I was so busy thinking about how a recession might cause the widespread adoption of AI that I totally missed a scenario whereby a Hollywood writers’ strike was the thing that caused it to happen.
The Robots of Hollywood.
So, the thinking goes, should there be a major, long-term Hollywood writers’ strike, the studios might, out of desperation, begin to experiment with AI-generated TV and movie scripts. This sounds pretty dystopian and hysterical, but it’s exactly a shock to the system like a strike that might cause the adoption of AI to write scripts.
And, remember, the issue is — new technology just has to be good enough. It doesn’t have to be perfect, just good enough.
It will be curious to see how things work out. It could be that AI just isn’t developed enough for my fears to become a reality. And, yet, I suspect if a writers’ strike lasts long enough that someone, somewhere is going to at least try to see if they can avoid using human writers altogether.
It has occured to me I am looking forward to a future where all media is design and personalized for us all on a individual basis. I struggle — and I mean STRUGGLE — to watch ANYTHING on Netflix. I just can’t find anything at all that interests me that I haven’t already seen.
I think, of course, that some of that comes from how difficult is for me to consume media as opposed to produce it. I find myself producing a great deal of writing every day — not that any of it is usable relative to my personal expectations.
Anyway.
It would be nice sit down in front of a TV, have the set scan my face to figure out what my exact mood at that very moment is and then sit down to watch a two hour movie with Tina Fey and Alec Baldwin in it, or whomever. I would have access to thousands of actor’s body scans that my digital personal assistant could use to pump out very specific entertainment that I might actually watch.
But that’s probably a decade or so from now. We’re going to have to wade through a civil war / WW3 before we get cool stuff like that. Hopefully, we won’t bomb ourselves into oblivion to the point that we never get to enjoy such “cool stuff” once the Fourth Turning / Great Reset is over
The whole TV world is obsessed with the battle over streaming. I think that not only is the whole streaming economy based on a lie, but it’s not long for this earth — it’s going to be soon replaced by the chatbot revolution.
Soon, instead of paying $15 a month for all this streaming content, you’re going to pay the same amount for access to the full body scans of your favorite stars that a chatbot will use to spit out very, very specific content.
I have no idea when this transition will happen, but it is going to happen. I suspect that at some point within the next decade. It may be delayed, of course, if we have a fucking civil war in late 2024, early 2025. But I seriously doubt that is going to happen.
What is more likely to happen is America will just drift peacefully into autocracy and, as such, the transition from streaming to AI generated TV and movies will happen a lot quicker than it might happen otherwise.
For once in my otherwise dissipated life, I actually called it — the mainstream media has caught wind of something I have long believed: we’re on the cusp of a looming battle over “chatbot bias.”
This is a prime example of how you can be right and nothing will come of it. Or, put another way, let me illustrate in concrete terms a more general idea. I once heard that the man who coined the term “blog” was now a homeless person in some major European city. So, just because you might have your own Wikipedia entry, in real terms it doesn’t mean shit.
The power elite who are “normal” and who have lived “normal” lives won’t even blink an eye if a freaky weirdo such as myself gets something “right.” Which, of course, makes me wonder about my dreams of being a published author.
Is it possible that, by definition, I can never be traditionally published because I’ve simply lived in oblivion too long? It’s meta issues like this that really trouble me whenever I start to game out moving from the writing phrase of working on my first novel on to the Beta Reader process and, ultimately, querying.
I’m growing concerned that I could write the fucking Bible and just because of my status as a drunk crank I won’t get published. This really, really worries me. But I am, as the late Annie Shapiro said, a “delusional jerk with a good heart” so, lulz, let’s rock n roll.
It remains an open question if we face a “perfect storm” of a Petite Singularity happening at the same time as the United States faces the existential choice of autocracy, civil war or military junta in late 2024, early 2025. But regardless if that happens or not, there is chance that at some point in the near future something akin to a neo-Luddite movement may arise in the Western World. It could be everything from demands for “carve outs” that would exclude AI from certain jobs all the way to outlawing AGI altogether.
It will all start with, of course, a huge amount of anger over perceived “chatbot bias.” All signs point towards that particular political situation happening a lot sooner than you might think. The MAGA outrage machine is always on the lookout for something new to be angry about and the idea that ChatGPT doesn’t spit out an answer to “What is a woman” that doesn’t agree with MAGA talking points is just too juicy not for a huge outcry to happen.
It’s just a matter of when, specifically, that particular event is going to happen. At the moment, I suspect is could be at some point during the Republican primary. If there is a townhall event and some rando stands up and starts to rant about how ChatGPT won’t “write a poem praising Donald Trump” then, lulz, away we go.
I do think, however, that there is a real risk that the looming chatbot revolution is going to throw American politics for a loop, especially if, say, 3 million high paying blue collar transportation jobs go poof overnight because of AI and self-driving semis.
What is most likely to happen is a massive restructuring of the economy because of AI would happen in the context of a moderate to severe recession. Or, more ominously, the moderate-to-severe recession would happen BECAUSE of the AI revolution. If it happen too fast, our political system simply won’t be able to process it and we could see the very rapid rise of a neo-Luddite movement, probably happening within the ranks of the already existing MAGA.
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