artificial monsters
I unironically love David's I was insulted today - AI style. In particular, I adore his chosen pejorative for artificial intelligence (AI), "artificial monsters".
His less saturated critical personification elevates the technology to the likes of myths and legends. It saves noisy "intelligence" discourse for the significant and ubiquitous signal of "monster" power. So many people not only exposed themselves to that frame, but gave toasts to it too. All this markets the technology cheaper, wider, and overall better than its users. Who knows where these monsters will appear next?
David concluded his story by suggesting "getting off the world" as the first alternative to playing with these artificial monsters. That dichotomy reveals not only a losing us vs. them conflict, but also clearer allusions to hyperbolic moral panics past and present. Speaking of hysteria, his story shows how easy and unintentional fomenting unwanted emotions and sharing one's ever creative anathemas can be. All it takes is a quick question:
Did you run it through AI?