Tag: Petite Singularity

Media Future Shock: The Rise of AI Agents

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I was listening to Puck’s podcast The Powers That Be today and they were talking about the personnel changes at The Daily Beast. The more I listened to what they were saying about this, the more I was struck by how outdated the very idea of a “website” may be in near future.

Just as Hollywood is about to be severely disrupted by AI software like Sora, so, too, will the media be disrupted by the rise of AI agents. I just don’t see how Websites survive as a viable media outlets when we all have a Her-like personal assistant that roams the Web for us.

What’s more these agents will know us so well that there’s a chance that they will be able to preemptively answer our questions before we ask them. And you’ll interact with these agents with your voice, which changes the whole dynamic of how you will interact with the outside world.

This leads to the question — where does this leave Websites?

I really struggle with this. I think — maybe? — that instead of Websites, we’ll have just a bunch of agents that talk to the individual agents of the million of users around the globe. Or something? Maybe the media will make money off of some sort of subscription regimen so you pay x amount of money so your AI agent can talk to the media website agent?

But the point remains — very soon the entire knowledge economy, media included, will be upended in a pretty dramatic fashion.

Watch Out For That Last Step: Pondering The Querying Process

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I am soon going to be finished with the third draft of my first novel. As such, because I want to go the traditional publishing route, I have to begin to take seriously the querying process.

Mood.

Now, the stressful thing about this is I have no idea what to do. I only vaguely know at this point about things like “Query Tracker” and the fact that I have to write a query letter. I have been knee deep in active delusion for all the years it has taken me to write this novel and now, suddenly, the cold, dark waters of reality are beginning to rush in.

At the moment, I would like to hand over the finished third draft to an editor of some sort. It may take me months to save up the money to get someone to edit the novel. Yet that’s just the beginning.

I think I’m going to have to be really careful about this element of the querying process because I’ve already managed to screw up once. I alienated one prospective editor because I think that not only did she think I was freaky weirdo after reading this blog, but she thought I was going to be too emotionally needy.

So I need to give the idea of what I say to any prospective editor some thought. And I have to accept that there is a good chance that any editor worth their salt is going to search for me online and look at this blog and be aghast at what a freaky weirdo I am. And that doesn’t even begin to address what they might think of my Twitter feed.

This very real prospect rattles my cage a great deal. I’m not getting any younger and I would prefer to be a published author before I reach 60. Just my age itself is problematic — not to mention that I really haven’t done shit with my life in a long time. AND I’m bonkers.

And, yet, the only consolation I have is that while there’s life there’s hope. I do have to manage my expectations, though — any success with a spec novel is like winning the literary lottery.

So it’s possible that I could stick the landing and STILL either not find an agent or being in limbo for years. And that doesn’t even address the fact that late 2024, early 2025 could be some of the most momentous months in modern American history.

I don’t know what to tell you. I write because I have to, not because I want to. So I suppose I continue to be delusional, even as the looming transition into the querying process demands I be a lot more honest with myself about my prospects.

What The Fuck Are We Going To Do About AI-Generated Celebrity Porn?

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I continue to grow ever more alarmed by the increase in AI-generated celebrity photos. I know there was something of a kerfuffle recently over some silly bad Taylor Swift “porn” that appeared on Twitter, but that’s nowhere near what we should be worried about going forward.

At the moment, AI-generated celebrity images are rather banal and easy to spot. What I see on my social media feed a lot these days is such imagines which usually only vaguely look like whatever celebrity they’re supposed to represent. An example of a picture that is supposed to be Margot Robbie is shown below.

An AI-generated photo of Margot Robbie.

The photo above at least attempts to replicate what Robbie actually looks like. Usually one of the big mistakes of AI-generated celebrity photos is they are clearly done in a way to show what men WISH the woman in question looked like. They’re usually a bit more curvy and symmetrical than the real deal which makes it easy to spot as a fake.

My concern is what happens in a few years (months?) when we get passed the “uncanny valley” and photorealistic images of celebrities come common place. I know because of the silliness involving Tay-Tay that there has been a move to pass some legislation, but the wheels of government move very, very slow compared to AI developments.

Add to this how many “unaligned” people want the right do do whatever the fuck they want with AI and it definitely seems as though we’re careening towards a very, very dark and rather surreal future. We really need to start to work on developing watermark technology that will allow the audience to distinguish between AI-Generated photos and the real thing.

While we’re on the subject of such things, another development I’ve noticed on the AI image front is women using AI filters on their faces while leaving the rest of their body unaltered. See below:


I find this rather surreal. But this is definitely a development to keep an eye on. It seems very possible that there may come a time when AI-filters are so good that the causal viewer won’t be able to discern that a phot has been altered. This could lead to some rather surreal developments on dating apps.

Of AI & Music

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Things are moving rapidly when it comes to AI-generated music. There are now at least two services — Suno and Udio — that allow you to write a prompt that generates songs with lyrics.

It definitely seems as though we may be about to enter A New Age when it comes to pop music when such music, if it hits the zeitgeist just right, may become as popular as human-generated music.

And that doesn’t even begin to address the issue of the possibility that the estates of long-dead artists might license their audio “likeness” to AI companies so a zillian songs-in-the-style of The Rolling Stones, or The Beatles or whomever could be generated on the fly in an ad hoc way by millions of people around the globe.

This is obviously a ping from a future where AI takes over all forms of art. Most art will be AI generated to the point that it crowds out human-generated art. And I still think that it is inevitable that consumers will come to value human-generated art over AI-generated art, no matter the quality.

This would be a similar situation to what happens in the movie Blade Runner where the ownership of “real” animals is a big deal. As such, I could see live experiences ranging from live theatre to sports to music concerts all seeing a real uptick in their cultural value.

We may see a day soon where young would-be starlets go to Broadway instead of Hollywood to find fame and fortune because, lulz, Hollywood will just be a bunch of 1s and 0s.

I can’t predict the future, though, I don’t know for sure any such thing will happen. But it’s definitely a possibility.

Future Shock: ‘Learn To Code’

By Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

It definitely seems as though this year is going potentially be one of the most consequential years in modern American history. A number of trends are coming together at the same time — late 2024, early 2025 — to the point that we may be experiencing a perfect storm of a technological Petite Singularity while also experiencing a political Fourth Turning.

If ChatGPT 5.0 comes out and it’s as powerful as we all hope it might be, it could almost immediately begin cause ripple effects through the knowledge economy to the point that our current blazing economic situation may begin to falter…just as we’re entering the 2024 election silly season.

And that doesn’t even begin to address all the bonkers disinformation uses bad actors might find for ChatGPT 5 while we’re holding our breath to see if American democracy will last another four years.

Ironically, it seems possible that one of the first high paying white collar jobs to vanish may be…programming. I think if we are suddenly jolted into the future by AI taking over programming we are going to hear A LOT of squealing that there need to be carveouts for humans so a certain percentage of jobs is done by humans.

Only time will tell, I suppose.

‘R.I.P. Hollywood’

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Because of pure human greed, I do believe that there is a real risk that Hollywood as we know it may be about to be totally disrupted by generative AI. A lot of people seem blinded to the potential capability of generative AI while at the same time being so blinded by their love of human Hollywood that they miss how severe the disruption is about to be.

I can’t predict the future, so I don’t know for sure, but I do think that at some point in the future the very idea of a “movie” will change to the point that rather than one version of a movie that everyone watches, there may be millions of slightly different movies generated by AI.

Throw in the rise of VR and there’s a chance that we’ll all “play” our movies like video games in immersive environments.

I continue to believe that the key issue is how fast all of this is going to happen. It could boil down to just one severe recession. And I think there will be a lot of calls for carve outs to protect human jobs.

What’s more, in the end, the live experience will gain a huge amount of cultural value to the point that there will be a huge surge of interest in sports, live theatre and music concerts. There is even a chance that instead of going to Hollywood, young starlets will try to make it big on Broadway.

The First AI Generated Movie Might Be…A Historical Drama?

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Given the generative nature of AI these days, it would make a lot of sense if the first AI generated movie was a historical drama. All you would have to do is feed a bunch of photos from the 1860s into the AI and ta-da, you could bring those photos to life in the context of a movie.

At least, that’s what I would do.

I could totally see such an AI-generated drama being the Toy Story of the post-human Hollywood age. And the more modern the timeframe you wanted to depict, the more accurate you could make your movie.

I continue to believe that anyone who doesn’t think Hollywood is about to be disrupted in a severe, significant manner is a fool. It definitely seems as though it’s just a matter of time at the moment. The Toy Story of generative AI is going to come out soon enough and change everything.

Remember, I believe that soon enough the whole notion of movies will change because we will each get a personalized version of a movie generated by an our personal digital assistant who knows our every quirk really, really well.

Chappell Roan Should Be The Breakout Pop Star Of 2024

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

If there is any justice in this world, Chappell Roan will be the biggest pop music star of 2024. As an old man, her music reminds the pop music I heard on the radio in the mid 1980s.

Chappell Roan

When I’m in a good mood, I like to think that maybe her potential popularity may be part of a broader cultural vibe shift. There are a number of other acts like IDLES, The Last Dinner Party and So Good who are bubbling up that seem to indicate that tastes may be changing.

It’s possible.

Of course, all of this is happening in the context of the rise of AI, Apple Vision Pro and the possibility of a fucking political “Fourth Turning” in late 2024, early 2025 and it definitely seems as though we may wake up at some point in 2025 to a New Era.

As I’ve said before, one of the biggest differences between South Korea and the United States is things change every day in South Korea, but take years and years to in the States. And I think late 2024, early 2025 could see us all lurch into a new, unknown world.

The forces for that kind of stuff to happen are definitely building. And the potential of Chappell Roan to blow up with traditional pop music may be a sign that such things may happen.

Mulling ‘Hume AI’

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I’ve played with Hume AI some and it’s pretty cool. I like how it allows you to natively interact with the AI using voice commands. It’s not perfect — the synching in the conversation can be a bit unnatural at times — but, in general, it gives us a glimpse of a “Her” movie type future.

Now, obviously, all the other AIs out there will co-opt this feature soon enough. But it is fun to talk out a problem — especially problems I may have with my novel — with someone who at least is programmed to care.

I do think that things like Hume AI give us a glimpse into the near, near future. It definitely seems as though something between the 1987 Apple Knowledge Navigator and Same in “Her’ is going to be popularized in months, rather than years.

We just aren’t prepared for the implications of such technological advancements. It doesn’t take a lot of imagination to see a future whereby the entire knowledge economy — especially the arts — is totally and completely disrupted to a surreal extent.

Things could be so disrupted that the far Left and the far Right may fused into some sort of modern day Luddite movement. A lot will depend on, of course, what happens with the 2024 election. Just a back-of-the-envelope estimation can tell you that the 2024 election could be the most important election in American history since the Civil War.

Anyway. Hume AI definitely points us to a future where we no longer passively use browsers to interact with the Web, but rather talk to AI personal assistants who know us so well that they can our questions even before we ask them.

Video: Mulling The Petite Singularity