For laughs (and tears) > Microsoft’s ChatGPT “broke the bank”! It was accepted as a game, proving (if proof was needed) that some technologists of the 4th capitalist industrial revolution have caught the “pulse of the public”, and that on the other hand this public is moving “the path of technological progress” without knowing where it’s going.
The gamers’ “playing with the machine” is generalized into a kind of “socializing with a machine that is clearly more capable than me,” provided that it responds (in a way that seems convincing) to whatever I ask it. The brief concern of educators in Europe and America—that students and pupils will simply type a title into “artificial intelligence” to complete their homework—shows not the risk of deception (which is real) but the almost certain intellectual obsolescence of our species (which is even more real). The educational problem will be easily solved: such assignments are already being abolished, and learners will henceforth be judged only in person. Intellectual obsolescence will worsen: the more thinking (or, more accurately, its imitation…) is mechanized, the more starkly pure human ignorance will remain as an authentic human condition.
Meanwhile, the rapid popularity of ChatGPT has triggered a business war – we live in capitalism. Google is trying to retaliate by promoting an upgrade of LAMDA. The stake is “search engines” – through artificial intelligence now.
Let’s repeat it, no matter how futile it may seem. The bio-genetic general subsumption of life under capital began in 2020 with pain, violence and lies, and so it will continue. On the other hand, the informatic/cybernetic general subsumption of life under capital will proceed with fanfares and celebrations.
They win in both cases – and we lose.