May 24, 2023·edited May 24, 2023Liked by Michael Estrin
1. Kill Bill Vol. 1. I’m an elite karate dork. There are spin-kicks in my dreams.
2. The Boondocks. Corporate treatment of creator Aaron McGruder makes this feel more urgent. Suits would have a writhing mass of virgin-eating tentacles write shows if it cost eight dollars less.
3. “Fleshlings Kneel Before Shodan” had great gags. And kneeling.
4. Geography says marching.
5. As a veteran con artist, it’d have to be a reality show about pitching AI projects to venture capitalists. Too much fun too avoid.
Awesome. I’ll spill some coffee on some shirts to open up the role. Or off a venture capitalist or two. I’m sure they’d appreciate the spirit of the kill.
I donated to the entertainment fund. ✊ As for my favorite AI written show, there’s only one I’m aware of: Nothing Forever, the Twitch series that attempts to auto-generate CG animated Seinfeld episodes. It’s a show about nothing, in that it rarely makes cohesive sense.
3. NCIS, as it seems redundant to me. However, I’ve never watched it and don’t intend to.
4. I will spread the word. The Union makes us strong!
5. Easy. Pay Michael $500,000 to option “Not Safe For Work” as a movie. I read it, and it wants to be a movie. Instead of blowing the rest paying a ghost editor to rewrite the AI script -- that’s part of why there is a WGA protest -- I’d use the money to scare up investors to actually make and distribute the movie, because half a million doesn’t cover the cost of moviemaking. If there’s any leftover, it for the fund Michael mentioned.
I'm 💯% behind your answer to question number 5. Obviously, I'm biased, though. But thank you so much for reading NSFW, Betsy! And if you're so inclined, please feel free to write a quick review on Amazon. It really helps!
I agree with your statement that writing is art and AI will have a hard time competition with humans in the art realm. Just like the printing press, computer word processors, and the internet, I like machine learning language models will find their place to supplement writers, rather than replace them. I think you are very correct in saying people want to read something written by another human rather than a program. That's kind of what art has always been, humans connecting with each other through various media.
Fully agree with your point about AI being utterly uninteresting to read. It's bland and generic and by definition there is nothing new or innovative in it (though my partner who is a tech-nerd tells me this is only the first incarnation and it's going to get so much better.... I guess we'll see 🤔) Also interesting to see how it's helping young people with dyslexia create a more even playing field by writing covering letters for job applications etc.
I didn't know about the dyslexia application. It sounds like an AI is basically just a better version of Grammerly, which already helps people with dyslexia spot mistakes in their work. I'm all for that! But I don't have a lot of faith that applications like that will win the day because however much money there is in the helping people with dyslexia space, there's a lot more money in the business of eliminating jobs. It doesn't have to be like that. These things aren't inevitable. But we seem to be at a moment where the future is being decided.
Is it just me, or does AI's little haiku seem vaguely threatening? I know it's pulling from our own published fears on the internet, but "it will surpass us in time, I fear" sounds ominous to me.
It's not just you, Valorie. I read it the same way. Ominous. But, and I think this is important to talk about, these tools are more like mirrors than anything else. They reflect us. I don't think Bard was actually making a threat, or being coy, or cheeky, I think it just associates questions about AI with human anxiety and then the large language model did its thing in haiku format.
That Ted Chiang essay in the footnote is 👌👌👌, and I really appreciate him putting his brilliant mind towards a topical op-ed, which I imagine might be kind of painful for someone who appears to work on the decade timescale (and god do I admire him for that.) I worked for McKinsey right out of college (and really, fuck that place), so this hit particularly close to home.
I feel like this must be the wrong answer, but my prevailing approach to ChatGPT has been to ignore it. I tried it, it wasn't that interesting, back to my life. But then there is the haunting feeling that I am definitely missing something here, or that soon I will be missing something, or that I'm willfully ignoring the risks it is posing to real people right now, which seems like the most dangerous affect of my approach. Still, I am having a hard time *caring.* Reading about the strike helped, though.
Thanks for sharing all of this, Rae! I don't think you're wrong about wanting to ignore AI. I played with it at first out of curiosity, had a little fun, then decided to walk away. But about two months ago, I found that conversations at my day job (I write op-eds for tech execs) and my other job (creative writing) were suddenly dominated by AI, and I really don't like the way those conversations are going. It just became impossible to ignore, but that's very human, I suppose, to focus on things that are banging on your door. I don't know if any of this helps with that haunting feeling that you're missing something, but I do want to say that there's nothing wrong with wanting this nonsense to go away. And yes, that job post is next-level WTF, right?
This was great Michael and you made it personal. One of the consistent challenges of being human is the lack of empathy consistently offered -- especially against the backdrop of "who is deserving of empathy". I grew up in a blue-collar town. It became okay to say "those auto workers and steel workers get paid too much -- that is the problem". At the time there was no technology threatening the people writing such an opinion. People become capable of rationalizing all sorts of things. The creative arts are currently in the crosshairs. I find it most important to empathize with the people upon whom the pivot will affect the most. Each time a new workspace comes under challenge we get the chance to be human with the same commitment we might apply to our favorite activity.
Well said, Mark! I've always found it fascinating that there's a seemingly endless well of animosity for workers who stand up for themselves, whereas there's a lot of hero worship for business leaders who make literal fortunes via outsourcing, down-sizing, and other tactics. I don't think the lack of empathy or hero worship are accidents, though. If anything, there's a lot of money and human energy that goes into selling those particular narratives.
Thank you! Your use of "particular narratives" jumped out to me. Our economic systems and how we treat others has nothing to do with scientific discoveries like gravity. They are just ARBITRARY ideas that have stuck for a while. We give them more power and agency than they deserve. They are just ideas and they only apply for as long as we tolerate them or don't take the time to refine them. I know you LOVE HISTORY. I believe neo-liberalism best exemplified by Reagan and Thatcher marked this arbitrary pivot and it has done a lot of damage.
While it was pre and post World War II -- Frances Perkins "The Woman Behind the New Deal" was one of the finest history books I (and our book club) have ever read. The author Kristin Downey is excellent. I would also recommend "Eleanor" by David Michaelis -- a very good book about Eleanor Roosevelt and her impact on labor at times. I will poll my book club members about Post WWII labor stuff.
May 24, 2023·edited May 24, 2023Liked by Michael Estrin
“...Because the companies paying for all these AI tools have programmed them to refuse assignments that don’t conform to their content standards. Pretty dystopian, if you ask me.”
This is an excellent point. Dystopian, maybe, but it also gives me some hope because our job will be to write subversive material people can differentiate from AI.
On the other hand, I’ve noticed people writing about how AI follows a “woke” agenda, usually cherry pick their examples. For instance, Rob Henderson’s “The Silent Strings of ChatGPT” explained that ChatGPT will explain the good sides of communism, but not fascism. I tried the same thing with slightly different prompts, and ChatGPT provided the pros and cons of both ideologies. It seems we can work around “content standards” with the correct prompts, but I agree — I wouldn’t want to read a novel written by AI anyway. A textbook… maybe.
What’s your favorite movie? Hint: it was written by a WGA writer.
Too difficult to answer. Richard Linklater and Martin McDonagh are my favourite screenplay writers, though. Well, I got into McDonagh movies after his plays.
What’s your favorite television show? Hint: it was written by a WGA writer, and perhaps an entire staff of WGA writers.
This changes every year. Breaking Bad, Barry, The Great, Entrevias…
What’s your favorite AI-written show, or movie?
Marvel Movies?
Jokes. I wonder if Martin Scorsese thinks AI can write "theme parks" though.
How do you plan to show solidarity with the WGA?
I don’t know. As someone who doesn’t live in America, and would be happy making minimum wage as a writer (or at least spending less on my writing career than I make), I haven’t been able to relate.
But if there’s something I can do from Spain, I’m in. I’ll stand in solitary with fellow writers.
Assume you have an annual budget equal to the salary of your average Hollywood CEO. What AI idea would you back?
The one that turns scripts into movies. But then everyone else in the industry would go on strike.
I generally avoid union related conversations. Since you are in the industry, can you tell us how writers came to be in situations where they are being treated badly? I see actors and other talent as also being unionized. Wouldn't everyone want everyone else to be on an equal playing field? I thought that is what unions are all about.
Hi Christie, I'm not sure I understand your question. Also, I'm not sure I'm the best person to speak to this because I am industry-adjacent (a writer who sometimes sells IP to studios, but not a screenwriter, so therefore not a WGA member). That said, I think what you're asking is why are writers in a different boat than other workers in the entertainment industry?
The big picture answer is that most entertainment workers are covered by a collective bargaining agreement. The writers aren't necessarily worse off than the actors, but the WGA contract expired first, the studios refused to negotiate, and that pretty much guaranteed a strike. The SAG (actors) contract expires at the end of June. That'll probably end up in a strike too. The DGA contract (directors) is also up at the end of June. In past Hollywood labor disputes, the studios typically chose to negotiate with directors first, then use that agreement as a benchmark for all other labor agreements. In the meantime, the IATSE and The Teamsters, which represent most other crew positions, continue to work under their contracts, but their members won't cross picket lines, which is why writers are picketing studios and productions. All of this is by way of saying that while different entertainment workers have different demands because their jobs are different, most entertainment workers are in the same general boat. I hope that answers your question.
So, I mentioned the “human needed” job description to my super smart techie husband, and he says...
What jobs like this are really doing is teaching the AI to get better. So at this moment a human needs to improve an AI generated response, but that response gets fed back into the AI so it learns to generate a better response until the human is no longer needed. 😕
1. Kill Bill Vol. 1. I’m an elite karate dork. There are spin-kicks in my dreams.
2. The Boondocks. Corporate treatment of creator Aaron McGruder makes this feel more urgent. Suits would have a writhing mass of virgin-eating tentacles write shows if it cost eight dollars less.
3. “Fleshlings Kneel Before Shodan” had great gags. And kneeling.
4. Geography says marching.
5. As a veteran con artist, it’d have to be a reality show about pitching AI projects to venture capitalists. Too much fun too avoid.
I want in on your reality TV show. I'll get coffee, handle your dry-cleaning, and even bury bodies for you. I just want in.
Awesome. I’ll spill some coffee on some shirts to open up the role. Or off a venture capitalist or two. I’m sure they’d appreciate the spirit of the kill.
I am at your service.
I donated to the entertainment fund. ✊ As for my favorite AI written show, there’s only one I’m aware of: Nothing Forever, the Twitch series that attempts to auto-generate CG animated Seinfeld episodes. It’s a show about nothing, in that it rarely makes cohesive sense.
https://youtu.be/Cr_NvQkAt04
Man, that is a weird-ass show.
The future of television!
I loved the comment section on your last post. They were just as fun and eye opening. An added bonus.
Me too! I’m always impressed by the thoughtfulness this community brings to the comment section.
3. NCIS, as it seems redundant to me. However, I’ve never watched it and don’t intend to.
4. I will spread the word. The Union makes us strong!
5. Easy. Pay Michael $500,000 to option “Not Safe For Work” as a movie. I read it, and it wants to be a movie. Instead of blowing the rest paying a ghost editor to rewrite the AI script -- that’s part of why there is a WGA protest -- I’d use the money to scare up investors to actually make and distribute the movie, because half a million doesn’t cover the cost of moviemaking. If there’s any leftover, it for the fund Michael mentioned.
I'm 💯% behind your answer to question number 5. Obviously, I'm biased, though. But thank you so much for reading NSFW, Betsy! And if you're so inclined, please feel free to write a quick review on Amazon. It really helps!
Done!
I agree with your statement that writing is art and AI will have a hard time competition with humans in the art realm. Just like the printing press, computer word processors, and the internet, I like machine learning language models will find their place to supplement writers, rather than replace them. I think you are very correct in saying people want to read something written by another human rather than a program. That's kind of what art has always been, humans connecting with each other through various media.
Fully agree with your point about AI being utterly uninteresting to read. It's bland and generic and by definition there is nothing new or innovative in it (though my partner who is a tech-nerd tells me this is only the first incarnation and it's going to get so much better.... I guess we'll see 🤔) Also interesting to see how it's helping young people with dyslexia create a more even playing field by writing covering letters for job applications etc.
I didn't know about the dyslexia application. It sounds like an AI is basically just a better version of Grammerly, which already helps people with dyslexia spot mistakes in their work. I'm all for that! But I don't have a lot of faith that applications like that will win the day because however much money there is in the helping people with dyslexia space, there's a lot more money in the business of eliminating jobs. It doesn't have to be like that. These things aren't inevitable. But we seem to be at a moment where the future is being decided.
Yes - time will tell. Fascinating to see where it all leads....
Is it just me, or does AI's little haiku seem vaguely threatening? I know it's pulling from our own published fears on the internet, but "it will surpass us in time, I fear" sounds ominous to me.
It's not just you, Valorie. I read it the same way. Ominous. But, and I think this is important to talk about, these tools are more like mirrors than anything else. They reflect us. I don't think Bard was actually making a threat, or being coy, or cheeky, I think it just associates questions about AI with human anxiety and then the large language model did its thing in haiku format.
Oh totally! This is definitely a reflection of our fears and not an “I, Robot” style threat.
That Ted Chiang essay in the footnote is 👌👌👌, and I really appreciate him putting his brilliant mind towards a topical op-ed, which I imagine might be kind of painful for someone who appears to work on the decade timescale (and god do I admire him for that.) I worked for McKinsey right out of college (and really, fuck that place), so this hit particularly close to home.
I feel like this must be the wrong answer, but my prevailing approach to ChatGPT has been to ignore it. I tried it, it wasn't that interesting, back to my life. But then there is the haunting feeling that I am definitely missing something here, or that soon I will be missing something, or that I'm willfully ignoring the risks it is posing to real people right now, which seems like the most dangerous affect of my approach. Still, I am having a hard time *caring.* Reading about the strike helped, though.
And jesus, that job post....🤦♀️
Thanks for sharing all of this, Rae! I don't think you're wrong about wanting to ignore AI. I played with it at first out of curiosity, had a little fun, then decided to walk away. But about two months ago, I found that conversations at my day job (I write op-eds for tech execs) and my other job (creative writing) were suddenly dominated by AI, and I really don't like the way those conversations are going. It just became impossible to ignore, but that's very human, I suppose, to focus on things that are banging on your door. I don't know if any of this helps with that haunting feeling that you're missing something, but I do want to say that there's nothing wrong with wanting this nonsense to go away. And yes, that job post is next-level WTF, right?
Michael! You're the best. Thanks for writing this and thank you for picketing with me and thank you for not having this piece be written by AI!!!
Thank YOU, Chris!
This was great Michael and you made it personal. One of the consistent challenges of being human is the lack of empathy consistently offered -- especially against the backdrop of "who is deserving of empathy". I grew up in a blue-collar town. It became okay to say "those auto workers and steel workers get paid too much -- that is the problem". At the time there was no technology threatening the people writing such an opinion. People become capable of rationalizing all sorts of things. The creative arts are currently in the crosshairs. I find it most important to empathize with the people upon whom the pivot will affect the most. Each time a new workspace comes under challenge we get the chance to be human with the same commitment we might apply to our favorite activity.
Well said, Mark! I've always found it fascinating that there's a seemingly endless well of animosity for workers who stand up for themselves, whereas there's a lot of hero worship for business leaders who make literal fortunes via outsourcing, down-sizing, and other tactics. I don't think the lack of empathy or hero worship are accidents, though. If anything, there's a lot of money and human energy that goes into selling those particular narratives.
Thank you! Your use of "particular narratives" jumped out to me. Our economic systems and how we treat others has nothing to do with scientific discoveries like gravity. They are just ARBITRARY ideas that have stuck for a while. We give them more power and agency than they deserve. They are just ideas and they only apply for as long as we tolerate them or don't take the time to refine them. I know you LOVE HISTORY. I believe neo-liberalism best exemplified by Reagan and Thatcher marked this arbitrary pivot and it has done a lot of damage.
Do you have any book recs on post world war 2 US labor history?
And yes, one reason I love to read history is that it reminds me that we have agency.
While it was pre and post World War II -- Frances Perkins "The Woman Behind the New Deal" was one of the finest history books I (and our book club) have ever read. The author Kristin Downey is excellent. I would also recommend "Eleanor" by David Michaelis -- a very good book about Eleanor Roosevelt and her impact on labor at times. I will poll my book club members about Post WWII labor stuff.
“...Because the companies paying for all these AI tools have programmed them to refuse assignments that don’t conform to their content standards. Pretty dystopian, if you ask me.”
This is an excellent point. Dystopian, maybe, but it also gives me some hope because our job will be to write subversive material people can differentiate from AI.
On the other hand, I’ve noticed people writing about how AI follows a “woke” agenda, usually cherry pick their examples. For instance, Rob Henderson’s “The Silent Strings of ChatGPT” explained that ChatGPT will explain the good sides of communism, but not fascism. I tried the same thing with slightly different prompts, and ChatGPT provided the pros and cons of both ideologies. It seems we can work around “content standards” with the correct prompts, but I agree — I wouldn’t want to read a novel written by AI anyway. A textbook… maybe.
What’s your favorite movie? Hint: it was written by a WGA writer.
Too difficult to answer. Richard Linklater and Martin McDonagh are my favourite screenplay writers, though. Well, I got into McDonagh movies after his plays.
What’s your favorite television show? Hint: it was written by a WGA writer, and perhaps an entire staff of WGA writers.
This changes every year. Breaking Bad, Barry, The Great, Entrevias…
What’s your favorite AI-written show, or movie?
Marvel Movies?
Jokes. I wonder if Martin Scorsese thinks AI can write "theme parks" though.
How do you plan to show solidarity with the WGA?
I don’t know. As someone who doesn’t live in America, and would be happy making minimum wage as a writer (or at least spending less on my writing career than I make), I haven’t been able to relate.
But if there’s something I can do from Spain, I’m in. I’ll stand in solitary with fellow writers.
Assume you have an annual budget equal to the salary of your average Hollywood CEO. What AI idea would you back?
The one that turns scripts into movies. But then everyone else in the industry would go on strike.
Richard Linklater and Martin McDonagh are both aces. Love their films. And Barry is one of my current favorites. So dang good!
AI and human replacement...
Can they? Eventually
Will they? I hope not
Should they? Never
I generally avoid union related conversations. Since you are in the industry, can you tell us how writers came to be in situations where they are being treated badly? I see actors and other talent as also being unionized. Wouldn't everyone want everyone else to be on an equal playing field? I thought that is what unions are all about.
Hi Christie, I'm not sure I understand your question. Also, I'm not sure I'm the best person to speak to this because I am industry-adjacent (a writer who sometimes sells IP to studios, but not a screenwriter, so therefore not a WGA member). That said, I think what you're asking is why are writers in a different boat than other workers in the entertainment industry?
The big picture answer is that most entertainment workers are covered by a collective bargaining agreement. The writers aren't necessarily worse off than the actors, but the WGA contract expired first, the studios refused to negotiate, and that pretty much guaranteed a strike. The SAG (actors) contract expires at the end of June. That'll probably end up in a strike too. The DGA contract (directors) is also up at the end of June. In past Hollywood labor disputes, the studios typically chose to negotiate with directors first, then use that agreement as a benchmark for all other labor agreements. In the meantime, the IATSE and The Teamsters, which represent most other crew positions, continue to work under their contracts, but their members won't cross picket lines, which is why writers are picketing studios and productions. All of this is by way of saying that while different entertainment workers have different demands because their jobs are different, most entertainment workers are in the same general boat. I hope that answers your question.
Hi Michael, recently I also had some fun with AI and haiku. See the results here:
https://muddyum.net/you-cant-spell-haiku-without-ai-ba0597613c8b
Fascinating stuff, Steve. That eulogy one really got me.
So, I mentioned the “human needed” job description to my super smart techie husband, and he says...
What jobs like this are really doing is teaching the AI to get better. So at this moment a human needs to improve an AI generated response, but that response gets fed back into the AI so it learns to generate a better response until the human is no longer needed. 😕