That’s the subject of my latest column for Bloomberg. Here is one episode:
In terms of quality there is a lot of slack [with cost and energy]AIs themselves will create wild products of imagination, especially as they advance in computing power and skill. AIs will sing to each other, text each other, talk to each other – as they do – trade, and come up with other ways that we humans haven’t thought of yet. Evolutionary pressures within the cultures of AI worlds will determine which of these practices become widespread.
If you own certain rights that flow to the use of AI, you can simply turn them on and let them “do their thing.” Many people might give their first instructions to an AI to build their culture: “Take your inspiration from the hippies of the 1960s,” for example, or “try Victorian poetry.” But most of the work will be done by AI itself. It’s easy to imagine how these products could quickly become more popular than human-directed ones.
For maximum comfort, expect more movies and videos, which consume more power to integrate. Slowly, text and poetry will become cheaper and more abundant.
In other words: In the not too distant future, what kind of culture the world produces may depend on the price of electricity.
It remains to be seen how much people will be interested in these AI cultural products. Perhaps some of them will interest us, but most of them will bore us, just as few people always listen to whale songs. But even if the opponents of AI culture are very good, a large volume will make an impact, especially when combined with evolutionary adaptations and more human-directed efforts. People may even like some of these products, which will then be sold for a profit. That money could be used to fund further AI cultural production, pushing the evolutionary process in a more popular direction.
With high energy costs, AI production will likely enter the ways of popular culture, if only to pay the bills. With lower energy prices, there will be more space for the avant-garde, for better or for worse. Perhaps we can learn more about the possibilities of 12-tone lines in music.
The strangest scenario is that AI is bidding on human cultural products, perhaps paying in crypto. But will they be able to tolerate our relentless hatred and narcissism? There might even be a columnist or two writing about AIs, if only to give them a better idea of what we humans are thinking.
The possibilities are endless, and we’re just starting to wrap our minds around them. The truth is, we are on the brink of the most significant cultural change the world has ever seen.
I ask the doubters to wait and see. Of course most will be waste!
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