The cassettes conquered the Billboard charts. Disposable cameras are selling out again. People call friends from landlines with rotary dials or flip phones without a screen. Crews of self-proclaimed Luddites rebel in analog form against the AI. These modern-day Luddites are not looking to burn down server farms, but they are challenging the promotion of AI as a conversational and creative partner, as advocated by fans of AI developers.
While this may sound like a retro fashion statement or a semi-ironic aesthetic mood board, it's really about rejecting the AI-created version of reality, with its competently morbid, painfully streamlined approach to life and art that leaves no room for the surprises and imperfections that define most artistic endeavors.
Polishing is easy to mistake for quality. But the best human art, or simply memorable images and turns of phrase, often creep into view covered in metaphorical mud. But the AI doesn't create textures. He pretends without giving understanding.
Artistic error trumps artificial intelligence perfection
Ironically, it's the advancements in artificial intelligence that lead to super-smooth, crisp rendering and sterile but competent writing. The AI fluctuates between predictably boring and chaotically useless.
The choice between artificial intelligence and analog device fits perfectly into the question of creating and listening to music. The computer can play every note perfectly and simulate an acoustically flawless instrument. You may be happy to listen to its clear sound through digital speakers. But given the choice, I suspect most people would prefer a live performance by a virtuoso on a handcrafted masterpiece of a musical instrument rather than a hand-edited recording.
Claims that AI-generated content is “spiritually empty” may be an exaggeration, but discomfort with being surrounded only by these aesthetics is probably common. And neo-Luddites craving the scratches and unevenness of handwriting and the hiss of vinyl is understandable.
Machines will get better, and AI may even begin to imitate the way humans leave notes or the way one can hear the breath taken before a voice begins to sing. No matter how smooth a symphony may be, we will still crave static.
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