coming of Steve Jobs” narrative arc,
 launching the Internet-flavored Macintosh computer that would save the company
 and pave the way for the successes of the iPod, iPhone, and iPad.
 
 So here’s the deal.
 
 I would argue that for most people, in the year 1998, it would have made no
 sense to stubbornly resist these technological advances. Imagine flat-out
 saying no to computers and the Internet—to the degree that you never set up an
 email address. No Web access. Nothing.
 
 (OK weirdos, enough with that dreamy look in your eyes! Maybe you need to go
 unplug for the weekend! 🤣)
 
 Were there people like that back then? Certainly! And even now, there’s no
 denying the appeal of retro tech. [9]Some folks still love to write on
 typewriters.
 
 But on the whole, you could argue that people in the late 1990s who completely
 shunned personal computing were limiting their options for no clear reason.
 Accessing a Web site for information instead of dialing an automated telephone
 line was clearly a superior experience. Talking to a friend via email or
 instant messaging was clearly more akin to a face-to-face conversation than
 writing a letter and sending it in the post.
 
 I remember my very tech-adverse mother becoming completely addicted to online
 chatrooms in order to discuss…and this is no joke…Gàidhlig with native speakers
 in Scotland and learners around the world. I even helped her set up [10]a Web
 site and mailing list called Gàidhlig 4 U — and in case you’re wondering, my
 Scottish Gaelic persona was Diarmaid Mac GhilleBhàin.
 
 The reason I’m going into all this detail is because I want to impress to you
 just how much of a overwhelming shift in culture the Internet was in the late
 1990s.
 
 I see none of that same inevitability today with the so-called AI Revolution.
 
 You can literally just not use it.
 
 Researchers, please get in touch with me. I can be part of your control group.
 
 Because I’ve never used ChatGPT. Not once. I hesitated even to access a link a
 client shared with me with a transcript of their ChatGPT request. AI cooties! 🙅
 
 I’ve never used GitHub Copilot. Or Cursor. Or any of the other AI “pair
 programmers” out there. Not once.
 
 I routinely switch off any AI tools in software I use (if that’s even
 possible). I never look at “answers” search engines regurgitate out, preferring
 to get to the genuine human-sourced information as quickly as possible.
 
 I’m still running macOS Sonoma and iOS 17, because I have zero interest in
 “Apple Intelligence”.
 
 I don’t say all of this to revel in my curmudgeonly Luddism. I say it because
 I’m living proof that you can be a fulfilled, modern, very online, technical
 expert & creator and completely sit out this hype cycle.
 
 Seriously. You can just not use any of these generative AI tools.
 
 A while back, I wrote up an [11]AI Ethical Framework for my software business
 Whitefusion. It even needs a bit of updating now because I once considered the
 environmental cost of generative AI to be a bit of a side issue compared to the
 main ones, but it’s becoming clear it’s actually [12]rather horrendous.
 
 I’m sad to say I see little evidence that we’re making any progress towards
 meeting the tenets of the framework. Creators are having to take major steps to
 protect their work against theft at industrial scale, and regulation is slow or
 non-existent to ensure models are trained and provided in an ethical manner.
 
 Until there’s widespread availability of generative AI tooling which meets my
 criteria, I’m refusing to use any at all. And again, the impact on my life has
 been…negligible.
 
 I honestly don’t feel like I’m missing anything at all.
 
 I’m still coding and making a real impact on the projects I work on.
 
 I’m still writing. I’m still podcasting.
 
 I’m still taking photographs and editing them. (with zero “generative fill”!)
 
 I’m still participating in my local communities. In fact, if I ignore the few
 conversations I’ve had with folks IRL about what generative AI “will” do and
 focus on how AI has affected anything I do IRL, the answer is nothing. AI might
 as well not exist when I consider all of the things I do on a daily basis out
 in the real world.
 
 It’s not inevitable. (Sorry Thanos!)
 
 I’m really unable to explain to you why I would need generative AI to help me
 with anything I do. Now don’t get me wrong, I definitely appreciate machine
 learning. Making transcripts, translating text, searching for photos,
 dictating…these are all truly revolutionary and valuable computing tools. And
 if you want to put all of them in the broad category of “AI” and call me a
 hypocrite, you’re welcome to try.
 
 But I find that there’s a wide conceptual chasm between traditional machine
 learning tools as described above, and this new crop of generative AI services.
 And unfortunately, when the lines get blurred, [13]it’s actually pretty
 terrifying.
 
 Computers can’t think—and they won’t. Anyone trying to sell you on a vision of
 AGI, or “powerful intelligence”, or any such nonsense, has truly drunk the
 kool-aid (or cynically capitalizing on the hype cycle before it bursts).
 Computers can’t experience the world, because there’s no qualia in the
 lifecycle of a digital operation. Chatbots are lying to you when “they” wax
 philosophical about how much they appreciate the beach in the summer or that
 pickles taste great in a sandwich. I find it nauseating that some people
 willingly accept this kind of output from a chatbot. When the #1 problem with
 the Internet today is the rampant spread of misinformation and total bullshit
 everywhere at dizzying speeds, folks seem fine with using bullshit generators
 at scale?
 
 I don’t get it.
 
 But thankfully, I don’t need to, because I can continue to live my life
 perfectly fine without using any of these generative AI tools.
 
 Try it! Once you’ve weaned yourself off of these fake intelligence simulators,
 you just might realize they never added to your quality of life in the first
 place.
 
 (But, alas, you can’t join my control group. 😉)
 
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 References:
 
 [1] https://theinternet.review/
 [2] https://theinternet.review/
 [3] https://theinternet.review/toolbox/
 [4] https://theinternet.review/forecast/
 [5] https://theinternet.review/history/
 [6] https://slate.com/news-and-politics/1998/09/what-exactly-is-the-cigar-story.html
 [7] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/You%27ve_Got_Mail
 [8] https://theinternet.review/archived/1999/06/09/introduction-to-beos/
 [9] https://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/2022/07/why-and-how-i-use-a-typewriter/
 [10] https://web.archive.org/web/20000424001346fw_/http://distantoaks.com/g4u/index.html
 [11] https://www.whitefusion.studio/ai-ethics
 [12] https://www.techradar.com/pro/generative-ais-energy-demands-are-accelerating-the-climate-crisis-top-researcher-warns-of-environmental-impact-of-googles-new-search-feature
 [13] https://apnews.com/article/ai-artificial-intelligence-health-business-90020cdf5fa16c79ca2e5b6c4c9bbb14
 [14] https://buttondown.email/theinternet
 [15] https://theinternet.review/2024/10/26/ghost-is-now-federating/
 [16] https://theinternet.review/2024/11/19/vivaldi-web-browser-for-customization-power-users/
 [17] https://theinternet.review/archived/october-2024
 [18] https://jaredwhite.com/
 [19] https://plus.intuitivefuture.com/
 [20] https://intuitivefuture.com/@theinternet
 [21] https://intuitivefuture.com/@theinternet
 [22] https://theinternet.review/feed.xml
 [23] https://theinternet.review/feed.xml