I had a weird job the other day - basically, a client hired me to edit an article that AI had written for him so that it would sound like AI hadn't written it. Which baffled me tremendously, since my understanding of my own job some one/two years ago already was, AI's taking over this bit of copywriting land, so I better fuck off. Which was largely true. There's an overwhelming amount of AI content on the Internet already, which is insane, but there it is. But now, I'm no longer paid for the original write-up, you have AI, and then you pay me to rewrite what AI wrote already. Seems convoluted and absurd to me.
It's definitely not advantageous for writers, because under the guise of "editing services", it's seen as less work on my part, so I'm expected to charge less. Which doesn't make sense since you're basically using AI to tell me in more words what you would've previously filled out as necessary info before sending the order.
It's also dicey because a lot of people ordering copywriting expect a certain marketing-y voice, which AI was fed and now copies. So that now, if you pass a 100% authentic but salesy piece through AI detectors, they start beeping, because AI sounds like you and you sound like yourself, so everyone gets confused.
Still, knowledgeable AI-y people tell me it's not gonna be long until AI manages to override this and starts sounding more authentic, although there is the problem that real-sounding AI is based on human voice. In order for AI to sound like you, you have to sound like something first, and not everyone does. Unfortunately (for them).
So where does that leave us?
In a way, it's exciting because already, you're seeing a pushback, in the sense that people are willing to pay money to not sound generic, to sound human. This is excellent news for those of us who sound like something. I'm quite confident in my written voice, so I suspect this may work out in my favour, at least in the immediate future.
But what about the voiceless?
While I'm somewhat ambivalent about my own future (I'd long made my piece with no longer being able to earn what I earned once as a copywriter, so this is all just aftermath), I do worry about the Internet becoming submerged in this ocean of sameness, you know?
We've somehow somewhere decided on the topics that are worth automating (and it seems to be an ever-growing list, as we seek to automate more and more when not everything needs it). We decided some niches and areas of commerce, life and communication don't need a human voice. That they can be communicated in a robot's voice. Except what sense does that make, and if humans don't need voice to communicate to one another, will we eventually forget it?
You lose the areas of the brain you don't exercise. Other parts wash in much more rapidly than most of us suspect. This is often why people who become somehow disabled gain or improve other skills. The brain is loose on border control, and once a part is no longer regularly populated, the neighboring parts wash in incredibly fast.
If I stop thinking because AI solves my problems for me...
If I stop communicating because AI knows how to communicate better...
Then who's to say I'm not waving goodbye to these skills? Obviously not in a day. Not in a year. But we are seeing ourselves become lazier in real time, as the Internet has come in and allowed us to let go of a vast range of problems we once had to solve. So much in our existence is now, in a way, automated already, and now we're bidding to do more and more.
I often agree with the argument that AI is an enhancement and as it is now, it's a tremendous tool for me. But I do think we're underestimating, most of us. We tend to think we're smarter than we are, that we can remain the masters always, but to me, that's doubtful.
Coming back to writing copy, say ten years from now all the marketing and communication between business and client is AI. All the communication between colleagues is AI-assisted. Our interactions with one another increasingly aided by technology. Our experiences in shopping centers and dentist's offices alike (because let's not kid ourselves, AI doctors, lawyers, fitness instructors and any of these random interactions you might have in your life are only a matter of time).
Will our future be walking past each other without saying anything, because we've delegated the need, and now have forgotten how? Obviously ten years is too soon. But what of fifty? Far enough, yet still within my lifetime.
Perhaps it's my dystopic imagination, but I think if we don't value human voice as it ought to be valued, we risk losing it. At the same time, some undoubtedly will. Fancy companies or services will include humans, and it will be very elitist. Perhaps the humans deemed to have things worth saying will still be allowed to speak.
But what of everybody else?
To quote Edward Snowden,
I don't want to live in a society that does these sorts of things.
