“Facebook doesn’t show me anyone familiar anymore,” artist Mary Sheehan Winn lamented. “I’ve noticed a lot of mistakes in AI when I’m looking at subjects I know about,” physician Brian told me (a caution for anyone who trusts Dr. Google). I recently asked ChatGPT for a precis of a scientific paper that interested me. It summarized another study entirely. I asked a second time and got the same result.
Dead Internet Theory
The Dead Internet Theory says that the internet is no longer a human-dominated space, that the web is now predominantly populated by AI bots and automated content. This artificial reality creates the illusion of genuine human interaction. The goal is ultimately profit, either directly or through control and manipulation.
I’ve been writing this blog for more than two decades. The internet has changed, but it’s also changed me. Social media and search engine algorithms have dumbed down my once-elegant language; what’s the point of writing something nobody sees because I use fancy words? While online teaching and commerce were things we only dreamed about at the turn of the millennium, we didn’t have to worry about bots. They’re drawn to my website and email client like blowflies to a corpse. So far, my systems have protected my turf, but one must be ever-vigilant.
A year ago it was estimated that half of all internet traffic was generated by bots; it’s probably worse today. That’s harmless until you remember that someone like me has to review and delete spam messages and comments, and pay for systems to protect my website from online attack.
Then there’s the business of not writing like AI. There are certain written tics I now avoid—chief among them the em-dash I love so much—because they’re common in AI-generated copy.
False reality
I often write about focal points. This is very much in the plural, since every painting should contain a series of focal points that lead the eye through a painting. ChatGPT, however, discusses focal point in the singular. If you want to know where an art-writer is getting his or her information about focal points, this is a good test.
How important is that? Not very, but when that bleeds into imaginary relationships, it gets ugly. We all know the story of the lonely old lady bilked of her savings by online scammers, but what of the young people deluded into thinking they’re having relationships with sex-bots?
“Imagine,” my friend Michael posited on Saturday, “a romantic partner that never criticizes you, agrees with everything you said…”
“I don’t have to imagine that,” my husband (ever the smart-ass) said.
As Quinton Self said about our violence-surfeited culture, “‘Make a life, take a life’ and now even fake a life.”
We are fearfully and wonderfully made
As I mentioned Monday, I was surprised by the hand-brain connection in my writing. Perhaps with more experience I could learn to do voice-to-text, but right now I need a pencil or keyboard to organize my words. That reminds me that even our physical selves are more than just a brain attached to machinery; the sympathetic nervous system is very powerful.
We are, of course, wonderfully made beings. While AI is very good at some tasks (think data or routine programming) when man tries to create people he does a piss-poor job. My son once asked me why anyone would bother using AI to write. I can’t answer that, but you can rest assured that I’ll quit blogging before this space is another argument for Dead Internet Theory.
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Carol, I agree with your post. Hardly any good comes along except you and Tim Cotton.
I go along Facebook posts these days and hardly recognize anyone. So keep writing you blog, I look forward to it!
Thank you, Carol.
(Not ai) Spot on. I was talking to a friend who was writing a short bio. She opted to copy it word for word from Chat GPT, saying she could not have done it better. I read it and it was free of any emotion or pov. I told her she should have written it herself FIRST and then tried ai. She disagreed because this was so much easier. Therein is the problem: yes ai can do a good job but shouldn’t we still try to put our person on what we put out in our name and use our brain? Maybe we are at the point of doing simple math in our head instead of using a calculator… letting our math brains actually retain some function.
Who knows your own bio better than you?
But laziness is a creeping malaise. We express our condolences or a birthday wish with a hug emoji or a birthday cake emoji, rather than a personal note.
Then we wonder why no one picks up the phone to speak… (sigh)
As for AI and Chat, Greg Gutfeld says to use it correctly you have to learn the language and ask the right question. He says it’s not that hard….
Neither is using your own brain. Thank you for doing that.
I use ChatGPT for lots of things, starting with SEO hashtags for this blog. Greg Gutfeld is right; it’s only as good as the questions you ask.
Carol, thank you for this, and for making me aware of how AI, bots, etc have influenced real people’s work and efforts. I for one enjoy your ( and most people’s) writing tics. They are like fingerprints but with the warmth and idiosyncratic perspectives that make us human.
See. you soon, Zoom-wise!
Thanks, Pat, and I’m looking forward to seeing you, too.
Boy did I need that post! As soon as I googled STT osteoarthritis, my Facebook page became flooded with quick fix schemes to repair my wrist…. Ointments and creams and supplements, oh my! Thank goodness there are still real doctors who can debunk some of the myths.
Tbf, crackpot cures for arthritis have always been with us. Do you remember copper bracelets?
Oh, goodness. I am quite a Luddite. What are bots, and tics? All I know about this stuff is that I am really getting to a point where I don’t even want to be on the internet anymore.
A bot is an automated software application programmed to perform specific tasks over the internet. A lot of ‘personal’ messages are in fact automated.
By ‘tic’ I just meant something like a verbal tic, as in a written pattern I use, probably too much.