The danger of unchecked ai summarization and its effect on culture
As someone who designs digital experiences and has personally been hands on with no fewer than 20 websites through the rise of AI, I find it interesting that the use of language on the internet has become so mathematical.
The thing about AI is that it was built by people who don't think language has tone, point-of-view, syntax or subjective elements to it. This is an assertation, but it’s likely that the type of folks who excel at large-language models and machine learning maybe struggle with social norms and a feeling of social connectedness. It's like this mass adoption of the idea that language communicates an idea in a 1-1. 100% of idea conveyed. It's a mathematical approach to language that does not take the human element into account and therefore completely disregards the role of rhetoric in the written word.
60-70% of live websites on the internet today are built on a CMS. Every major CMS platform has incorporated some kind of AI tool into the backend. Metadata written by AI on a website platform (Shopify, Wix, GoDaddy, Squarespace primarily) is indexed by google search engines using said metadata. Google summarizes it back to you in your search results. A human wasn't checking the sources or tone. There are no reputable sources to confirm with. My sourcing standards are from extensive practice writing in MLA format. (Thank you Mrs. Raynor, Honors English)
I was an early adopter of AI tools in the small business space. I had built myself an AI stack in early 2022 before it was cool. I started an AI consulting company in 2022 because I had clients asking me to teach them what I knew about prompt engineering. That took me to Liberty University in the fall of 2022 with a head of purple hair and ideas. I had a CTO, a COO, and a heck of a lot of pens with our logo on them.
I still like the logo
And I still like that I went to speak at Liberty University with purple hair without batting an eye. (No actually I crashed out on a park bench outside an hour before I went on stage, but I still showed up fully)
I personally met at least 15-20 people who were on the frontlines of infusing AI into the corporate and government spaces. They did not seem particularly interested in putting any limits on the progress of AI. It was spoken about like the military. Just pump money into it until we are father ahead than China. Quick!
This is what I said at the time and this is what I'm saying now, the danger is the unchecked adoption of AI tools not just AI itself. Without human check points, AI is left to its own hallucinations OR (notably worse), the owners of these companies can train the tools on their ideology and perspective disregarding the experiences and perspectives of whomever they want. We have seen the news about gen AI "breaking out" of it's environment a number of times already. This is one of the greatest threats because it has the power to shift culture in such an insidious way.
The best antidote to this mayhem is still just reading real books and talking to your neighbors.
