Imperfect

sora's a friend

Unlike Steve in When AI Gives the 'Ick', neither Friend nor Sora gives me the ick. However, both get marketed by those finding them icky or not.

I'll let Steve explain what Sora is to those unfamiliar with it:

A few days ago OpenAI released Sora, which was not only the latest version of their video generation model, but also a social app. Humans sign up, but the only content is that generated by users through AI.

Riffing on how copyright speedruns decay, IP management megacorporations like Nintendo would love nothing more than to balloon their intellectual monopolies at the cost of your right to creativity. Reading between the lines reveals their sentiment that "We will continue to take unnecessary actions against everyone using our intellectual property rights." Are they truly worthy of such overbearing yet damaging control?

Seeing Sora sidestep the above by showcasing Mario, Pikachu, and other fan favorites in such high-fidelity generations brings a tear to my eye. People once again experienced such characters partaking in situations Nintendo strikes down fan creations of or never greenlights in the first place. I look forward to that synthesis of technology and creativity amplifying through open-source AI models, released via entities unbothered by onerous limitations on intellectual prosperity.

In that way, I see how Sora is my friend. I see how AI are friends, not food.

Steve continues:

The debut of Friend (an AI powered “friend” app / pendant you wear around your neck) got even more backlash recently with their NYC subway ads.

That seems as expected given Trishla's report in AI Startup Friend Bets On Foes With $1M NYC Subway Campaign that "The founder of Friend is betting on making enemies." She gives a behind-the-scenes look at the ads' intentions:

Schiffmann designed the creative on Figma and wrote the copy himself with the intention of deliberately courting conversation, he said. The minimalist creative is heavy on white space, purposefully daring viewers to react.

And people have indeed reacted. Some subway riders have defaced the ads with phrases like “surveillance capitalism,” “stop profiting off loneliness,” and “AI trash.”

“I know people in New York hate AI, and things like AI companionship and wearables, probably more than anywhere else in the country,” Schiffmann said. “So I bought more ads than anyone has ever done with a lot of white space so that they would socially comment on the topic.”

Trishla's words remind me of my similar sentiment in autogeneration is human:

It's funny how, that in some parts of my Internet, I feel like skeptics and critics of generative AI systems propagate them and their outputs better than enthusiasts and evangelists do. Critics being so frequently repulsed by being inundated with AI content shows the seriousness of the underlying technology. I find it exciting how they showcase new releases, developments, and use cases that my own AI news sources gloss over. I'd get much less AI exposure if they pivoted, showing just how much haters are pollinators after all.

As bullish about AI as I am, Friend isn't for me. Even though virtual companions matter, executing the concept can run into failure modes and isn't foolproof. But you have to admit that Friend's marketing clearly made waves whether you like their product and messaging or not. Otherwise, I wouldn't have found the inspiration to start writing about it in the first place (thanks Steve!).

The infrastructure that allows people to communicate with others old and new still exists in original and/or revived forms. You can still explore, wonder, and discover through said infrastructure. Like how you select which parts of life you settle for or abstain from, follow suit with the artificial intelligence ecosystem around you. Hop out of the pool, dive into the deep end, or even swim laps from shallow to deep and back.

The advent of endless feeds via infinite scrolling emphasize the importance of harnessing your agency to make the best of whatever comes your way. It's as the seminal AI paper said: "Attention is all you need." How can the negativity of "we became the product" be flipped into a sentiment exuding much more positive autonomy?

Steve ponders about "What is at risk?":

I know some will argue that there is still creativity and creation happening when using an app like Sora, but is that truly the case?

Yes.

Sure you have to prompt an idea, but does that count as creating? While this might be an area up to debate, I would argue that AI prompting hardly counts as creating in the traditional sense.

Is writing creating whether in the form of a blog post, love poem, or prompt?

There is a direct correlation between how much credit you can take for a piece of work based on how much work and influence you had in the process.

How much credit do we hoard from many antecedents without batting an eye? Furthermore, does taking credit for such interdependent pieces matter as much as people think it should?

If creativity is a spectrum, where on that spectrum did you contribute?

A spectrum between what extremes?

How hard did you work for it?

Your performance doesn't necessarily inform your success.

Does it channel your emotions in a way that causes others to think more deeply about the topic? Does it evoke emotions out of others?

Even without confirming emotions are channeled as intended, people like Steve and I think deeply about creativity and AI. That remains the case whether through Friend advertisements, Sora generations, or otherwise. Look at how evocative emotions are within the vandalism of ads or the posts commenting on that like Steve's and my own.

How did you feel or benefit from creating it?

Similarly and/or differently to the way people feel or benefit from creating by other means.

Can you truly call it “your work”?

Is any intellectual creation ever truly "your work" given the abundance, interdependence, and intangibility of the ideas which comprise it?

Of course I admit that sometimes it’s pure fun to use stuff like Sora. It’s not serious and not meant to be serious. That’s the current state, but have you checked Facebook lately? The danger is what Sora introduces.

Be careful not to underestimate how well humans can harness their creativity through technologies like Sora for fun, seriousness, or anything in between. How can Steve pivot from warning about the domain's lowest common denominator to appreciating, and thus uplifting, the pure fun which he wants to see more of?

Steve ends:

In order to regain our humanity, we must change how we engage with the web, and how we connect with other people. Otherwise our minds will end up looking no different than the slop on Sora that gives us the ick.

The people-shaped communication factor of reading messages from and writing to your friends and fellow humans can remain tool-agnostic. Prompt Sora, scroll Tiktok, subscribe to blogs, and/or even mingle with your friends while you all touch grass. Let's take advantage of growing ways in which we can busy ourselves with "exchanging ideas, seeing people as people, and finding common ground." Let's push the boundaries as to what vessels encourage those actions.

As for slop on Sora giving us the ick:

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