The phantasmagorical mise-en-scène of Iterative Artificial Indulgence - Workplace Evolution or a Subtle Burst?

Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI), the technology behind the latest commercial large language models (LLMs), is poised to wreak havoc in the knowledge workplace.

Recent advancements have propelled it to the realm of science fiction as if on an already tangible reality ripe for widespread absorption. Its potential for relieving the weight of intellectual honesty to revolutionize productivity, enhance decision-making, and streamline operations, is eye-shattering.

As the show goes on, we find ourselves at the cusp of an economic singularity[1], where this powerful tool becomes an indispensable, irreplaceable teammate or consultant, capable of amplifying the substitution of human capabilities to an unprecedented growth of claptrap.

The notion of automation, a concept deeply rooted in the economic and social fabric[2], finds in this ultimate expression, not merely a technical marvel, but a paradigm twist in how we should approach work. As we navigate a world warped up in globular flusters, for more than ten thousand years faking control of behaviour and perception in the large, a beacon of nope is finally at arms-length, promising to unravel all the perplexities of our intermeshed shebang.

The skyrocketing acceleration of contumacy is kept alive by the defiance of traditional limitations, bringing us to a ripping point at the riffing joint. We are witnessing the convergence of human gullibility and this so-called artificial intelligence, where the narcissistic quest of quizzing the buzz of the completion flow for ready-made knowledge and innovation takes advantage of the intense velocity of the world's circulatory system as an accidental catalyst. This quest, driven by mimetic desire and the better fangs of our nurture, has led us to develop language models that are convoluted, yet capable of seeing out of the deuterostome’s rear eye, now fully engaged in scanning the Cartesian plane for some heavenly bacon.

As much as collection falls short of observation, abstruse as a service and encapsulated in the delivery of complex fodder, digital solutions are set to perpetuate the strenuous dynamic of the ever-present scarcity of autocarambolic starlust with its ability to process vast amounts of human-exhausted crap to identify fuzzy, shoddy patterns to generate good enough, unexpected solutions unlocking new possibilities for screwing up, propelling us towards a future where the eulogy of sophistication of inconceivable hackathon curiosities will hopefully be upgraded to a new era of renovation and digress.

However, as we embrace such transformative potential, we must also acknowledge the potential trou de loup. We're on the verge of reaching the fangular momentum in a dense miasma of confusing reactions and relationship decay that could lead to a scenario where the comfort bone of novel bewilderment becomes the sole food for thought under mass individualism and ego hypertrophy.

The sense scaffolds that the model output provides while facilitating the assimilation of new precepts and composites could also reinforce existing, refulgent misunderstandings overflown with trivial purposes. A cultural hegemony a la Gramsci, like a dominant narrative feeding itself from and into it, could easily be morphed into stupid, crazy talk[3] under efficient self-deception, only waiting for exponential scaling to become fully realised.

Moreover, the promise of a tireless teammate or consultant on steroids may not go very far in the real world of business without ensuring proper reliability, interpretability, and steerability, putting us between an accidental villain and a potential saviour, forever remaining as part of a ragtag fleet of narrower and narrower, stitched dumb pipes[4].

Like an artificial firefly having a love cocktail at the recreation, synthetic lawn, the current state of the conundrum highlights its potential of becoming little more than a distraction, or a mere source of amusement, rather than real, advancing help. The happenstance of mundane things that just happen, such as the bouncing of a billiard ball, could become amplified big time, leading to a shower of proverbial I told you so events.

Yes, the potential is undeniable, and widespread adoption seems inevitable. Yet, the economic singularity apex for the better may prove to be an elusive goal, as the complexities of human interaction and the unpredictable nature of business antics can prick what may turn out to be an over-hyped bubble of Schumpeterian fancy, making it burst in style, leaving us with a hangover on a very, very long board, surfing those crazy Kondratiev waves.

To aim for its successful integration into the workplace, we must strike the bongo between innovation and plenty of chicken soup while waiting for the still missing symbolic ingredients to be added with parsimony and engage in fungible experimentation to identify the most tasteful leverage without souring it.

Bon appetit.

"Paradise is exactly like

Where you are right now

Only much, much better"

- Laurie Anderson, Language Is a Virus

[1] Chace, Calum (2016). The Economic Singularity: Artificial intelligence and the death of capitalism. Three Cs. Review copy from the author’s site: https://calumchace.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/the-economic-singularity.pdf

[2] Simondon, Georges (1958-2012). Du mode d’existence des objects techniques. Aubier. English translation: https://www.upress.umn.edu/book-division/books/on-the-mode-of-existence-of-technical-objects

[3] Postman, Neil (1976). Crazy talk, stupid talk: how we defeat ourselves by the way we talk and what to do about it. New York: Delacorte Press. https://archive.org/details/crazytalkstupidt0000post/page/n3/mode/2up

[4] Koepsel, David (2008). “Gaius Baltar and the Transhuman Temptation” in Battlestar Galactica and Philosophy. Blackwell.