Generative artificial intelligence is a colossal genie blasting out of its bottle as we speak. A key player in the crowded field is named Altman. Get it? Altman —> Alt + Man —> Alternative Man. I made the name up to make a point. Or did I?

A.I. has made it where we can’t know now, and in future even less, whether an utterance or an image comes from a human or from a machine. What could go wrong with such technology? Bad actors, of course. They will make sure it’s misused — there’s no new evil under the sun, nothing human is alien to me, etc. — all the platitudes are germane.

But the scourge of malign A.I. poses opportunities for humans who are still trying to have their own thoughts and speak their own words. They lie in fostering creativity that’s distinctly human. For example, cure cancer and fix famine. Solve war. Clean the oceans. Fall in love and make stupid mistakes. Write flawed poems. Learn something “useless” like algebra or Latin that will comfort you a lifetime later. In other words, have a life.

(Cade Metz and Karen Weise, “Microsoft Bets Big on the Creator of ChatGPT in Race to Dominate A.I.,” New York Times, 1-12-23)

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