Read Receipt
One of the popular uses of "AI" that I truly do not understand involves "brainstorming" – and okay, I admit, I truly do not understanding using "AI" at all with what we know about its politically, psychologically, cognitively, and environmentally destructive effects. I've written before about how "brainstorming" is a Cold War invention, and how marketing has convinced us that we're lacking something that only its products or services can fulfill, that "creativity" is something special that few people innately possess and the rest of us need colored markers, whiteboards, sticky notes, self-help books, and now apparently chatbots to develop.
As a writer, I know that if I'm struggling with coming up with ideas, it's a clear sign I need to read more. But (humble brag) as an avid reader, that's rarely if ever an issue. Indeed, I have so many notes with so many possible topics to think and write about. My problem isn't coming up with ideas (true confession); it's following through and actually expanding those notes from a few words, phrases, sentences into an essay, a chapter, a keynote, a book.
But even so. Why would I ever use "AI" for that, since that is "the work". The work of thinking and writing does -- weird! I know! -- actually involve thinking and writing.
I'd argue the interest in using "AI" for brainstorming is surely connected to the decline in reading – reading long-form materials, that is, not text messages and status updates and 200 word blog posts, which, yes, people do a lot of but, no, is not the same as reading a book or even a magazine/journal article. As we spend less time undertaking the challenging cognitive labor of reading, we become less adept at both deciphering complex language and thought and constructing complex language and thought in turn. We have nothing that interesting to say (to write) because we have nothing interesting to think about because we have read nothing substantive.
But "AI" sure seems to be incredibly seductive to some people, promising them, assuring them they are now reading, writing, and thinking more efficiently, more powerfully than ever. Me, I am skeptical that the automation of these processes can grant any power at all to the user – politically or economically, let alone cognitively.
"AI" is an extraction, a reduction, a diminishment of knowledge at both the individual and certainly at the social level – a reallocation of control, centralizing everything in the databases and algorithms of a very small number of tech companies that are hell-bent on destroying our ability to exist beyond the scope of their engineering – and, of course, their subscription plans.
If I have to pay to come up with ideas, I'd rather spend my money on a book than on a chit-chat with a bullshit machine.
