WHATCHATHINKIN'

Ah, another play on words, perhaps. Although this, too, is based on what one sees and how the brain assesses its reality. Perhaps not as dangerous as the unseen Porsche coming around the bend, but in the long run I believe the disingenuousness of all that is AI will lead to the end of civilization as we know it, or as we perceive it.

Going as far back as the 1950s, AI’s roots can be traced to early computer programs built to solve mathematic equations, sometimes known as algorithms. At this same time, British mathematician Alan Turing introduced the concept of ‘thinking machines’ and computer scientist John McCarthy formally coined the term ‘artificial intelligence’ at a Dartmouth Conference.

Moving into more recent years, 2011 saw the launch of Siri (don’t read this out loud, who knows what searches and questions will follow), and 2022 marked a major turning point with the introduction of ChatGPT, bringing generative AI into the mainstream allowing we mere mortals to creative the most inane and unbelievable imagery via machines’ ideas.

I’m not sure when I began noticing, but I know Brian has pointed out for quite some time that the ‘people’ featured in the ads on TV are not real; ‘Look at all those freckles, the perfect symmetry of their faces, they can’t be real.’ I then started paying more attention and, yes, these are not real human beings. The Particle cream that will turn a man in his 40s from ‘looking like this’ to ‘looking like that’ is so completely ridiculous. Almost everything I see on Facebook I dismiss as not real, not to mention any time I inadvertently venture onto TikTok, Instagram or other such social media nonsense. And most recently there has popped up a plethora of ChatGPT-generated artwork promoting motorcycle runs and events. Eye-catching? Maybe. But they all look the same, which can hurt the individual runs drawing riders to their event.

Recently, a research firm in collaboration with Syracuse University’s School of Public Communications tested 20 ads across 10 brands to see how human-made (pre-2021) vs. AI-generated ads performed. Both were built from the same brief, a document ad professionals use to outline objectives, messaging and tactics for a campaign. While the human-made ads outperformed their AI counterparts, the gap between the two was surprisingly slim. 

What the study found was that only 13% of viewers who saw an AI-generated ad were somewhat confident it was made by AI, which was the same share as viewers who suspected human-made ads were AI-generated, and 40% of all viewers uncertain either way. You can see why I have become so skeptical about what I am seeing everywhere.

And what about the truly creative human beings whose job it is to be artistic – the graphic designers, copy writers and layout team (speaking from experience) – who now have to compete with a machine? Brian told me a conversation he had on a particularly long cab ride; he was telling the woman driver why he was there, where he was going and what he did for a living. She then asked if he just typed some ideas into the computer and let it do the writing and layout for the final product, pushing a button and popping out a magazine. As if it could be that easy, but apparently in this day and age, it might just be.

We have an app – Grammarly – which will go through our text and find spelling and grammatical errors (clearly we don’t use it enough). Its latest updates have begun making suggestions of how we should phrase what we are trying to say. Going back to a very old conversation, Brian was told that his writing reads just like he speaks, and that was not correct at all. But that is what makes Backroads what it is, and if we had changed it way back then, or begin ‘listening’ to Grammarly and changing our thoughts to be more correct today, then technology wins and the human aspect of what you are holding in your hands will disappear.

So be wary of what you see and read, take a very close look at those improvement ads and have a very skeptical eye because the AIs might just have it.