## The Expanding Dark Forest and Generative AI ### The Expanding Dark Forest and Generative AI  #### Metadata * Author: [[maggieappleton.com]] * Full Title: The Expanding Dark Forest and Generative AI * Category: #articles * URL: <https://maggieappleton.com/ai-dark-forest?utm_source=hackernewsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_term=fav> #### Highlights * There's a swirl of optimism around how these models will save us from a suite of boring busywork: writing formal emails, internal memos, technical documentation, marketing copy, product announcement, advertisements, cover letters, and even negotiating with medical * You thought the first page of Google was bunk before? You haven't seen Google where SEO optimizer bros pump out billions of perfectly coherent but predictably dull informational articles for every longtail keyword combination under the sun. * Marketers, influencers, and growth hackers will set up pipelines that auto-publish a relentless and impossibly banal stream of LinkedIn #MotivationMonday posts, "engaging" tweet 🧵 threads, Facebook outrage monologues, and corporate blog posts ^976316 * 1. Triangulate objective reality As language models become increasingly capable and impressive, we should remember they are, at their core, linguistic . They cannot (yet) reason like a human. They do not have beliefs based on evidence, claims, and principles. They cannot consult external sources and run experiments against objective reality. They cannot go outside and touch grass. In short, they do not have access to the same shared reality we do. They do not have embodied experiences, and cannot sense the world as we can sense it; they don't have vision, sound, taste, or touch. They cannot feel emotion or tightly hold a coherent set of values. They are not part of cultures, communities, or histories. * Hipsterism and recency bias will help us here. Referencing obscure concepts, friends who are real but not famous, niche interests, and recent events all make you plausibly more human. # The Expanding Dark Forest and Generative AI  ## Metadata - Author: [[maggieappleton.com]] - Full Title: The Expanding Dark Forest and Generative AI - Category: #articles - URL: https://maggieappleton.com/ai-dark-forest?utm_source=hackernewsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_term=fav ## Highlights - There's a swirl of optimism around how these models will save us from a suite of boring busywork: writing formal emails, internal memos, technical documentation, marketing copy, product announcement, advertisements, cover letters, and even negotiating with medical - You thought the first page of Google was bunk before? You haven't seen Google where SEO optimizer bros pump out billions of perfectly coherent but predictably dull informational articles for every longtail keyword combination under the sun. - Marketers, influencers, and growth hackers will set up pipelines that auto-publish a relentless and impossibly banal stream of LinkedIn #MotivationMonday posts, “engaging” tweet 🧵 threads, Facebook outrage monologues, and corporate blog posts - 1. Triangulate objective reality As language models become increasingly capable and impressive, we should remember they are, at their core, linguistic . They cannot (yet) reason like a human. They do not have beliefs based on evidence, claims, and principles. They cannot consult external sources and run experiments against objective reality. They cannot go outside and touch grass. In short, they do not have access to the same shared reality we do. They do not have embodied experiences, and cannot sense the world as we can sense it; they don't have vision, sound, taste, or touch. They cannot feel emotion or tightly hold a coherent set of values. They are not part of cultures, communities, or histories. - Hipsterism and recency bias will help us here. Referencing obscure concepts, friends who are real but not famous, niche interests, and recent events all make you plausibly more human.