Good day hoofers,
You may have noticed me making more posts related to AI recently (including my new video). So, does that mean that I am going to cancel my humanity and join AI (whatever that means)? The short answer is “no.” While AI has its uses, despite all the hype (and improvement in AI), it’s still fairly obvious what AI is to anyone who has spent a little time working with it. It is, however, true that AI is becoming more subtle sometimes, so it might take a longer amount of time of listening to a voice or watching a video (especially in the case of AI-generated voices or videos) to tell that it is AI-generated or mostly AI-generated. This seems particularly true of someone clones their voice, which is fairly simple to do.
One interesting discovery is that while going down a little rabbithole on AI generation, I discovered the existence of invideo, which is apparently a program that lets you easily create AI-generated videos, such as for YouTube. Many (supposedly) people are getting millions of views and thousands of subscribers by creating such content. I’ve seen videos like this before that seem to have been made with AI, and the content and quality is not good. In fact, it’s being called “AI slop,” or perhaps more playfully, “sloppy AI slop” by more discerning people and ponies. And it’s easy to see why it’s called that. If you’ve seen a handful of AI-generated videos like this, you’ve seen them all. It’s the same bland, lifeless, almost-creative and somewhat confusing yet enticing, authoritative-sounding videos again and again. Even though they may appear to be about a wide variety of topics, none are unique. Thankfully, you can usually tell these videos by their titles; unfortunately – they are becoming more common.
I can see why these videos are popular. These videos often have interesting or alluring titles and featured images which make little sense for a title, yet are attractive in their own way. After someone clicks on the video, the person is typically drawn in by a smooth-sounding voice. The person doesn’t want to click away because despite its errors in speech, the voice more-or-less demands attention. The mind is presented with a plethora of 3d images which are *almost* compelling – if it weren’t for that distinct lifeless, sterile, lack of originality-feeling that has come to define AI-generated content and videos. But it’s compelling enough that people will listen anyway. And perhaps there is some benefit to certain people (why else would it appear to be so popular)? Maybe what’s becoming popular on YouTube, despite its limitations, is better than what’s already generally promoted by YouTube? It is a real possibility.
Regardless of whether you think that AI-generated content takes advantage of people or is an improvement, at least it is true that this kind of content cannot last long-term. Anyone who seriously generates content with AI has to recognize that in a few years, their content will be obsolete. Few people are likely saving AI-generated videos to their bookmarks or coming back to rewatch AI-generated content.
Lastly, I wanted to write about a program/website called “Virtual Speech.” I think an advertisement for it popped up on my computer because I was visiting the invideo website. Below, you’ll find a small (modified by me) picture of it:
Apparently, it’s a service where you can roleplay with AI in order to learn soft skills. While it sounds like it could be fun (character.ai, for example, can be fun) – if taken seriously, the idea of AI “training” humans on how to speak and act is amusing. While I think AI may eventually be good enough in order to do something like that, what we have in this case isn’t AI training us generally. Rather, we have a company that is making use of AI in order to sell a product and corporations buying the product in order to train people to socialize and act in a certain way. So, it’s not actually AI that would be providing training on soft skills – rather, it’s just AI doing what someone else told them to do.
One advertisement reads: “Difficult conversations with AI-Powered Avatars.”
It’s sad to see advertisements like the following:
It appears to me to be a waste of a good technology. Consider that every new technology creates an impression in the human psyche and that initial experiences with it are perhaps the most important in impression formation. Assuming that it is up to you, what kind of impression do you want this technology to make on you? Is AI serious business? Or, is it perhaps something else?
So, how do we deal with this potential problem? …with ponies, of course:
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Credits:
Bonnie Zacherle. “My Little Pony: The Movie.” 1986. Written by: George Arthur Bloom. Music by: Rob Walsh. Directed by: Michael Joens. Scene: Flutterponies and Smooze. “My Little Pony Final Battle {Flutter ponies vs Smooze}.” Uploaded by: GustyPL. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yshRQDMLVrk.
Virtual Speech. Advertising Copy. https://virtualspeech.com/.