Why are We Doing this to Ourselves?

Everyday I read about AI in art. There is some article or forum post about the efficacy and morality. The funny thing is, I have read the arguments of all these tech bros saying that machines should make our art for us, or the users of AI saying that their books will drown out those of writers who actually care about their work.

Yet in all of that, I have yet to read a statement by a reader who wants AI books. Readers are not like viewers. There is not an endless cycle of books constantly presented to readers. A person has to choose to read a book, and readers have been putting down poorly written books long before AI was an option.

Nobody wants to pick up a book that was generated by a machine. They want someone else’s perspective, style, and story. An idea does not make a book. Afterall, when you strip every story down, there are only two types of story, and every story is about one thing. Has been since the Epic of Gilgamesh.

So if no one wants these things, why are they being made? Why are books being destroyed so that AI can make a product no one wants? Nobody wants to read a book written by an inattentive person and a machine. Nobody wants art that oozes out a pipeline of sludge.

The market does not want a product that a special interest group insists that it wants. It is being pushed because those people aren’t making money from their giant investment, and they are trying to make something out of it. But surely there are bigger fish to fry. These are powerful computers, and could be put to better use than making ugly images and books thinner than gruel.