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I tried to Get out of this task many times, in many different ways.
I told them that not every package needs a letter of editor. I’ve been very busy recording a new podcast, getting ready to speak at a tech conference, eating and sleeping, parenting, painting, reviewing my to-do list, and re-tying my shoelaces. I was doing my best, and I tried to convey that to my editor. To be fair, my communication was meticulous; I simply stopped responding to his emails, imagining that I could exist on a spectral level where AI wasn’t being shoved down my throat every minute of every day.
Like so many men before him, he didn’t understand it. “Don’t think of it as an editor’s letter,” he wrote. “Think of it as an AI package vignette! I know you’re not interested in WIRED getting an AI manifesto.”
He’s right. I’m not. Here’s why: In July 2023, when I was interviewing for this job, everyone involved in the process asked me how I would cover AI. Since then I have been inundated with questions about my views on technology. Combs W Public relations professionals I would like to know. The organizer of every major conference held everywhere on the planet is a curiosity. My father has questions. So does David Remnick. All the journalists have inquired too, which is another reason in a very long list of reasons why I can’t go to any industry parties, now or ever. My neighbor? Wonders about the AI apocalypse. My dermatologist? She has a new AI diagnostic tool that she loves for me to use. My dogs? GPT is curious.
Fortunately, there are sentient beings who don’t want my opinion on AI. My husband is too busy creating AI-generated movies on his phone to care what his wife, who constantly yells at him to get off his phone, thinks about AI in the context of her job. Thankfully, the staff at WIRED implicitly understands the same thing I understand about AI: The technology has been around, iterative, and evolving for decades; This very moment Artificial intelligence fanaticism It specifically refers to a deep learning approach to training AI models on huge amounts of data. Yes, it may sound technically intimidating. But it’s actually not that deep. Unless you’re riding high on the intoxicating hype spread by visionary tech marketers like Sam Altman and Dario Amodei, in which case why are you reading this? Go to the hideout!
The truth is that artificial intelligence is not a new invention. It is not the mythical solver of all problems or the great destroyer of worlds (and careers) that we have been warned about. It’s very expensive and resource-draining to train, deploy, market, and then rinse and repeat with more data, new models, more promises, new warnings, etc., forever and ever, until we all switch to quantum in a few years. Generative AI is really useful in some contexts, completely useless in others, and certainly unproven in most contexts. It depends on the situation. It is not a monolith. An increasing number of signs indicate that Economic bubble. The bursting of this bubble may be temporarily disastrous. There will be fascinating and impactful aspects of AI technology that will continue to shape certain parts of our lives beyond its advent. There is “there there” there. But let’s stop trying to make it about email. We should all write our own emails. Yes, this is the ‘take’ you’ve all been waiting for.
As for the press? Is generative AI poised to demolish our industry, desecrating the craft of human-led newsgathering and storytelling? This depends on who you ask. If you ask Google, they will assure you that sending traffic and revenue to publishers in order to publish accurate information has never been more important. They would then offer AI-infused features at the expense of their own research product and publications in which they were trapped in an abusive relationship that lasted decades. At this point for publishers, escaping Google means either a shake-up or shutting down the site entirely. Meta and Mark Zuckerberg have a different point of view. After pulling rug after rug out from under the news business in recent years, financially battering publishers around the world, turning Facebook into a conference for your Republican aunts, and Threads into an apolitical social media network I wouldn’t have thought of a year ago, the company has created “a feed of expressive, AI-generated videos from artists and creators.” Pretty steep, basically. Total shit, pretty much. She can’t even do half as well Sora from OpenAI does just that.
At WIRED, we will sometimes use artificial intelligence. In the coming years, artificial intelligence may help us do some editing work. Indeed, we use it in (carefully validated) research and brainstorming with the automated equivalent of a rather stupid intern. Of course, machine learning technology leading up to this moment has always been useful in investigative reporting. But discovering and communicating new, newsworthy information? Do you get to the end of a statement that says exactly what you want, so beautifully? The illustration that makes you want to ~*chef’s kiss*~ at a team meeting, because you can’t wait for the issue to be printed and the world (at least the world of people who still Print subscription) See what you are doing? This is human action, by and for human beings. Use technology to enhance this work, where it makes sense, and avoid it where it doesn’t. This is what we do, and this is what we will continue to do.
My advice to WIRED readers is to keep an open mind. You should be learning more about AI at this moment, and learning how to use some of the tools you keep hearing about. Get the basics, and expand from there if you find it interesting or useful. Whatever you do, don’t become friends with AI or… Have cyber sex with her. For the love of God, we all have enough problems already. Make sure your children still have them Human teachers. And then please relax. The world is always changing. Technology didn’t start with ChatGPT. Perhaps the worst thing about AI is the fact that we can’t stop talking about it.
I could go on, but I really need to run. As I said: Every package does not need a written letter, and I have a mole on my back that I need a human opinion on.