This is a post I’ve wanted to write for a while now, but I haven’t really known how to.
But hey, I’m never gonna get it perfect, so I’m just gonna share my current thoughts, however I can.
So, with that out of the way… is AI good or bad?
In my honest opinion… I don’t know.
I mean that’s a really broad question. There are so many different types of AI - image generators, neural networks, the ‘brains’ behind video game enemies - and I know, usually what people think of when they think of ‘AI’ these days is ‘generative AI’. AI that generates new content based on existing training data.
So is generative AI good or bad?
In my totally honest opinion… I don’t know.
I mean this is still really broad; there’s AI that can generate images, there’s AI that can generate sounds and/or music, there’s AI that can generate text…
And then on top of that there’s different use cases! Chatbots! Art! Advertisements and infographics, assets for games and movies!
You know what, let’s just narrow down on one of them.
Are AI chatbots good or bad?
In my totally honest, unfiltered opinion… I DON’T KNOW!!
I’ve certainly found use out of them, but they’re also biased and trained by big companies and are destroying the environment.. but aren’t other things?? is using google as a search engine bad because it’s a big company? what about steam? bluesky? windows? macos? is playing video games bad because it’s using energy? doing art? should computers as a whole never have been invented?
But I guess that’s the thing. At this point it isn’t about AI anymore. AI is inherently a tool, and it can be used for good and bad and to call the entirety of AI good or bad is impossible just looking at it through that lens.
BUT
WE LIVE IN A SOCIETY
A SOCIETY WHICH IS CAPITALIST AND UNFAIR AND RUN BY RICH WHITE MEN AND GIANT CORPORATIONS AND THOSE SAME PEOPLE ARE CREATING THE AIS
And so, because of our current society, and where it currently stands…
I believe that AI is bad.
But despite this there’s a part of me which finds it really really cool.
And despite this I still use ChatGPT. And Claude.
And I use Google as my search engine.
I use MacOS as my operating system. On a MacBook Pro.
And like I’m not perfect but am I the problem here?? Sure I’m not directly responsible for corporation’s actions but you do vote with your wallet, and increasingly your attention and time.
And yet it’s useful. It’s convenient. It’s easy. Should I sacrifice that? Do I have a moral obligation to?
Am I any different than the tech bros defending AI art and music and “vibe coding”?
Does knowing that what you’re doing is unethical make it any better?
At what point does our selfishness become unethical?
Can you rebel against a system while being in it?
And, in my honest opinion, and in my current state of mind, thoughts spiraling, arguing back and forth with myself, I think that there’s only one answer to all that.
I don’t know.