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Generative AI Could Pollute the Internet to Death
Talking about long-term problems
Generative AI is the most transformative application the field has ever seen. It will redefine how we create but also how we interact with and relate to the creations of others.
Whereas traditional AI allows us to extract patterns and insights from data, shaping them into new knowledge, generative AI goes beyond that. It uses that data to generate more data.
And that isn’t even its most profound implication. The fact that its usefulness manifests at the consumer level will change everything.
Anyone can use generative AI to create new data.
We’re living in an unprecedented era of creative expansion. What historically has been reserved for the few is now within reach for anyone with a computer and internet access.
Most people are still unaware this technology exists, but it won’t be long before it becomes mainstream. It’s easy to access and use, super cheap, and extremely versatile. And it improves fast.
Generative AI’s potential at the individual level is huge, but at the collective level, it’s life-changing.
At that level, what matters most is scale — not as in “large enough to solve a problem,” but as in “large enough to cause one.”
The fast-paced development combined with transversal usefulness and inherent scalability (easy to use and cheap) is generative AI’s greatest strength — and its greatest weakness.
It’s not the tools it’s how we use them
Two caveats.
First, as I’ve written in the past, I think generative AI tools can help enhance human ability — writing, painting, coding, and anything else that may come next.
Second, not everyone uses these tools to mindlessly generate content. Some truly explore their creative selves. They imbue their creations with intent and personality (even if it’s impossible to capture them fully with words).
These caveats reveal that this “weakness” isn’t intrinsic to the tools — it’s not about “they lack intent,” “AI art isn’t art” or anything of the sort.
