We Are Impressed By AI's Fluent BS Because Everything Is Fluent BS

This story from WIRED definitely captured my attention for feeling immediately true. If you’re like me, you’ve spent time reading posts from various people who have tried the ChatGPT tool for the first time, shared their results online and been impressed at what AI spit back at them in a matter of seconds. The newfound ubiquity is leading to more than a little hand wringing from people who are worried it will change “everything.” Apparently, the college essay is already dead thanks to AI. Some people are even wondering if AI can write poetry now.

So it’s a timely theory to suggest the reason we’re so enchanted and panicked about generative AI is because it is giving us back exactly what we’ve been giving each other: fluent BS. As the article says, “the AI chatbot was trained on text created by humans. Of course its writing is superficially impressive and lacking in substance.” If, for example, the AI is used to create a Hollywood screenplay based on being fed the template, we shouldn’t be surprised if we get back a predictable and formulaic concept. Yet I personally think the fear that this technology will replace writers is overblown.

Instead, I believe what is more likely to happen is that we’ll see a new form of “augmented creativity” emerge where creators can use AI to generate first drafts and concepts which would then be further refined. In this use case, it would be similar to how some people cut and paste content from past documents in order to build a new one. It’s definitely “cheating” in one sense, but it’s not nearly the same as pressing a button and having something complete that you can use as it is.