Could a bot write this intro? The hype around AI has pushed this question to the center of public discourse. Conversational bots such as ChatGPT and automated image generators such as DALL-E — both built by OpenAI — are popping up everywhere.
Despite a few optimistic case studies of their potential, the current models are limited and the results they produce deeply flawed. But it doesn’t seem to matter that the tech behind AI is not ready for prime time. The models only have to tell a convincing story to the humans signing the checks — and they are.
Microsoft, which has developed its own Bing chatbot, invested $13 billion in OpenAI. Early-stage venture companies poured $2.2 billion into generative AI last year alone, and this year Salesforce announced a $250 million fund to invest in the space. Headlines and institutions alike are declaring AI the future of work, poised in particular to replace writers and artists. That these breathless predictions are outpacing the quality of the tech itself says a lot about our cultural moment — and our long-festering trend of devaluing creative work.
