When I first saw Google's latest businessI asked myself, “Is it just me or is that this bad one way or the other?” By the fourth or fifth time I saw it, I had stopped wondering.
It starts quite harmlessly, with a father talking about how much his daughter Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone (She “might even be the largest Sydney fan on this planet.”) Apparently she wants to jot down a fan letter to the Olympic champion and wishes her father's help – and that's where things take a turn.
Yes, this can be a business for Google's AI Gemini, so the dad tells Gemini: “Help my daughter write a letter telling Sydney how inspiring she is, and you should definitely mention that my daughter plans to interrupt her world record in the future. (She says “sorry,” not “excuse me”).”
Now, should you squint, you’ll be able to see how this suits into the general concept of generative AI – it might be a writing coach or assistant, especially for somebody who finds writing difficult or intimidating. And what might be more intimidating than writing a letter to your favorite athlete?
But there are few things that convey real inspiration higher than telling an AI how inspiring it’s. Of course, Gemini only creates a primary draft that the daddy and daughter will (hopefully?) personalize. But if this were to occur in point of fact, Sydney would just find yourself with an enormous stack of nearly equivalent letters.
Novelist and host of the Pop Culture Happy Hour podcast Linda Holmes put it much more emphatically: Write“Of course there are special circumstances and folks who need assistance, but as a general 'look how cool, she didn't even have to jot down anything herself!' story it SUCKS. Who wants a fan letter written by an AI??”
In addition, when Holmes noticed“A fan letter is an excellent way for a toddler to learn to jot down! If you encourage children to run to the AI to spit out words because their writing isn't that good yet, how are they presupposed to learn?”
I agree. Unfortunately, I'll never be an Olympic athlete, but consider it or not, there are (extremely) rare occasions when even tech bloggers receive flattering messages. And I'd somewhat receive a brief email written by a human that just says “YOU ARE AWESOME!!” than a lengthy standard letter written by an AI.
None of this comes near Apple combining all of humanity's achievements into one iPad, but it surely does suggest that there are specific challenges in presenting AI as something useful for unusual people.
