AI-Natives, Colonialization and Manifest Destiny
swyx
Just a wrapper:
- Guillermo Rauch made a refined point about ChatGPT. I call it “refined” because it manages to make a point without aligning with either camp of the latest AI hype cycle.
- {% twitter https://twitter.com/rauchg/status/1621204449959231493 %}
- One of the replies to his tweet led to a great article. David vs Goliath AI Version. I call it “great” because it confirms my beliefs about AI. In fact, I’ll tread into deeper waters.
- AI* is like a merchant marine. It’s that sort of invention.
- Technically, any medieval peasant could’ve figured out how to make a boat and steer it out to sea. But if you want that boat to come back with treasure, you’ve got to have the resources to match. You can’t make a navy and then build a kingdom, the kingdom comes first.
- AI* is like fascism in the 1930s. Fascism blossomed in nations that shared certain criteria: a demographic that is used to monarch-driven governance (aka waterfall), enough infrastructure for newspapers and radio, a critical mass of people in need, and a critical proximity of neighbors that couldn’t be trusted.
- more on this ill-formed argument in a bit.
- *: this type of AI, specifically ChatGPT