ChatGPT and the slow death of humanity
Guess what humans? You’re not needed!
Guess what humans? You’re not needed!
Welcome one and welcome all to a brief ramble through the slow and sure death of humanity via our friends at ChatGPT and AI Artificial Intelligence. Now, should you have stumbled your way here via my ever so enticing headline expecting a deep dive into the architecture and infrastructure, the intricacies and algorithms associated with ChatGPT well my friends, you’re shit out of luck! Buy hey, at least this article isn’t behind a paywall or with tens of links urging you to “click here” so that I earn a fraction of a penny on every click you make on these vacuous, worthless links that so infuriate a reader and you’re also guaranteed that it’s been written by a human being. I also guarantee you that should you read all the way to the very denouement of this article, you won’t agree with a single word written here because you have worthless, tedious links scattered throughout your articles, you are the problem, and I’d be worried if I were you.
To make matters worse and to scare the remainder of you away from this article, I haven’t really delved into the whole ChatGPT thing at all. Oh sure, I’ve read a couple of articles and heard the scare stories on the “News” about students cheating on their essays by getting The Matrix to write it for them or that ChatGPT is biased toward a certain religion or political faith and that it refuses to write critical articles based upon these biases.
A computer AI Artificial Intelligence is biased?
Blimey! Things are worse than even I thought possible.
Then we have Elon Musk and his team of big brains who are calling for a halt to this sort of thing. He wants to go off world! He sends satellites into space! He wants to go to Mars for crying out loud! And he’s so worried he wants to pause this technological progress for six months? Come on Elon! The world is ending in less than 7 years, just as it was ending in 2012 and then 2013 and now by 2030. We don’t have time to dilly-dally over a trifling thing such as a robot writing a teenagers essay on life in 18th Century France!
Have you ever hit the “Chat to Agent” tab on a website, say when you’re fucking furious about the skyrocketing price of energy? Seems all lovely and cuddly doesn’t it as you “talk” to an agent? But there’s no agent there, let alone a human being. It’s just a chatbot and the very fact that the word chatbot isn’t immediately flagged as a misspelled word should worry you.
Bet I bet all the money in your back account that it doesn’t.
Have you seen the shops that are entirely free of any humans working there and you gain entry via your mobile phone or mobile App? My oh my. I can’t wait to go there! Gives you another of those warm, cuddly feelings doesn’t it? Wandering around with the goods locked behind glass or Perspex cases that are only opened upon (a) you being a customer of the store (b) signing up to their App and (c) naturally it’s entirely cashless. I’d add (d) you have to be a mindless entity lacking in human emotion and humanity to even consider shopping at these dystopian horror shows, but you’d probably call me an old cynic and stop reading this article.
Talking of cashless. Try walking into any number of Premier League football grounds here in the UK, or major cinema chains or even restaurants with a brand new, crisp £20 note and see what that buys you. I guarantee you that you’ll return after the game of football or the latest John Wick film with that very same crisp and new £20 note still in your pocket. You philistine! We’re cashless! We don’t want your grubby cash you dirty animal! Oh sure, with a swipe of your card you’ll secure yourself that barely edible pie or watered down plastic cup full of yellowy alcohol at a football match or the overpriced, barely warm hot-dog at the cinema, and yes, these delights will be served to you by a human being.
But give it another two or three years and it’ll be human being less as well as cash less.
Have you seen the videos emerging out of China whereby the only way you enter or exit from specific zones is via facial recognition software AND you have the right amount of positive digits on your social credit score?
Boy that looks a lot of fun! A bit like Black Mirror, only a thousand times more dystopian.
Or how about the “15 Minute Cities” that are springing up all around the UK, and the videos showing whole neighbourhoods being cordoned off, with some patrolled by Hi-Viz wearing crazy people demanding drivers turn around. Or ambulances and police cars being unable to attend to major emergencies as they can’t get through the barriers?
Boy that looks a lot of fun! A bit like Black Mirror, only a thousand times more dystopian.
Have you read about the lock-step plan, around the entire world, for CBDC’s or Central Bank Digital Currencies? Well, we’re all going cashless so why not provide a central DIGITAL currency that’s planned to be programmable to simply expire if you don’t spend it.
Boy that looks a lot of fun! A bit like Black Mirror, only a thousand times more dystopian.
What does all this have to do with ChatGPT I hear you hardy warriors who have read this far? Not a lot really, and of course, everything. I have long joked that we already live within a digital, mathematical Matrix like construct, and here we are. No paper cash. Drive through a 15 minute city? Here’s your digital fine. To be paid digitally. To a computer.
No human beings needed.
So the headline news is that ChatGPT can write an essay on 18th Century France or a review of the latest blockbuster at the cinema or the merits of visiting the oh so beautiful and oh so enchanting Ironbridge. Some people are excited apparently. They’re going to beat the system! Who needs to research for weeks or months on end to complete that University essay. Just leave it to ChatGPT. Hooray!
But I bet you all the money in your bank account that these chatbots and AI artificial intelligence will never be able to capture the raw emotions of researching what life was really like throughout the varying villages, customs and social strata's and stigmas or the revolutionary air sweeping through 18th Century France. Nor will they ever be able to taste the excitement of seeing that newly released film you and I have been desperate to see or the emotion of leaving a football ground after seeing the team you’ve supported all of your life win the game’s most prestigious trophy.
And I guarantee you that with all the algorithms and computer architecture and infrastructure created, these hideous, dystopian ANTI-HUMAN machines will never be able to capture the magnificence and beauty, the awe and the aura, the sheer breath taking experience it is to see the world’s first iron bridge for the first time or any of the multitude of other world famous sites scattered around this earth that us mere human beings inhabit.
Have you noticed how everything is so anti-human now?
You and I are not needed my friends.
And I’d be very worried if I were you.
Thanks for reading. For far less serious fare, here are three recent articles written and published by a human being:
“John Wick” — Chapter 3 (2019)
“I have served. I will be of service”.medium.com
April Fools Day Massacre
Manchester City 4 Liverpool 1, 1st April 2023.medium.com
Quando la luce splenderá!
Birthday wishes for a grand old lady.medium.com