While the crowd at sxsw2024 booing a sizzle reel of people either promising the beauty of the future “AI” will bring or claiming it to be “without alternative” is funny and went viral for all the right reasons, this event speaks to a deeper shift in perception.
As Brian Merchant writes:
For the buzziest tech of the moment to get shouted down at SXSW speaks volumes about the scale and nature of the animosity generative AI has amassed. The tech is seen, here, as exploitative by tastemakers and by technologists.
But I’d go further: It’s not just the public perception that OpenAI has been trying to plant in our collective understanding is falling apart due to the actions of that strange company, I think the actual narrative of “AI” is untangling.
We could reduce the cost of software and art, but we won’t. The money will go to the executives that saved all that money on sallaries.
But my question is, do we want to?
If we go on the assumption that no work is necessary, which work would people prefer to do? I’m guessing software and art is pretty high on that list, whereas septic pumping and large scale farming are pretty low, yet the focus is on the former rather than the latter, probably because of labor costs.
I want smaller games with worse graphics made by people who get paid a living wage to work reasonable hours and I’m not kidding.
Yup, I’m down with worse graphics and better storylines and gameplay. Save the production value and pay people to be creative.