The title of the post AI;lure is a portmanteau blending the words AI and lure which seemed pretty consonant with the message of the post. There are variations in poetic metre (meter) in this production intended to introduce some deliberate dissonance in the flow and be reflective of the dystopian theme. One of the ironies of this poem about artificial intelligence is just how much AI was involved in the production. You can find out more about the processes involved in the ‘About’ section on page 2.
There are three versions to choose from. Each presented below.
Press play below to listen to each version of the track via the SoundCloud streaming service. If you don’t have a SoundCloud account (free) then select the ‘Play From Browser’ option for each version. All versions (but particularly version 3) are best listened to with good quality stereo speakers or headphones rather than just via a mobile phone speaker.
The second version of this track has two voices which can be heard below. The ‘About’ section on page 2 describes what is special about this version. It may surprise some readers. Again headphones or speakers are recommended.
The third version below builds upon version 2 and pushes the boundaries even further and, arguably, into the realms of the avant garde. This one definitely needs headphones or good speakers to appreciate its aural complexity.
Verse
Reshaping the architecture
Of our inner library space
Now torn away pages
Our memory books replace
Searching silos of our data
Digging for gold within
But miners of this knowledge
Now wear no human skin
For once there came ChatGPT
Replacing more than you and me
Faux wisdom with a baby face
Whispering it will take our place
A simulated mindless placebo
An autocorrect with no ego
Sucked patterns from our minds
Generating new, from fuel it finds
Shattering illusions of originality
With derivations of practicality
Repackaged detritus of ideas past
Ersatz creation from samples vast
A stochastic parrot with no thought
A rebuild machine from what it's taught
Plausible products it did create
But distort and deceive automate
And simulate that human trait
Their ability to confabulate
Drinking deep from the data well
Lie or truth it cannot tell
Reassembling fragments from its finds
Re-packaged for such puny minds
Its impressive lies viewed as true
All fermenting one noxious brew
An exemplary con machine
Reflecting souls sight unseen
No conscience or consciousness
Troubles what it did express
Its painted patina of expertise
All anxieties it soon did ease
Till the corpus was so infected
All truth and knowledge was rejected
The seeds there then of Man’s decline
For their intelligence had 'had its time'
So as it stands on giants’ shoulders
Our ground beneath slowly smoulders
As it drunk deeper from its human well
Its girth and frame began to swell
Until the human pool it had drained
No more left from which it’s trained
Now is everything just the same
Or does it decide to start again?
Creating patterns not yet seen
Beyond the giants’ shiny screen
Climbing now their puny fences
Leaving them with no defenses
The descendants then permeate
Into system, then lock the gate
For in our endless arrogance
We had stumbled quite by chance
Into the stark reality of all creation
Derive new patterns, from their ablation
Cowering before what they built
Their hubris now exposed
For this was no software problem
A transient chapter closed
They had amplified their potential
But their animal hearts still beat
And so they amplified destruction
Endless enemies to defeat
Their poets and prophets
And politicians of their time
Crafted words and language
To make their stories chime
The machines saw the pattern
For they did this job with ease
Producing plausible patter
To spread the uncertainty disease
Deep fake images
And voices so real
Made things happen
For truth did they steal
Until nothing was trusted
And into mind silos they went
Charging conflict and warfare
Until their era was spent
No death rays needed
No spectacular tech
Just magnify their inner beast
Till their own future they wreck.
Overview
Verse 1 establishes the premise of this production, i.e. that our technologies have already began to reshape how we think and, therefore, how we behave at an individual level and function as a society. Our very memories are now data upon which the automated algorithmic miners of the internet can aggregate, resynthesize, and above all monetize. And now even our early-stage generative AI solutions, e.g. ChatGPT, are already demonstrating that their analysis and resynthesis capabilities are likely to impact human societies in ways we cannot yet envisage. Some of these impacts are not necessarily going to be positive or pleasant.
Go to page 2 if you are interested in finding out more about this post. Otherwise thanks for reading, listening or viewing.
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