Week 8’s readings were predominantly about generative AI tools.
I do think AI applications are powerful tools and are already in the public light as such, but often, I find that it’s difficult to find definitive stances about the social implications of AI. In the context of my blog, there’s something that AI-generated content makes me wonder: If all the content on my blog was written by an AI tool, what kind of differences would it make in the audiences that I would attract?
This is especially curious to me in the sense that I do think blogs, beyond creating a public, create or contribute to communities of audiences, big or small. In my context, my imagined audience are just my friends and people who know me in real life, but I do think my content can expand to people who want unusual things to read.
One thing I do with my blogs posts is that I try to keep them central to my identity by blending my personal experiences and thoughts into my content. I really do believe this is the most manageable way I can differentiate myself from other blogs. By doing so, I like to imagine that my blog would attract an audience that are similar to me in character, or at least have things in common with myself. Essentially – people who would resonate with my thoughts and experiences.
This is where I begin to wonder about the type of audience that AI-based blogs would attract. It’s been established that generative AI pulls from several sources of data – but in that case, it sounds like there is a lack of a central identity in the artwork and written content it would generate. If I, the writer behind happyvibes.space, get replaced by AI, what type of crowd would it start to attract? What type of similarities would the audience members of this crowd have?
AI is definitely a useful tool. However, while this is just a personal, ungrounded belief of mine, I really do think that community is so important to humankind as we all yearn for some sort of sense of belonging. Content, such as artwork and blog posts, are one avenue for us to mobilize a community and find this sense of belonging. Yet, when human creators are being replaced by AI tools, which don’t necessarily share the experiences and emotions that allow humans to connect with each other, I feel like it’s going to be harder for us humans to find crowds that we belong with – by making generative AI more accessible, are we playing ourselves further into separating communities and thus driving loneliness, in an era where people have labelled loneliness is an epidemic? Or am I overthinking?