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The Expanding Dark Forest and Generative AI
This leaves us with some low-hanging fruit for humanness. We can tell richly detailed stories grounded in our specific contexts and cultures: place names, sensual descriptions, local knowledge, and, well the je ne sais quoi of being alive.
Maggie Appleton • The Expanding Dark Forest and Generative AI
You thought the first page of Google was bunk before? You haven't seen Google where SEO optimizer bros pump out billions of perfectly coherent but predictably dull informational articles for every longtail keyword combination under the sun.
Maggie Appleton • The Expanding Dark Forest and Generative AI
Humans who want to engage in informal, unoptimised, personal interactions have to hide in closed spaces like invite-only Slack channels, Discord groups, email newsletters, small-scale blogs, and
digital gardens. Or make themselvesillegibleand algorithmically incoherent in public venues.
Maggie Appleton • The Expanding Dark Forest and Generative AI
Every time you find a new favourite blog or Twitter account or Tiktok personality online, you'll have to ask: Is this really a whole human with a rich and complex life like mine? Is there a being on the other end of this web interface I can form a relationship with?
Maggie Appleton • The Expanding Dark Forest and Generative AI
This leaves us with some low-hanging fruit for humanness. We can tell richly detailed stories grounded in our specific contexts and cultures: place names, sensual descriptions, local knowledge, and, well the je ne sais quoi of being alive. Language models can decently mimic this style of writing but most don't without extensive prompt e
... See moreMaggie Appleton • The Expanding Dark Forest and Generative AI
Before you continue, pause and consider: How would you prove you're not a language model generating predictive text? What special human tricks can you do that a language model can't?
Maggie Appleton • The Expanding Dark Forest and Generative AI
In short, they do not have access to the same shared reality we do. They do not have embodied experiences, and cannot sense the world as we can sense it; they don't have vision, sound, taste, or touch. They cannot feel emotion or tightly hold a coherent set of values. They are not part of cultures, communities, or histories.
Maggie Appleton • The Expanding Dark Forest and Generative AI
As the forest grows darker, noisier, and less human, I expect to invest more time in in-person relationships and communities. And while I love meatspace, this still feels like a loss.
Maggie Appleton • The Expanding Dark Forest and Generative AI
Marketers, influencers, and growth hackers will set up
OpenAI → Zapierpipelines that auto-publish a relentless and impossibly banal stream of LinkedIn #MotivationMonday posts, “engaging” tweet🧵threads, Facebook outrage monologues, and corporate blog posts.