Content Oversupplied
A friend of mine sent me an interesting Youtube conversation of a podcast today, because he know it is the kind of thing that I am interested in. Not because of the content itself, but what the content represents.
Have a listen for a minute or two.
Now, while that is a little clunky, it is pretty obvious that it isn't going to be too long until AI created conversation is indistinguishable from human content. But it doesn't even have to get that far, because it just has to be better than most of the people are able to either do or they don't have the skills to hear the difference. Generative AI has been out for a while now and improving all of the time, but most of the people who use it can never create content to that level for a couple of reasons. Firstly, they don't have the technical skills to create and secondly, they don't have the experience to create it. A
AI doesn't need experience.
Well, it steals and plagiarizes the experiences of others, by trawling other content and chopping it up into something consumable by an audience that no longer cares if a human created it or not, as long as they get what they want.
Right? But here in lies the problem, because obviously there is a lot of incentive to keep decreasing the cost of producing content, because that is a mechanism to maximize profits. However, the value of content in the economy is people listening to it, engaging with it, sharing it. Essentially, the attention the content receives, and the demand it generates.
The other side of "demand" is of course supply, and as the barrier to create a piece of content comes down to the point that there is no cost in time, energy, or human effort at all, supply is going to increase exponentially. It has already been happening for years on the likes of Youtube, where far more content is uploaded in a day, than any individual can watch in a lifetime, so who is consuming it?
And then, the value of consumption of the content is that people will be able to buy something along the supply chain. But, with so much consolidation of employment due to artificial intelligence and automation, the pool of consumer spending will be far lower amongst the largest populations. And then on top of this, because people will be looking to increase their income, there will be even more "content creators" doing what they can to grab attention.
It is a race to the bottom in so many respects, as not only will content get increasingly poor for an audience that is decreasingly discerning and capable, but the quest for attention will lead to further degradation of behavior. If you would have said twenty years ago that it would quite common for mothers who needed to make ends meet to do cam porn on the internet, you'd be laughed at and seen as a crazy sicko. Yet, here we are.
Is it empowerment, or enslavement?
While it might sound it, that isn't actually a moral judgement on the people who perform on the many sites there are, but rather commentary on how the mishandled financial economy, driven by the maxim to keep increasing profits without consideration to costs, has influenced societal behaviors and changed what is considered acceptable. Some people see this as a new type of freedom, but I see it as the outcome of profit maximization and tells of the consolidation of control and power.
Yet, even in this area, AI, automation and the continual need to lower costs is encroaching, so that people are generating their own models who will do and say what they want in at least digital format, for cheaper, and with more personalization. As the technology gets even better, humans won't be able to compete without catering to increasingly niche and depraved activities - which again point at the consolidation of wealth, control and power.
So many people seem to believe that because their own lives right now are made easier, because there is a tool that can help them be better than they can be without it, that it is going to make their lives easier in the long run. That is rarely the case, as in general, the things that provide a quick fix in the short term, end up costing us more in the long.
Content is approaching zero in terms of its value, even though people believe that what they are consuming improves their lives. It is a strange little conflict, because the irony is that the more we consume, the worse we get, and the more we consume, the better the artificial intelligence gets. This means that almost no matter what we learn, it is going to be irrelevant in terms of being able to help us add value to the economy, which means we are unable to buy from the economy either.
I have predicted all kinds of behavioral changes, like how people will spend more time in their digital avatars, because being themselves is increasingly depressing. Or, people will fall in love with their digital assistants because they will know them the best and listen well. Have sex with robots because robots will do it better than humans and will want nothing in return, except some lubricant. And a hundred other things. Again, people have laughed over the years, not believing that any of this would ever be mainstream.
But how long until it is mainstream?
Human generated content in so many forms has been devalued to the point that there is very little reason for it at all. But perhaps the scary thing is, that in terms of what society is, we are the content and we are devaluing ourselves, so that a few corporations can increase profit and control over us.
Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]
I remember following a lot of websites over the years because they had good content, but they often sold out and started crating listicles and other content-for-the-sake-of-content instead of the kinds of stuff that drew my interest in the first place. A.I. just streamlines that process. It didn't add value when hack writers or overseas labor was used. It won't add value when A.I. does it, either. But it's the shiny new thing everyone obsesses over.
I think it is going to go deeper than the useless "5 things" lists for clicks. I think it is going to get weirder and weirder, yet it will be normalized rapidly by audiences that are just looking to be entertained, not caring about how or why, or what it means to their lives.
What happened to entertainment requiring skill?
We already have shitty A.I.-narrated TikTok videos and whatnot, and the cost versus payout must make them worthwhile, but I really wish I had a way to automatically exclude them from all playlists on all video sites before I even see them to scroll past. I think this kind of thing might work for the short term for short form video just to grab eyeballs for 45 seconds, but it won't really impact the podcasting market. I hope.
The cost is close to zero, isn't it?
I don't look at tiktok, or anything like that at all. The only thing I scroll is Hive.
I think it will in time, but for now at least, most of the podcasts are built on the personalities of the podcaster and the guests, not the content of the podcast. It makes a difference.
I agree that human behaviour tends to become robotic, and we may even reach situations like the one in the film Demolition Man (zero fluid exchange), or total control of human feelings and reactions as in the film Equilibrium. Perhaps a century from now we will be living in such times and neither you nor I will be on this earthly plane, unless AI and technological advances forge the formula to replace our withered bodies while preserving our essence (soul).
All the more reason we need to keep human generated content alive here on HIVE! I know Google has been working on some assistant AI for a while that even five to ten years ago was pretty impressive in terms of being able to pass as a real person.
I will not throw in the towel on this :)
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I think AI taking over media and a lot of our day to day lives is inevitable at this point. Big corporations are scrambling to get their hands on it and integrate it into their businesses. What we can do is look at how it benefits and empower people though. I hate coding, and bad at art. With AI, I can create code to help me with some tasks. I can create stories, get illustrations for the characters, and maybe even create my own video for it.
They are facing challenges on how to apply it though. The usecases are surprisingly limited or complex, but they are working it out. I know a fair bit about this area of it ;)
So can 100M other people, so it is fine if you are only creating it for your own consumption, or that of your children or friends - but who will consume it otherwise, when 100M people are creating 100 versions each themselves?
You answered your question yourself. A lot of things will be personalized so a lot of them will just be shared in your own circle. Like YT videos, high quality ones will be shared more and get popular. But it isn't about popularity anymore. It is about knowing what you want and being able to find/make it yourself. Similar to how you used personal photos as wall decoration in your home, people will appreciate their own creations more.
Getting what you want, doesn't mean getting what you need. It leads to even more tailored silos.
These tailored silos are what makes getting the things one need easier.
It's hard for me to comprehend that there is much demand for AI generated podcasts or videos... I think what's happening is that AI Generated videos, photos, audio, etc are also getting a ton of bots to juice the algorithms so they seem popular, but I don't think anyone actually has legitimate interest in it. I don't think content will approach zero value, people will still pay to listen to Joe Rogan because it's Joe Rogan even if there are a million GenAI Joe Rogan copies.
Personally I think what'll happen is people really focus in on sources of information or entertainment they can trust. We visit your page on Hive because we trust that your words are your words.... as soon as it seems like your content is not your own I guarantee people will lose interest... the problem that I see is that people use Generative AI to trick advertisers and creators get less and less budget to support themselves with and stop... in which case GenAI has less data to consume until it's just generating outdated nonsense.
I'm sure you feel very vindicated at the people who laughed at you, all the predictions you listed seem pretty reasonable.
I don't think it matters if people are interested in it or not, it will feed the streams and make them largely useless. Filters will need to be applied, but what it will ultimately come down to is proof of human in some way. As you have rightly said about Rogan, it is the personality that matters, not the content.
Exactly. This is why I am pretty strict with making the content mine, rather than some kind of thesis collated from the work of others, if that makes sense. I might not be right, but it is me that isn't right, and I am okay with having that conversation and discussing it further.
Vindicated perhaps, but not happy. The world could be so much better, but we keep making choices with our behaviors that lead it in the other direction most of the time, on things that are pretty simple at the core.
The platforms will have to be good with their filters because their entire business model depends on it. If people can't find the Joe Rogan podcast then Spotify's investment was a waste.
I think what it does is make it more important to already be famous - or be hand selected to be boosted.
That's exactly how Spotify already operates... but I think it'll still be possible for people to go viral - people want great content, but I think we'll all just get better at figuring out what is GenAI and what isn't.
Honestly it's a sad thing, to see things turn out like this, people seeking means to meet ends and not caring about ethos anymore, technically I won't blame them but I still do the system pushes people to the edge, with the rising inflation, lack of jobs or increments in wages and salaries people are trying to survive and thus vices becomes the order of the day.
I really think the idea of universal basic asset should take root.
I wonder if I would had been more successful at selling my art a few decades ago. Before this AI BS.
Maybe. Is anyone actually buying AI art in the mainstream? I like to have art on the walls, not on my screen.
Not sure. But I have seen AI art posts with thousands and tens of thousands of likes. So I suppose someone is buying it?
likes are not purchases.
Isn't this a little like the argument that took place 150 years ago when the camera was invented? People argued that the image produced was lesser because there was no artist to portray character through brushstrokes.
It definitely put portrait painters out of business, though in the early years artists like Van Gogh fought back and produced genuinely interesting self-portraits. Artists have given up on portraits now, the camera has won.
Yes. The value of images has dropped toward zero also.
Well, this article has really got me thinking -and thinking a lot- about AI; and now is how much to think about the technology.
Greetings and blessings, @tarazkp
The one fact about digesting content on hive is the feel of experience, human touch in it, content that feel real and realatable and this is what A.I lacks, so no matter the rush, human aspect will always be relevant
The only constant in this world is CHANGE. We can try to resist it or adapt to it, I think the second option is way better. Trying to resist AI adoption at this point is like trying to stand in front of a freight train...
Perhaps it is futile, but at the same token, so is trying to improve the quality of the air we breathe. Weirdly, the two things are related, because they are about endless expansion of consumption, even if the value of what is consumed decreases.