Much AI do about nothing
With a comedy by William GPT Shakespeare - Media Ecology Newsletter #34
Sometimes William Shakespeare was being commissioned not to write a drama but a play. Perhaps in some cases a story that Shakespeare had begun as a drama became a comedy.
That certainly happened to OpenAI's story.
The drama was crystal clear. The leader blinded by greed has betrayed the ideals of his people and is enjoying the fruits of his power. A handful of brave people, led by a very strong ethical drive, decided on a palace maneuver and drove out the powerful traitor. The story could have continued as a very hard battle or as a painful war of attrition, with long meditations on the meaning of life. It turned into a comedy, with continuous sudden twists, equivocations and ridiculous misunderstandings. Until the climax of the story. The accused leader points out to the revolutionaries that if they really kick him out they will lose million-dollar bonuses. At this news, the handful of braves led by a very strong ethical drive change their minds and ally themselves with the powerful traitor. The latter gets back in the saddle and hunts down everyone who had hunted him. And with a beautiful public relations campaign, he also makes the impression of a great leader.
The ethical principles that guided OpenAI's inception seem to have been outvoted. Will the newly established governance prioritize enhancing product testing before their market release? Or will it focus on expanding market share and mindshare, deferring the thinking about the possibility of issues caused by product flaws?
Harvard law professor Lawrence Lessig is worried about what could happen in a world of social networks dominated by the wrong recommender algorithms when the production of content made by generative AI can invade the same platforms. - (The Verge)
Scientist Gary Marcus is worried about «the potential collapse of the EU AI Act, and the likely effects of AI-generated disinformation on the 2024 elections». - (Marcus on AI)
The potential collapse of the EU AI Act may be averted. The French, German, and Italian governments have suggested excluding the sections pertaining to large language models from the Act. However, the Commission has identified a potential solution. It might draw on the approach used in the Digital Services Act: certain platforms are so large that they require hyper-regulation. This, however, does not apply to small startups. If we understand it correctly, Mistral and Kyutai should be fine. - (Euractiv)
Oh I forgot. I asked ChatGPT to develop into three acts the plot of the play whose summary I transcribed above. And this is the result:
Title: "The Comedy of Power"
Act 1: Betrayal and Rebellion
Scene 1: In a majestic palace, the leader (a charismatic but corrupt character) celebrates his success with a small group of loyalists. The chief is blinded by greed and power, ignoring the needs and ideals of his people.
Scene 2: A group of brave people, guided by strong ethics, meet secretly. They discover the leader's betrayal and plan a palace maneuver to remove him from office. This scene is punctuated by moments of tension, but also by unintentional humor given by the clumsiness of some of the characters.
Scene 3: The rebel group puts the plan into action. After a series of hilarious misunderstandings and twists and turns, they succeed in removing the leader from power.
Act 2: The Rise and Revelation
Scene 1: The group of rebels try to rule, but find themselves clumsily unfit. Their inexperience leads to comic situations and absurd decisions.
Scene 2: As chaos reigns, the deposed leader plots his return. This act focuses on his efforts, alternating between moments of cunning and comic gags due to his enemies clumsy decisions.
Scene 3: In a twist, the chief reveals to the rebels that by ousting him, they have lost access to million-dollar bonuses. This revelation causes an uproar among the rebels, with ironic dialogues and paradoxical situations.
Act 3: The Return and the Revenge
Scene 1: The rebels, now tempted by greed, decide to return the leader to power. The scene is full of ironic dialogue reflecting the change in their ethical values.
Scene 2: The chief, once restored, retaliates by expelling all those who had betrayed him. This scene is a mixture of black comedy and satire, showing the chief skillfully manipulating the situation in his favor.
Scene 3: The play ends with the chief launching a public relations campaign, re-establishing his image as a great leader. The ending is bitter and ironic, with the characters reflecting on the ironies of politics and power as the chief triumphs, unexpectedly loved and acclaimed by the people counting the money he gave them.
Epilogue: The play closes, leaving the viewer with a reflection on power, corruption, and human nature, all within a comic structure that lightens, but does not mask, the underlying serious themes.
Please take a look at Reimagine Europa. A Media Ecology Research Network is being build in Bruxelles and it grows every day. I will be informing on that more in the next issues. Reimagine Europa.
In previous Media Ecology:
May 30th - The aliens are coming
May 11th - I’m a prompt man
April 21th – The truth about fake
April 7th – CheatGPT
March 31th – Artificial intelligencija
March 16th – The method is the message
February 9th – Epistemology of AI
Podcasts in Italian, by me
Automaticamente. Rai Radio 3
Lezioni di futuro. Il Sole 24 Ore
L’altra metà del verso. Rai Radio 3
Media Ecology. Intesa Sanpaolo on air
Eppur s’innova. Luiss University Press
Ecology of screens
On the occasion of the International Conference Vivre par(mi) les écrans: entre passé et avenir, which was held in Lyon at the end of May, the newsletter of the International Research Group Vivre par(mi) les écrans and the Media Ecology newsletter agreed to signal, each to its recipients, the importance to them of the other's content, inviting them to subscribe to receive it and disseminate it among their contacts. So please visit Vivre par(mi) les écrans and subscribe to the newsletter. This choice of collaboration stems from the common project of promoting, developing and sharing highly qualified knowledge aimed at creating tools for guidance, critique and intervention in the field of media ecology and our current and future living between(mite) screens, as well as fostering the social dissemination of the aforementioned knowledge and tools.