Appreciate this Jim and glad you chose to publish it. What I continue to return to is that whatever we do with generative AI, or any other tool for that matter, we must do with a clear understanding of what we hope to do with it and what it will do to us and our communities.
I stand with you in the space of the radical middle: I think there are places where AI and generative AI can be quite powerful and useful. But in other applications, the drawbacks outweigh the benefits.
I've been pulling on this thread recently in my own writing and feel that my thinking is quite aligned with your own (from an engineer at that!). A few posts that might resonate with you:
Josh, I appreciate this comment and the ones I forgot to respond to in previous posts (!). But I just subscribed to your newsletter and your January 30th post definitely touches upon these issues as well. You make an excellent point about the fact that these machines are designed by bypass human agency. That might be the heart of the problem. I have to think more about that . . .
Thanks Jim, I was reminded again yesterday of a Wendell Berry quote which is looming large in my imagination lately.
“It is easy for me to imagine that the next great division of the world will be between people who wish to live as creatures and people who wish to live as machines.”
Appreciate this Jim and glad you chose to publish it. What I continue to return to is that whatever we do with generative AI, or any other tool for that matter, we must do with a clear understanding of what we hope to do with it and what it will do to us and our communities.
I stand with you in the space of the radical middle: I think there are places where AI and generative AI can be quite powerful and useful. But in other applications, the drawbacks outweigh the benefits.
I've been pulling on this thread recently in my own writing and feel that my thinking is quite aligned with your own (from an engineer at that!). A few posts that might resonate with you:
Andy Crouch's Innovation Bargain and how it helps us to see the both-and nature of technology: https://joshbrake.substack.com/p/the-innovation-bargain
Why AI is the same and yet different as previous technologies and how we should consider engaging with it thoughtfully: https://joshbrake.substack.com/p/containing-the-coming-wave
Josh, I appreciate this comment and the ones I forgot to respond to in previous posts (!). But I just subscribed to your newsletter and your January 30th post definitely touches upon these issues as well. You make an excellent point about the fact that these machines are designed by bypass human agency. That might be the heart of the problem. I have to think more about that . . .
Thanks Jim, I was reminded again yesterday of a Wendell Berry quote which is looming large in my imagination lately.
“It is easy for me to imagine that the next great division of the world will be between people who wish to live as creatures and people who wish to live as machines.”
I, for one, know my choice.