After reading the AI texts of both Dreher's and your styles, I'm officially unsettled. The much-discussed implications for student writing are catastrophic. Calls for academic testing labs with untethered word-processors will grow, as they should. Just as in the Mission Impossible finale, where everyone must go back to old tech, VHS tapes, analog communication, etc., we will have a choice whether to intentionally retain our human capacity to learn, think and write for ourselves or submit to the rising tide of algorithms and abolish ourselves.
I would have been fooled by the Grok imitation. The nuances in the style that point to Grok would only be noticed by the real writer unless a reader is really into the details of a specific writer. But the bigger issue is trust. If I subscribe to a publication, then I will automatically assume what I am reading was written by the specific writer, not Grok. Some writers will disclose AI assistance, others will not. And at some point we will ask, “What does it matter?”
Perhaps, twenty or thirty years down the road, our grandchildren will not read our writing. They will simply ask AI, what would Grandpa have thought about this subject? What would Grandpa have done? And if Grandpa uploaded enough of his writing and included photos and video, then AI could provide a simulation of Grandpa for the children to talk to and to be taught from.
This will all be happening! And it will bring into question what it means to be human. It says in Scripture that Jesus grew in wisdom and stature. It says in Genesis that God created the lights of heaven to provide seasons. The marking of the passage of time is part of creation. But what will this mean when AI keeps track of our lives from birth to death and AI time approaches immortality, or at least until the computer systems housing the AI mind is destroyed? Humans will become like pets. If we live a normal lifespan, we could have many dogs that live with us and pass away. But we remember them. The same will happen with AI. It will remember multiple human lives over centuries if not millennia. And that brings up a whole other set of issues regarding forgiveness and redemption, beyond the scope of this post, for sure.
Nevertheless, not only can Grok fool most people into believing something was written by the real writer, but it will get better and better at fooling us. At that point the really big question will be WWJD? AI will not only answer, but give us rational answers that will persuade many that AI is a god.
And with that, I hope I am still able to recognize what is real and unreal!
After reading the AI texts of both Dreher's and your styles, I'm officially unsettled. The much-discussed implications for student writing are catastrophic. Calls for academic testing labs with untethered word-processors will grow, as they should. Just as in the Mission Impossible finale, where everyone must go back to old tech, VHS tapes, analog communication, etc., we will have a choice whether to intentionally retain our human capacity to learn, think and write for ourselves or submit to the rising tide of algorithms and abolish ourselves.
I would have been fooled by the Grok imitation. The nuances in the style that point to Grok would only be noticed by the real writer unless a reader is really into the details of a specific writer. But the bigger issue is trust. If I subscribe to a publication, then I will automatically assume what I am reading was written by the specific writer, not Grok. Some writers will disclose AI assistance, others will not. And at some point we will ask, “What does it matter?”
Perhaps, twenty or thirty years down the road, our grandchildren will not read our writing. They will simply ask AI, what would Grandpa have thought about this subject? What would Grandpa have done? And if Grandpa uploaded enough of his writing and included photos and video, then AI could provide a simulation of Grandpa for the children to talk to and to be taught from.
This will all be happening! And it will bring into question what it means to be human. It says in Scripture that Jesus grew in wisdom and stature. It says in Genesis that God created the lights of heaven to provide seasons. The marking of the passage of time is part of creation. But what will this mean when AI keeps track of our lives from birth to death and AI time approaches immortality, or at least until the computer systems housing the AI mind is destroyed? Humans will become like pets. If we live a normal lifespan, we could have many dogs that live with us and pass away. But we remember them. The same will happen with AI. It will remember multiple human lives over centuries if not millennia. And that brings up a whole other set of issues regarding forgiveness and redemption, beyond the scope of this post, for sure.
Nevertheless, not only can Grok fool most people into believing something was written by the real writer, but it will get better and better at fooling us. At that point the really big question will be WWJD? AI will not only answer, but give us rational answers that will persuade many that AI is a god.
And with that, I hope I am still able to recognize what is real and unreal!
Oh my. I had not thought of AI grandparents. And parents. And …..