Generally I believe the key to a cheerful life is the power to handle cognitive dissonance. I’ll offer you an instance. Over brunch, a good friend tells you they consider the apocalypse is imminent. You agree, not since you need to be well mannered, or since you’re taking part in together with a bit, however since you learn the information too, and so it’s apparent that humanity is fucked. Believing this, you may skip the egg-white omelet and go for a full stack of chocolate chip pancakes — if we’re fucked, energy don’t rely. Or, you may dine and sprint such as you’re Ricky Schroder in a really particular episode of Silver Spoons — if we’re fucked, there’s no sense paying your payments. Or, in the event you’re actually embracing the apocalypse now state of affairs, you may order the chocolate chip pancakes, skip out on the invoice, steal a bike and a pair of ass-less leather-based chaps, and go marauding within the wasteland. Level is, you consider there’s no future, and but you act as if the longer term issues. That is cognitive dissonance. The power to handle it’s what makes it potential to take pleasure in brunch, on the one hand, and abdomen the information, on the opposite.
These days, I’ve been working additional time to handle the cognitive dissonance related to synthetic intelligence. As a author, I spend an unhealthy period of time in on-line author communities that are likely to view every part about AI as unethical and immoral. Half the posts are about how the AI crowd consists of Bond villains bent on stealing everybody’s materials, placing us all out of labor, and sucking up the Earth’s sources. I (principally) agree with that sentiment. The remainder of the posts are about how writers who use AI, in any method, are class traitors who ought to fuck off and die, or on the very least chorus from calling themselves writers. I do know these posts are written by people, however I can’t assist however discover that, within the combination, they commit one of many sins individuals stage at AI writing, specifically that it’s cookie-cutter slop. Seems, originality and voice are tough for people and machines. Anyway, I (utterly) disagree with the category traitor style of posts.
On the opposite facet of the cognitive divide there’s the world as it’s, not as we want it to be. Right here, AI is more and more ubiquitous, not as a result of it has — or will — reside as much as Sam Altman’s wildest desires hype, however as a result of there are numerous buggy, not-quite-ready-for-prime-time AI instruments offering actual utility to actual people who aren’t spending their time raging towards the machines. Put one other method, you possibly can go full-ostrich on the AI Revolution, and you’ll scream into the sand that it should cease now, however the world will proceed spinning.
Relating to AI, I’ve one foot in every camp. My coronary heart is with the idealists, however my head is with the realists. In sensible phrases, that makes life tough in the identical method that I think about being an undercover cop is difficult. At work, I’m pro-AI. Amongst my fellow writers, I’m anti-AI. Neither one in every of these identities is core to who I’m, however just like the undercover cop, my life and livelihood rely upon saying the suitable factor, on the proper time, to the suitable individuals. Extra importantly, every scenario requires me to consider what I’m saying, although I contradict myself. And actually, I do consider that AI is:
I might go on, however you get it. Two conflicting concepts, one human mind, and a buttload of cognitive dissonance. Which brings me to the week that was.
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At work, I edited a chunk concerning the AI gender hole. Seems, males are utilizing AI at greater charges than ladies, which implies ladies are at risk of falling behind. Not like the ladies within the writing communities I belong to, the lady who wrote the piece doesn’t have the luxurious of going full-ostrich on AI. Truly, she doesn’t consider any lady has that luxurious, no matter occupation; that’s why she wrote the piece.
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Whereas enhancing that piece, I got here throughout an essay about AI denialists, aka the ostrich crowd. I acknowledged my friends among the many denialists, however maybe extra importantly, I additionally acknowledged myself.
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Additionally at work, my boss mentioned they’d reimburse me for subscriptions to Claude, ChatGPT, and different AI instruments. Later that day, I used Claude to carry out a process that we beforehand would’ve thought of vital, however not definitely worth the time. With Claude’s assist it took a couple of minutes as an alternative of some hours.
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In my spare time, I joined my good friend
, who hosted a gaggle writing session on Zoom. Alex needed to skip out in the course of the session, so he put in cost. Seth placed on some music. I wrote my ass off, and on the finish of the session, I complimented the music. That’s when Seth dropped a bomb: The music I’d been jamming out to was AI-generated. Seth joked that each author on Substack would come at me with pitchforks. It was humorous as a result of it was true. Kind of.
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Additionally in my spare time, I signed up for a subscription to ElevenLabs, an AI firm that focuses on audio. I wished to attempt their voice cloning instrument. The thought of cloning my voice sounded creepy and unusual, but it surely additionally sounded cool and (doubtlessly) helpful. I’ve all the time wished to create audio variations of my tales. In truth, my dream isn’t to publish books, however to provide audiobooks, as a result of audio is my major method of experiencing fiction and nonfiction. I’ve labored on performing my very own books and experimented with hiring voiceover artists. The outcomes haven’t been nice. In the meantime, Substack supplies readers who use their app with an AI voice that reads my tales. And naturally there are dozens of non-Substack instruments that do the identical factor. In different phrases, my tales are already being carried out by AI, whether or not I prefer it or not.
To clone my voice, I requested my good friend Todd to make a file of me telling him State of affairs Regular tales for a podcast we did collectively. ElevenLabs mentioned I wanted not less than half-hour of fabric; Todd was capable of put collectively 3 hours of me.
It took just a few hours for the AI to clone my voice and some extra hours of tinkering to dial it in. Truly, the tinkering continues, however that’s one other publish. The purpose is that in a single afternoon, I used an AI instrument to provide Clone Michael, who it seems, does a much better job of studying my tales than I do. I used to be upset / excited. See: cognitive dissonance. Anyway, that is what Clone Michael seems like studying a State of affairs Regular story referred to as “We’re doomed, says the barista.”
I don’t know what’s going to turn out to be of Clone Michael. There’s extra tinkering forward and extra experiments. My hope is that Clone Michael will stroll, run, and finally fly, the place actual Michael solely managed to crawl. If Clone Michael finally ends up studying my tales, it’ll be as a result of I consider AI will empower, not exchange, me.
However perhaps there’s an AI that’s higher than Clone Michael. Whereas futzing round on the ElevenLabs web site, I seen that in addition they provided licensed superstar voices. Once more, I felt like I used to be one thing that was creepy / unusual / cool / helpful. A kind of voices was Clone Burt Reynolds. Naturally, I wanted to understand how Clone Burt Reynolds in comparison with Clone Michael, so had it learn the identical story.
As turned out, I favored Clone Burt Reynolds loads higher. Which is sensible. It’s Burt freaking Reynolds! And I assume that’s the purpose. For all of the whiz bang expertise that goes into AI, it’s the standard of the inputs that decide the standard of the outputs. As pc programmers say: rubbish in, rubbish out.
Or perhaps not.
Burt Reynolds was higher than Clone Burt Reynolds, however Clone Michael was higher than me. In different phrases, the identical AI instrument made one factor (me) higher and one other factor (Burt Reynolds) worse. That’s the cope with instruments. Hearth can preserve you heat, and it may burn you; a printing press is equally able to spreading lies and fact; wheels can convey meals to ravenous individuals and transport a military bent on ravenous the individuals; the web connects society and breaks it aside. Perhaps that’s why I’m torn between the 2 AI camps. I’m primarily apprehensive / hopeful about individuals, and much much less freaked out / geeked out about instruments like AI.
I launched a brand new e-newsletter referred to as Slacker Noir. It’s a spot for me to speak about crime & thriller fiction and share ebook information, like how I’m making good progress on a sequel to Not Secure for Work. Slacker Noir is free, and true to the slacker ethos, I’ll ship out new posts once I get round to it.
Not Secure for Work is a slacker noir homicide thriller set towards the backdrop of the porn business on the daybreak of Net 2.0. Like every part you learn right here, the novel is predicated on my private expertise, and it’s humorous as hell. If you happen to love State of affairs Regular, there’s a 420 in 69 likelihood you’ll love Not Secure for Work.
Not Secure for Work is obtainable at Amazon and all the opposite ebook locations.
*The book is .99, so you possibly can’t go too far incorrect. Simply sayin’.
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Which AI camp are you in? Trace: Each and neither are acceptable solutions.
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Egg-white omelet, or chocolate chip pancakes?
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🧍🤖?
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Burt Reynolds?!
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Am I incorrect, or am I incorrect?
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