When AI Gives the 'Ick'

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. If you’re like me, the very thought of an AI-only generated feed might have given you the “ick.” It’s not the first time either. 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.

Needless to say, people didn’t like it.

It’s these kinds of AI innovations that give us the “ick,” but why? There’s plenty of AI tools we use all the time without much thought, but sometimes we get the feeling that the tech goes “too far.” To understand why, we need to step back and ask a few more questions.

Why did we build the web?

The answer to this one is quite simple: communication. We wanted to build infrastructure that would allow people to communicate with other people. It was publishing web pages, Email, IRC, AIM, Blogs, and eventually social media in the form of MySpace or Facebook. It was not only a place where people could keep up with those they already knew, but also a place to meet new people. It was a place to explore, to wonder, and to discover. Even back then ads helped keep the lights on, but something shifted with the release of the endless Feed.

It was a revolutionary UX concept that allowed someone to keep scrolling. At first that feed might have been people you follow, but what if you ran out of posts? Thanks to algorithms and using people’s data, people could scroll and find new content that was calculated to be engaging. Bit by bit, tech giants found the value of keeping people on their screens, collecting the data they provided by stopping the feed, clicking on something, or sharing it. We now live in a world where social feeds are addictive sources of dopamine that make minds sick. We became the product.

The web we built to communicate, discuss, and connect with other people seems much more distant and harder to find. Our programmatic feeds make sure we see the content we agree with, and for the content we don’t agree with, it’s in the worst place possible to have a civil discussion with proper context and humility. Thanks to the recent release of AI content feeds, perhaps we don’t need people at all. That’s one reason we start to feel the ick, because it’s unnatural for us to be in isolation. Our need for connection plays into the next question.

Why do we create?

I have to clarify that I’m not anti-AI. I use it all the time for getting helpful information or learning how to do something, but also the idea of using it to create certain pieces of my life gives me the ick. I recently found this video where a panel of people were addressing some of the issues with AI, and a person stated there are plenty of moments in their lives where they would choose to do it themselves even if AI could do it better. One example they gave was a love poem. The whole point of writing a love poem is that YOU wrote it, that YOU enjoyed the process and benefited from it. At the end of the video they say, “I think if we like living then we have the right to live even if we’re not good at it.”

The truth is that people live to create, to explore, to feel. It’s not always about productivity. It’s the arts and our connection with other people that make us human. We read, write, think, discuss, debate, and problem solve for the experience of improving ourselves and our society. In some ways it’s antithetical to how tech is built today, where everything is about consumption. Everything is designed to make us the consumer. We sit on our phones and scroll through endless video feeds and provide little in return. It’s not who we’re supposed to be as humans. We should pursue the hard work of creating and thinking instead of being passive and consuming.

We don’t read and write poetry because it’s cute. We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race. And the human race is filled with passion. And medicine, law, business, engineering, these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love, these are what we stay alive for. To quote from Whitman, ‘O me! O life!… of the questions of these recurring; of the endless trains of the faithless… of cities filled with the foolish; what good amid these, O me, O life?’ Answer. That you are here - that life exists, and identity; that the powerful play goes on and you may contribute a verse. What will your verse be? ― N.H. Kleinbaum, Dead Poets Society

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? 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. 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. If creativity is a spectrum, where on that spectrum did you contribute? How hard did you work for it? 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? How did you feel or benefit from creating it? Can you truly call it “your work”? 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.

As humans create, we gain humanity. The process, the brainpower, the emotion, the connection with others, all these culminate into the very things that make us human. If we spend our time doing “creative” acts that don’t build these principles, then we risk losing our humanity.

What can we do?

The first thing we can do is recognize the problem: social media needs reform. Not necessarily policy reform, but how we approach it in our every day lives. Social media is engineered addiction where we offer our most precious resource: time. Every social platform is after your attention and keeping it as much as possible. Many have tried to combat this problem with apps that block your access to certain apps, but I believe that only taps the surface of the issue. Much like the dieting craze of the ’90s, eating less food doesn’t solve your health issues. You have to substitute junk food for real food and exercise. I’m not gonna say you can’t use AI tools or have fun; AI generated content can be fun! I also enjoy the occasional fast food. The issue is when it’s all you’re consuming, and you’re not substituting or getting enough real food. Endless feeds make this difficult, but not impossible. Even in my own experience I am feeling the pull of social media feeds less and less as I invest more time in “real food.”

On the note of “real food,” I’m personally exploring alternative methods of how we might engage in social interactions online. My favorite so far is Blog Feeds. Rather than an endless feed of things to read, it’s just a short list of people you actually care about and accessing what they write on their blogs. It’s autonomous, not depending on any large tech corporation that’s after your time. It’s just writing on a blog like this one, subscribing to other people’s blogs, and sharing a list of the people you follow. That’s it. Blog Feeds take us back to why we built the web: communication. With this approach we can finally get back to exchanging ideas, seeing people as people, and finding common ground. Is it harder than prompting Sora or scrolling TikTok? Yes. Is the barrier high? Nope. It’s relatively simple and just about anyone can participate. It just requires being a human, and using your mind in ways that we’re slowly losing.

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.