Chat GPT: Is There Anything Else to Say About Popular Culture?

6min Snip

00:00

Play full episode

Summary

Transcript

Episode notes

CNN's John Sutter says popular entertainment is becoming less human. He argues that algorithms have taken some of the uncertainty out of both music and movies. And as a result, there's a certain sameness and a certain formula aspect to them, he says. "I'm older than you, but I'm pretty calm," writes Sutter. 'We don't have to just sort of roll over and let this happen'

When OpenAI launched its conversational chatbot this past November, author Ian Leslie was struck by the humanness of the computer's dialogue. Then he realized that he had it exactly backward: In an age that favors the formulaic and generic to the ambiguous, complex, and unexpected, it's no wonder that computers can sound eerily lifelike. Leslie tells EconTalk host Russ Roberts that we should worry less about the lifelike nature of AI and worry more that human beings are being more robotic and predictable. Leslie bolsters his argument with evidence from music and movies. The conversation includes a discussion of the role of education in wearing down the mind's rougher, but more interesting and more authentic, edges as well as how we might strive to be more human in the age of AI.