Further reminder that John Roberts is by far the most damaging figure in American politics.
His podcast Lexicon Valley was interesting, but I think he was grappling to find a place as an even more prominent pop intellectual. He's flirted with language and politics for awhile, but mostly in a measured centrist kind of way until the anti-woke stuff started to garner more attention for him
'As one researcher put it: AI is “like Grammarly for empathy.”' Christ. Do they even give a fuck about what they say anymore?
Yea, I keep repeating myself that any article about AI that does not address its fundamental problems (copyright infringement, incapacity for truth, environmental disaster, etc.) within the first 4 paragraphs is mere propaganda.
Been thinking about this a lot recently: given the preponderance of tech boosterism (and technoliberal discourse), where do mainstream critiques of it all reside? And do they cohere into a movement?
Doesn't even have the 93% no confidence vote in the President at Indiana University.
Ezra Klein's most recent podcast gets real deep into this, by may of McLuhan and Benjamin, too. www.nytimes.com/2024/04/05/o...
Nilay Patel discusses the near-future of an internet as A.I.-generated content improves.
It's unsurprising & depressing that these articles don't explain the fundamental problems of LLMs and AI. Every one of these articles needs 2-3 paragraphs that explain that these models are incapable of understanding actual human syntax, along with what is real vs. what is not.
Decades of bad ideas about writing coupled with even worse ideas about educational technology push us here. When we teach students that generating content is writing (esp timed writing assessments like APs & SATs), we're ruining everything worthwhile about genuine writing, thinking, & reflection.
This is the kind of stuff that will help change the narrative we have been combating for decades.