While scanning over LinkedIn yesterday I noticed a very well written post by a connection of mine. When I say it was well written, I mean in terms of structure, grammar and form, it was fairly spot on for the content (and the subject matter isn’t really important here). But what was noticeable was its flat and characterless tone. It was devoid of much personality or wit or emotion. So while it served a specific purpose of describing the topic at hand, it was very much the textual equivalent of elevator music: something to fill the void and while clearly serving a purpose, quite honestly, bringing no joy or inspiring interest or intrigue. It dawned on me very quickly that what I was reading was highly likely an output of generative AI. Looking through other posts, there was a clear distinction between this text and other content, which displayed more imperfection, emotion, and character; i.e. human traits. I despaired at the implications of what this might mean. Imagine the output of content creation as an image of a lanscape; while human-made content might appear as multiple chaotic layers with hills and other features like asymmetrical shacks and buildings of all sizes, colours and textures; AI content, meanwhile, I imagine as monochromatic corporate structures with uniform, glossy surfaces. Sure, my reaction sounds dramatic. And no doubt gen AI tools will improve and develop capabilities with more of a voice and tone as they evolve. But is this what we can expect for music, art and literature? Hopefully not. The optimist in me sees opportunity. Perhaps once the AI trends and adoption have plateaued then we may see real value in human art. The stuff created by those who bleed, cry and laugh. The ones who know the fear of a finite existence and terror of loss. The imperfect souls who make mistakes and silly claims. People who can – with nuance – tell a unique story based on the architecture of their soul, experience and existence rather than a machine building a narrative based on the countless stories it has read and the patterns that have trained its algorithms. I have hope that this is the way of things. My hope stems from my optimism, borne out my life experiences, the good, the bad, my education, travel, love and loss. From being a husband and a father. From being a human.
Well, in the words of Ron Burgundy, ‘that escalated quickly.’
