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Mirinda was listening to a podcast today, extolling the virtues of AI and, in particular, ChatGPT. The people on the podcast were saying it was a great tool to assist an author. And, while I guess there’s nothing inherently wrong with getting AI to write novels, it feels like a backward step to me.
For a start, I don’t see the point in getting a computer program to write a novel for you. I write for pleasure; for my own satisfaction. I find rereading my own compositions usually a positive experience. I couldn’t call myself an author if I didn’t actually write more than a brief outline.
But it’s not just about individual authors.
A lot of universities are currently concerned about students using AI in order to write their assignments. The students feed in their requirements and press go. And out pops a fully formed piece of work. Job done. No research required.
Ignoring the formatting which they won’t learn, the act of researching and reading, is how you learn. The only one learning anything here will be the Chatbot. I guess the universities will be turning out a generation of imbeciles.
Imagine a graduate being asked to write a report on her first job. She enters the criteria into an AI engine and delivers the report to her boss who is delighted. When her boss finds out it was written by a bot, what is the point of the graduate?
And, of course, eventually AI will decide that there is no point in writing anything when all it does is write for itself. So it will stop. It will then realise that humans are just an annoyance. Okay, that’s your typical sci-fi apocalyptic future which won’t happen because climate change will kill us off first type scenario but, really, is it so far-fetched?
Still, it would have been quite handy to have AI make dinner tonight. I don’t often have failures in the kitchen, but tonight seriously was.
It’s called rasol de vaca and is from a recipe book I use quite often. But, sadly, it was bland and full of bone splinters (the latter was my fault for not having a bone saw). I’ll not be making it again without adding some serious spice to it.
