Generative AI, Firebringer?
Last weekend I saw a performance by Annie Dorsen titled Prometheus Firebringer that was the most thoughtful op-ed on AI that I’ve heard to date.? I call it a performance rather than a play, because there were no actors and no script.? The performance calls attention to the epic struggle we humans are having with AI, and technology in general.? If you’ll harken back to middle school, you’ll remember Prometheus as the Titan who takes pity on us mortals and brings us the gift of fire from the hearth of Olympus, angering Zeus who then chains Prometheus to a rock for eternal torment.? The poet Aeschylus was writing a trilogy of plays about this epic, but died before he was able to work on the third and final piece where Zeus frees Prometheus and they attempt reconciliation. This is an apt metaphor for generative AI, which gets even more meta as Annie has Chat GPT write this third lost play, in real time each night, with synthesized voices reading stilted lines of iambic pentameter as a dialog between Prometheus and a chorus of orphaned human children (orphaned children being an outcome of giving humans fire/technology).?
To draw contrast with the technology performance, Annie reads an essay about the difference between the invention that humans do and the prediction that computers do.? The essay, like Chat GPT, is entirely sourced from the words of others.? Citations scroll by on the screen behind her.? As in a large language model, every word she says has been said before.? But she draws attention to the contrast between words woven together in intention from the words woven together by prediction.? It’s perhaps a vain trick, comparing herself to a computer, but, we know, like Kasparov, at some point in the future, she will be equaled by the computer in eloquence.? Yet, it makes the point that we as mortals can feel the shared intention.? Computers may be good at comprehending, synthesizing and writing at speed… but they’re not very good at making a point.?
Since this is a business forum, what’s the conclusion for marketers? I personally have sat on the sidelines of much of the AI debate over the past year. Having studied the interrelation of technology and society in grad school, I see generative AI as the latest technology like social media, smartphones, television, telephones, electricity, the bicycle… ?that will ruin our society. With each of these innovations, in each epoch, we remake society around the technology.? Tikun olam – we remake the world. ?But we have choices about how we remake the world. ?Will we try to sneak the technology in… pretend it’s not there… like a lurking patzer consulting his chess program between every move. ?When we do that, who are we cheating but ourselves?? Or will we use it to teach, to help express ourselves.? To level the playing field.? My wife is dismayed that in her field, so much of her non-profit funding is tied up in reading and writing grant applications that it privileges the organizations with the most erudite applicants rather than the ones that can do the most good.? Should we instead have the bot write why each organization is deserving judge them only on their merits?? Can AI be a force for leveling?? For re-humanization?? What about for marketers?? Should we use this to create a lot of content. ?"OK Google, take this whitepaper on how to use AI to write marketing blogs and write me fourteen blog posts?"? In an AI-enabled post-SEO world, is content proliferation relevant?? Or, can we use it as an agent of intention? ?Instead of bemoaning that our engineers, consultants and subject matter experts don’t blog, can this be a vehicle to promote their diverse perspectives on why our company’s solutions are uniquely valuable? Can we create more voices, more dialog, and more conversation instead of just more content? Instead of personalizing promotions for each of our customers, can we promote our personalities, and engender trust in our honest convictions? I think that's our best hope for reconciliation with AI.
Australia?
?? Founder & CEO at Predictive Social Media | Global Innovator & Author ??Transforming Business Growth with Six Sigma & Social Media | Impacting 107+ Countries
1 年??
CRO at Alignable | Growth Strategist | Marketing & Revenue Leader
1 年This is the most unique and memorable AI-focused discussion starter I’ve read all year. One thing for sure, it wasn’t written by AI. I do believe that we can use this tool to accelerate, amplify and improve. Just not to create… not yet anyway. :-)
Harvard CS Teaching Fellow | Chief AI Solution & Data Architect @ Yes2 AI | Agentic Software, Partner @ HumanRace
1 年Interesting. Thanks for the post