Most of you will know that I am an information science professional (an archivist). I have serious misgivings about large language models/generative AI entering our lives when I see many ethical questions we have not yet worked out. But enter our lives it has.
“I can’t stop checking my oven,” I said, naming a common symptom of obsessive-compulsive disorder. Broken Bear gasped. “Why is that so? Is there something in there?” Well, no, I explained, but maybe it had turned on somehow? “Oh dear, did you leave it on? Maybe you could check it. But do be careful.””
The Therapist in the Machine
Jess McAllen
CW: mentions of suicidal ideation and mental illnesses, compulsive behaviors
We’ve all seen AI reflect distortions in reality or give horrible advice, so why would we want it counseling those struggling with reality the most? Yes our mental health infrastructure is a mess but can AI save it? McAllen articulates why AI is bad at therapy instead of just remarking isn't it scary that this exists? AI therapy is no better than conventional therapy at addressing the needs of those with more severe mental illness.
“I can’t stop checking my oven,” I said, naming a common symptom of obsessive-compulsive disorder. Broken Bear gasped. ‘Why is that so? Is there something in there?” Well, no, I explained, but maybe it had turned on somehow? “Oh dear, did you leave it on? Maybe you could check it. But do be careful.’”
“Woebot, whose app promises “no couches, no meds, no childhood stuff,” has recently partnered with a payroll provider and health system to offer its AI therapy to employees who can’t access health benefits because they don’t work full time”
“she specializes in the most popular form of therapy, CBT, whose basis in aggressively logical problem-solving arguably makes it easier to automate than other modalities”
“Take Marvix AI, a program run by a Wharton alum that records therapy sessions and automatically generates notes, spitting back a diagnostic code, or, ideally, two or three”
“Rosebud and Heartfelt Services both claim that psychologists or therapists are referring their own patients to the app to supplement therapy. (None of the therapists I spoke to said they had done this.)”
Stephan tells me that one of the reasons she started Earkick was because of the way mental health affects workplace productivity.
“‘I don’t think anyone has reliable information about post-2021 language usage by humans,’”
Drowning in Slop: A thriving underground economy is clogging the internet with AI garbage — and it’s only going to get worse.
Max Read
I'm probably one of the last generations who will remember browsing the internet without having to constantly think” is this real?" I mean, of course there were staged videos of subway rats doing cool stuff or whatever but if I saw a baby on YouTube it was somebody's actual baby. No more. One can't even assume that every book of the summer a reputable newspaper includes on a list actually exists. I am genuinely concerned for our information systems. Not only do I not believe individual people will gain the skills they need to recognize slop anytime soon, but I am also concerned about slop’s entrenchment in even academic publishing, not to mention your actual physical Public Library branch. I do not buy books on Amazon after shopping for Kathleen Hanna’s memoir and seeing the results flooded by AI ripoffs (and for ethics, we love Bookshop.org) But yeah, we are slogging through slop constantly.
“Usually, it begins with the phrase ‘In the year 2250-something’ and then it goes on to say the Earth’s environment is in collapse and there are only three scientists who can save us. Then it describes them in great detail, each one with its own paragraph”
“‘I don’t think anyone has reliable information about post-2021 language usage by humans,’”
“There’s a Stephen (and often a “Jacob”) behind all of this slop: an actual person uploading, say, identical Viking “novels” with seemingly AI-generated covers, all called Wrath of the Northmen: A Gripping Viking Tale of Revenge and Honor (that one has been published variously by authors named Sula Urbant, Sula Urbanz, and Sula Urbanr).”
The future portended by the past two years is one in which we all become cataloguers, Neil Clarkes sorting through the noise for a little bit of signal.
“On a certain level, that's the core premise of a large language model: you enter text, and it returns a statistically plausible reply — even if that response is driving the user deeper into delusion or psychosis.”
ChatGPT Users Are Developing Bizarre Delusions
Victor Tangermann
This is more or less a summary of this paywalled Rolling Stone article. Another reason to worry about AI, I am afraid. Tools which mirror the user's text can end up amplifying delusion.
“‘He became emotional about the messages and would cry to me as he read them out loud," the woman told Rolling Stone. ‘The messages were insane and just saying a bunch of spiritual jargon," in which the AI called the husband a ‘spiral starchild’ and ‘river walker.’”
“On a certain level, that's the core premise of a large language model: you enter text, and it returns a statistically plausible reply — even if that response is driving the user deeper into delusion or psychosis.”
“‘It needs to be called ‘true crime,’ because true crime is a genre,” the channel’s owner told me over the phone in December. “I wanted [the audience] to think about why […] they care so much that it was true, why it matters so much to them that real people are being murdered’”
A ‘True Crime’ Documentary Series Has Millions of Views. The Murders Are All AI-Generated
Henry Laeson
This article lies at the intersection of three of my intellectual preoccupations: true crime, AI, and the ethics of photo/film depiction. I cannot tell if this case is better or worse than typical true crime. It is certainly no worse than starting an ad-funded True Crime podcast etc. I think I approve of this art project, though I appreciate the concerns of a victim’s advocate.
“Hernandez called several law enforcement officials and quickly confirmed her suspicions. The murder was fake, and the video was made using generative AI.:
“‘It needs to be called ‘true crime,’ because true crime is a genre,” the channel’s owner told me over the phone in December. “I wanted [the audience] to think about why […] they care so much that it was true, why it matters so much to them that real people are being murdered’”
“Just like landing pages with five DOWNLOAD links and janky websites gave pause in the aughts, fake journalism sites that didn’t exist before 2021 and are just ads and links should give pause now.”
AI and Internet Hygiene: we are going to have to re-learn how to use the computer
Kate Wagner
Let’s close on a pragmatic note if not a hopeful one. Maybe no individual can stem the harm of AI, but how can we protect ourselves? We need another round of what was– at my elementary school–called Multimedia class. Bright technical minds, please work on this! I hope Wagner is right that the internet can be good again!
“It was a rite of passage in those days to give your family computer a particularly terrible virus (such as one of those fake anti-virus programs that is actually malware) while trying to download custom content for The Sims 2”
“Meanwhile, Internet consumption shifted to smartphones, and the app-based ecosystem only reinforced the closedness and opaqueness of platforms as other websites gradually disappeared. I myself have no idea how a smartphone works”
“As far as I, the ordinary user, am concerned, AI is evolving not into a life-changing and labor-saving technology as was promised by its capitalist overlords, but rather into a form of malware that targets, whether unwittingly or not, critical Internet infrastructure.”
“Just like landing pages with five DOWNLOAD links and janky websites gave pause in the aughts, fake journalism sites that didn’t exist before 2021 and are just ads and links should give pause now.”
Thank you for reading. Stay safe from slop out there. Coming up in August, the second annual video edition/Cool Video Club. Until then!
Claude