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{
"updated": "2024-12-20T18:14:59Z",
"sourceContent": "Lately I've been thinking of the much-hyped generative AI products of the last 2 years as anti-technology. \n\nThat may sound odd, since these are clearly technological artifacts in the way we've come to understand technology, and they're being produced by what's commonly called the tech sector. However, there are at least two ways in which these artifacts differ markedly from what we usually (used to?) think of as \"technology\":\n\n(1) They tend to have a deskilling effect. The English word \"technology\" ultimately derives from the Greek word \"tekhnē\", which can be interpreted as meaning skill or craft. It's very much about a human being's ability to perform a task. Yet much of generative AI is aimed at *removing* human beings from a task, or *minimizing* our involvement. In that sense generative AI is very much anti-tekhnē \n\n(2) They tend to lie squarely in what Albert Borgmann called \"the device paradigm\". L.M. Sacasas has several nice takes on Borgmann's distinction between *devices* and *focal things*. See https://theconvivialsociety.substack.com/p/why-an-easier-life-is-not-necessarily and also https://theconvivialsociety.substack.com/p/the-stuff-of-a-well-lived-life (and of course, read Borgmann himself!). Simply put, *devices* tend to hide their inner workings under a simplified \"interface\"; a device is a device “if it has been rendered instantaneous, ubiquitous, safe, and easy”, if it hides the means in favor of the ends. By contrast, *focal objects* tend to invite you into fully experiencing the *focal practices* they enable, to experience the means *and* the ends. In particular, they tend not to be easy: you have to engage with and learn to use them. Guitars are an interesting example of focal objects. To be (I hope not overly) simplistic, devices dumb you down while focal objects train you up. Devices are anti-tekhnē, and to the extent that current generative AI is created and deployed in the device paradigm, it is too.\n\nNone of this means generative AI has to be anti-tekhnē. I do admit though that I struggle to see how to make it less device-y, at least as it's currently made and used (I do have a few half-formed thoughts along these lines but nothing worth sharing).\n\n#tech #dev #GPT #Gemini #Claude #LLaMa #LLM #Copilot #Midjourney #DallE #StableDiffusion #AI #GenAI #GenerativeAI \n",
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"url": "https://buc.ci/abucci/p/1734716976.032603",
"context": "https://buc.ci/abucci/p/1734716976.032603#ctxt",
"content": "Lately I've been thinking of the much-hyped generative AI products of the last 2 years as anti-technology.<br><br>That may sound odd, since these are clearly technological artifacts in the way we've come to understand technology, and they're being produced by what's commonly called the tech sector. However, there are at least two ways in which these artifacts differ markedly from what we usually (used to?) think of as \"technology\":<br><br>(1) They tend to have a deskilling effect. The English word \"technology\" ultimately derives from the Greek word \"tekhnē\", which can be interpreted as meaning skill or craft. It's very much about a human being's ability to perform a task. Yet much of generative AI is aimed at <i>removing</i> human beings from a task, or <i>minimizing</i> our involvement. In that sense generative AI is very much anti-tekhnē<br><br>(2) They tend to lie squarely in what Albert Borgmann called \"the device paradigm\". L.M. Sacasas has several nice takes on Borgmann's distinction between <i>devices</i> and <i>focal things</i>. See <a href=\"https://theconvivialsociety.substack.com/p/why-an-easier-life-is-not-necessarily\" target=\"_blank\">https://theconvivialsociety.substack.com/p/why-an-easier-life-is-not-necessarily</a> and also <a href=\"https://theconvivialsociety.substack.com/p/the-stuff-of-a-well-lived-life\" target=\"_blank\">https://theconvivialsociety.substack.com/p/the-stuff-of-a-well-lived-life</a> (and of course, read Borgmann himself!). Simply put, <i>devices</i> tend to hide their inner workings under a simplified \"interface\"; a device is a device “if it has been rendered instantaneous, ubiquitous, safe, and easy”, if it hides the means in favor of the ends. By contrast, <i>focal objects</i> tend to invite you into fully experiencing the <i>focal practices</i> they enable, to experience the means <i>and</i> the ends. In particular, they tend not to be easy: you have to engage with and learn to use them. Guitars are an interesting example of focal objects. To be (I hope not overly) simplistic, devices dumb you down while focal objects train you up. Devices are anti-tekhnē, and to the extent that current generative AI is created and deployed in the device paradigm, it is too.<br><br>None of this means generative AI has to be anti-tekhnē. I do admit though that I struggle to see how to make it less device-y, at least as it's currently made and used (I do have a few half-formed thoughts along these lines but nothing worth sharing).<br><br><a href=\"https://buc.ci?t=tech\" class=\"mention hashtag\" rel=\"tag\">#tech</a> <a href=\"https://buc.ci?t=dev\" class=\"mention hashtag\" rel=\"tag\">#dev</a> <a href=\"https://buc.ci?t=gpt\" class=\"mention hashtag\" rel=\"tag\">#GPT</a> <a href=\"https://buc.ci?t=gemini\" class=\"mention hashtag\" rel=\"tag\">#Gemini</a> <a href=\"https://buc.ci?t=claude\" class=\"mention hashtag\" rel=\"tag\">#Claude</a> <a href=\"https://buc.ci?t=llama\" class=\"mention hashtag\" rel=\"tag\">#LLaMa</a> <a href=\"https://buc.ci?t=llm\" class=\"mention hashtag\" rel=\"tag\">#LLM</a> <a href=\"https://buc.ci?t=copilot\" class=\"mention hashtag\" rel=\"tag\">#Copilot</a> <a href=\"https://buc.ci?t=midjourney\" class=\"mention hashtag\" rel=\"tag\">#Midjourney</a> <a href=\"https://buc.ci?t=dalle\" class=\"mention hashtag\" rel=\"tag\">#DallE</a> <a href=\"https://buc.ci?t=stablediffusion\" class=\"mention hashtag\" rel=\"tag\">#StableDiffusion</a> <a href=\"https://buc.ci?t=ai\" class=\"mention hashtag\" rel=\"tag\">#AI</a> <a href=\"https://buc.ci?t=genai\" class=\"mention hashtag\" rel=\"tag\">#GenAI</a> <a href=\"https://buc.ci?t=generativeai\" class=\"mention hashtag\" rel=\"tag\">#GenerativeAI</a><br><br>",
"summary": "",
"attributedTo": "https://buc.ci/abucci",
"published": "2024-12-20T17:49:36Z",
"id": "https://buc.ci/abucci/p/1734716976.032603",
"type": "Note",
"@context": "https://www.w3.org/ns/activitystreams"
}