Here is an AI data point. I am researching buying a generator for camping. I camp anywhere from sea level to 10,000'. Generators suffer from a condition known as derating whereby they lose about 3% of their power for every 1000' above 1000' plus incurring some safety and fuel efficiency effects. This is caused by the lack of air at higher elevation and consequent problems with the fuel air mix. You can partially get around some of this by putting different jets in the carburetor. All this was easy to figure out but when I tried to figure what happens when you come back to sea level with the high altitude jets, I hit a wall, so I asked AI. The answer I got seemed reverse of the logic I expected about the fuel air mix. When I challenged the answer, it reversed itself and said I was correct. So did it do further research to reach the revised answer or was it telling me what it thought I wanted to hear. Who knows? (If anyone cares about the generator question, the answer is possible generator damage running a high altitude modified unit at sea level.)
First, another well written piece. Second, remind me to never piss Oren off. My goodness, Tyler Cowen may well be convalescing in a far-away hidey-hole after that beat-down. I’m not a fan of his, find some of his writing intellectually weak and even annoying, but I felt badly for him after reading Oren’s dismantlement of the poor intellectual ninny. Ouch!
"This is not just someone who seems incapable of comprehending how culture works, this is someone who actively dislikes and devalues its very existence."
I don't see any contradiction with "how culture works" and using AI actors. All art is a lie. If you make a painting or take a photo of a landscape and hang it on a wall it's not a landscape, it's a flat object with paint or ink on it.
Maybe it's just me, but most Hollywood movies don't allow me to suspend disbelief, without or without AI. They don't move me to participate with them. They're like advertisements for products I don't want. So, from my perspective the culture either doesn't exist in the first place, or it's like an exotic far-off land, or it's just rather annoying background noise.
As a data point in understanding the damage done by AI to gen Z, I asked Chat Gpt5 what percentage of 20 to 30 year old use AI as a life coach, dating advisor, or creepily have a visual avatar dating companion. The estimate was a conservative 30%. These are the people with hundreds of Facebook friends but only 3 real ones. They live in an artificial digital world and are rapidly loosing the ability to function in a real one. Sad.
Golly, we've come so far since Sam, in the midst of his manly struggle with Elon, stood behind Don (the founder of the "new" right) in the Roosevelt Room of the WH announcing Stargate as the "largest A.I. infrastructure project by far in history".
“We wouldn’t be able to do this without you, Mr. President,” Mr. Altman said in front of a gathering of reporters.
Just another day of Don, Oren, Sam, Elon, and the "new" right lookin out for the workin stiffs of the world:).
I continue to be thoroughly unimpressed with Tyler Cowen and I'm quite happy to be in the minority of people who seem unable to grasp his brilliance.
Thank you Oren
Here is an AI data point. I am researching buying a generator for camping. I camp anywhere from sea level to 10,000'. Generators suffer from a condition known as derating whereby they lose about 3% of their power for every 1000' above 1000' plus incurring some safety and fuel efficiency effects. This is caused by the lack of air at higher elevation and consequent problems with the fuel air mix. You can partially get around some of this by putting different jets in the carburetor. All this was easy to figure out but when I tried to figure what happens when you come back to sea level with the high altitude jets, I hit a wall, so I asked AI. The answer I got seemed reverse of the logic I expected about the fuel air mix. When I challenged the answer, it reversed itself and said I was correct. So did it do further research to reach the revised answer or was it telling me what it thought I wanted to hear. Who knows? (If anyone cares about the generator question, the answer is possible generator damage running a high altitude modified unit at sea level.)
First, another well written piece. Second, remind me to never piss Oren off. My goodness, Tyler Cowen may well be convalescing in a far-away hidey-hole after that beat-down. I’m not a fan of his, find some of his writing intellectually weak and even annoying, but I felt badly for him after reading Oren’s dismantlement of the poor intellectual ninny. Ouch!
"This is not just someone who seems incapable of comprehending how culture works, this is someone who actively dislikes and devalues its very existence."
I don't see any contradiction with "how culture works" and using AI actors. All art is a lie. If you make a painting or take a photo of a landscape and hang it on a wall it's not a landscape, it's a flat object with paint or ink on it.
Maybe it's just me, but most Hollywood movies don't allow me to suspend disbelief, without or without AI. They don't move me to participate with them. They're like advertisements for products I don't want. So, from my perspective the culture either doesn't exist in the first place, or it's like an exotic far-off land, or it's just rather annoying background noise.
As a data point in understanding the damage done by AI to gen Z, I asked Chat Gpt5 what percentage of 20 to 30 year old use AI as a life coach, dating advisor, or creepily have a visual avatar dating companion. The estimate was a conservative 30%. These are the people with hundreds of Facebook friends but only 3 real ones. They live in an artificial digital world and are rapidly loosing the ability to function in a real one. Sad.
Dick Minnis
removingthecataract.substack.com
Golly, we've come so far since Sam, in the midst of his manly struggle with Elon, stood behind Don (the founder of the "new" right) in the Roosevelt Room of the WH announcing Stargate as the "largest A.I. infrastructure project by far in history".
“We wouldn’t be able to do this without you, Mr. President,” Mr. Altman said in front of a gathering of reporters.
Just another day of Don, Oren, Sam, Elon, and the "new" right lookin out for the workin stiffs of the world:).