The obit thing reminded me of how my husband went to a wedding recently and the bride and groom admitted to (bragged about?) using chatGPT to write their vows. I couldn't get over the idea of my partner standing in front of me not even able to tell me they love me in their own words. It's like, at this point who are the vows even for? Who did you want to hear those words? For what purpose? It's dark days out here.
I believe most people don't want the responsibility of being responsible for their own lives and willingly give it away to any charlatan that offers to relieve them of the necessity.
Seen in this context, many/most of those who believe AI will lead to some new utopia are assuming it will make their lives easier by assuming responsibility for them, or that they will have much easier work since AI can make their work easier and faster without realizing that none of the benefits are going to go to them, but to the owners who replace them with machines.
It's scary how closely we're mirroring 'The Butlerian Jihad' from 'Dune' - handing over our thinking capabilities, and thus our free will, to machines, with the hopes that it'll "set us free." So many stories, from just this year alone, remind me of the ChatGPT obituaries and eulogies you mentioned - which is a frightening thing in itself. A growing number of people are offloading so much of their thinking onto these predictive machines and by doing so, are surrendering, slowly but surely, greater amounts of their humanity in the process. How can one remain tethered to our material reality when they've replaced reality with AI chatbots who reinforce their most problematic tendencies and behaviors (which are largely motivated by the violent system of capitalism)? It's a dark time were living in when people can be so utterly dismissive of the humanity art requires in order for it to be truly special, unique, and meaningful. Surrendering the very parts of ourselves that makes us human just speaks to the palpable desperation that exists among everyday people struggling to survive in the late-stage erosion of our current hellish existence. So many deals with the devil are made on a daily basis in the hopes that a cure for the capital crunch is just within arms reach, when in reality, it becomes further away the more we try and compromise with an uncompromising cycle of systemic and structural violence. A growing number of people have resigned themselves to the detrimental "TINA" mindset of capitalist realism. As tough as it is and always has been, that's where our praxis must come into play. By proclaiming loudly what is happening, we can help those people move and by doing so, they recognize the chains that have long locked them into place. The work ahead of us is immense and overwhelming yet, despite the monstrous behemoth attempting to crush us beneath its belligerent weight, our revolutionary optimism continues to burn bright and refuses to be extinguished. We must always remember, as you once so beautifully wrote: "we owe each other everything." Keep being the revolutionary human being that you are Scarlet. The work you do is vital and the people are better for it as a result.
I agree with you but I will offer you that a small (but growing) number of people find their main communities online. Most/All of them to only be disappointed when despite the initial validation they feel, nothing much changes in their material life. And these could be any particular type of person, initially I'm not only talking about more than the average lonely person.
Doesn't it seem that for a subset of lonely disaffected people, their online interactions increase in proliferation but decrease in actual dialogue? They are always online and simply repeating the same kinds of statements of outrage or grievance back and forth?
They fall out of regular normal interactions with people irl. Some of them continue to lean into this. For some it's not a severe problem other than they've created a life out of how they present themselves "authentically" living but they must maintain a certain appearance, never step out of the bounds of marketability lest monetization gets shut off, leaving them very unprepared to rejoin the rest of us. I'm not talking about any specific political ideology at all, it's more defined by a refusal to acknowledge this exists. How convenient for the worst people in the world (not the influencers or whatever).
Then you get people living online as their identity that have decided there is nothing redeemable in our diverse but segregated and unequal society and so nothing is sacred and nothing matters. This is more of a problem.
How to reach people before they've fallen all the way into these holes is something that I don't have an answer for and I'm personally not very good at attempting to try. Helping people locally and working alongside them in simple community work can ameliorate the weird things I might say irl, and that's tremendously helpful.
Those people at the bar are not artists precisely because they look at art forms like a joke. The irony in that. No AI will fill that soulless void.
It's been disappointing for sure to see how blase people are about AI. It really does seem inevitable, and I almost can't blame people for not caring because we seem to be spiraling towards an end on high speed but the completely delusional attitude and rhetoric irritate me.
I think people are missing a vital component of the AI "revolution" in assumming that it will remain free and accessable for everyone forever. It is easy to think that you will have your own personailzed AI assistant or tools to automate and take over the mindless and tedious portions of your day to day tasks forever.
Right now, we the users, are not paying for the massive datacenters, specialized hardware, and vast energy requirements to run AI. All of the AI enabled tools are running mostly at a loss while the technology is improved and trained with your input.
There is no way that an AGI can be trained on a basic data set from a small number of users. It will eventually work and no longer be 'free' to use. It will become a tool that the wealthy and tech elite will use for their own enrichment while the masses are left to their own devices, without AI assistance.
We are just being used to train their models in hopes that the AI will eventually acheive AGI and become indispensable to the tech-elite who are finiancing AI via sepculative investment. Even if only 5% (as current metrics measure) of all AI tools are actually sucessful in the long run, that 5% will be monetized sucessfully and used not for the betterment of all society, but for those who own the AI.
Nothing in this world is free. We are just temporary trainers of the corporate AI's that are set to replace human thought and creativity. The real question to ask is 'What will happen to humanity after AGI is acheived and their coroporate overlords decide that the masses should't have access to AI?'
If you think that AI tools will remain free and open to use, you are sadly mistaken. We are just the beta testers, trainers, and ginuea pigs for LLMs.
Beautiful writing and very relevant, thank you. I wonder at your bartenders future in the trade, given his love of AI, does he realise that he could be outsourced to a vending machine and chat GPT...
The seductive call of the anologue world feels stronger and stronger for me, and im glad that im old enough to have known it, and could go back to it. The sleepwalkers, the zombie leaders, the lemmings amongst us. It's a scary time. But it could also be a turning point. Im holding onto that. Thank you for your writing. It's important.
We (humanity) are part of the story of life on earth, and can live more harmoniously and with greater awareness if we commit to that. That is our next evolutionary step. The rest is just distraction.
Can you explain how they monetize obits? Do you mean they make money off info people enter about their loved ones when trying to write them with ChatGPT? Or that there is an actual Obit industry? How does that work? I've never heard of it.
The obit thing reminded me of how my husband went to a wedding recently and the bride and groom admitted to (bragged about?) using chatGPT to write their vows. I couldn't get over the idea of my partner standing in front of me not even able to tell me they love me in their own words. It's like, at this point who are the vows even for? Who did you want to hear those words? For what purpose? It's dark days out here.
I believe most people don't want the responsibility of being responsible for their own lives and willingly give it away to any charlatan that offers to relieve them of the necessity.
Seen in this context, many/most of those who believe AI will lead to some new utopia are assuming it will make their lives easier by assuming responsibility for them, or that they will have much easier work since AI can make their work easier and faster without realizing that none of the benefits are going to go to them, but to the owners who replace them with machines.
It's scary how closely we're mirroring 'The Butlerian Jihad' from 'Dune' - handing over our thinking capabilities, and thus our free will, to machines, with the hopes that it'll "set us free." So many stories, from just this year alone, remind me of the ChatGPT obituaries and eulogies you mentioned - which is a frightening thing in itself. A growing number of people are offloading so much of their thinking onto these predictive machines and by doing so, are surrendering, slowly but surely, greater amounts of their humanity in the process. How can one remain tethered to our material reality when they've replaced reality with AI chatbots who reinforce their most problematic tendencies and behaviors (which are largely motivated by the violent system of capitalism)? It's a dark time were living in when people can be so utterly dismissive of the humanity art requires in order for it to be truly special, unique, and meaningful. Surrendering the very parts of ourselves that makes us human just speaks to the palpable desperation that exists among everyday people struggling to survive in the late-stage erosion of our current hellish existence. So many deals with the devil are made on a daily basis in the hopes that a cure for the capital crunch is just within arms reach, when in reality, it becomes further away the more we try and compromise with an uncompromising cycle of systemic and structural violence. A growing number of people have resigned themselves to the detrimental "TINA" mindset of capitalist realism. As tough as it is and always has been, that's where our praxis must come into play. By proclaiming loudly what is happening, we can help those people move and by doing so, they recognize the chains that have long locked them into place. The work ahead of us is immense and overwhelming yet, despite the monstrous behemoth attempting to crush us beneath its belligerent weight, our revolutionary optimism continues to burn bright and refuses to be extinguished. We must always remember, as you once so beautifully wrote: "we owe each other everything." Keep being the revolutionary human being that you are Scarlet. The work you do is vital and the people are better for it as a result.
at war with eachother? we're at war with ourselves
I agree with you but I will offer you that a small (but growing) number of people find their main communities online. Most/All of them to only be disappointed when despite the initial validation they feel, nothing much changes in their material life. And these could be any particular type of person, initially I'm not only talking about more than the average lonely person.
Doesn't it seem that for a subset of lonely disaffected people, their online interactions increase in proliferation but decrease in actual dialogue? They are always online and simply repeating the same kinds of statements of outrage or grievance back and forth?
They fall out of regular normal interactions with people irl. Some of them continue to lean into this. For some it's not a severe problem other than they've created a life out of how they present themselves "authentically" living but they must maintain a certain appearance, never step out of the bounds of marketability lest monetization gets shut off, leaving them very unprepared to rejoin the rest of us. I'm not talking about any specific political ideology at all, it's more defined by a refusal to acknowledge this exists. How convenient for the worst people in the world (not the influencers or whatever).
Then you get people living online as their identity that have decided there is nothing redeemable in our diverse but segregated and unequal society and so nothing is sacred and nothing matters. This is more of a problem.
How to reach people before they've fallen all the way into these holes is something that I don't have an answer for and I'm personally not very good at attempting to try. Helping people locally and working alongside them in simple community work can ameliorate the weird things I might say irl, and that's tremendously helpful.
Those people at the bar are not artists precisely because they look at art forms like a joke. The irony in that. No AI will fill that soulless void.
It's been disappointing for sure to see how blase people are about AI. It really does seem inevitable, and I almost can't blame people for not caring because we seem to be spiraling towards an end on high speed but the completely delusional attitude and rhetoric irritate me.
Good insight 😌. Can i translate part of this article into Spanish with links to you and a description of your newsletter?
Sure
Many thanks !!!
I think people are missing a vital component of the AI "revolution" in assumming that it will remain free and accessable for everyone forever. It is easy to think that you will have your own personailzed AI assistant or tools to automate and take over the mindless and tedious portions of your day to day tasks forever.
Right now, we the users, are not paying for the massive datacenters, specialized hardware, and vast energy requirements to run AI. All of the AI enabled tools are running mostly at a loss while the technology is improved and trained with your input.
There is no way that an AGI can be trained on a basic data set from a small number of users. It will eventually work and no longer be 'free' to use. It will become a tool that the wealthy and tech elite will use for their own enrichment while the masses are left to their own devices, without AI assistance.
We are just being used to train their models in hopes that the AI will eventually acheive AGI and become indispensable to the tech-elite who are finiancing AI via sepculative investment. Even if only 5% (as current metrics measure) of all AI tools are actually sucessful in the long run, that 5% will be monetized sucessfully and used not for the betterment of all society, but for those who own the AI.
Nothing in this world is free. We are just temporary trainers of the corporate AI's that are set to replace human thought and creativity. The real question to ask is 'What will happen to humanity after AGI is acheived and their coroporate overlords decide that the masses should't have access to AI?'
If you think that AI tools will remain free and open to use, you are sadly mistaken. We are just the beta testers, trainers, and ginuea pigs for LLMs.
Beautiful writing and very relevant, thank you. I wonder at your bartenders future in the trade, given his love of AI, does he realise that he could be outsourced to a vending machine and chat GPT...
The seductive call of the anologue world feels stronger and stronger for me, and im glad that im old enough to have known it, and could go back to it. The sleepwalkers, the zombie leaders, the lemmings amongst us. It's a scary time. But it could also be a turning point. Im holding onto that. Thank you for your writing. It's important.
"In so many ways we have become the machines we are deferring to."
I can emulate the soullessness, but if only I could perfect the non-desire
The extinction of humanity would be the single greatest thing to happen to this planet in over a billion years.
I happen to really agree with you. In the interest of brevity, I’ll leave it at that. Take care.
We (humanity) are part of the story of life on earth, and can live more harmoniously and with greater awareness if we commit to that. That is our next evolutionary step. The rest is just distraction.
Can you explain how they monetize obits? Do you mean they make money off info people enter about their loved ones when trying to write them with ChatGPT? Or that there is an actual Obit industry? How does that work? I've never heard of it.
Apparently funeral homes are buying these specialized AI obit generator subscriptions https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2025/06/ai-obituaries-chatgpt/683096/