Will humans become the “spice” on top of AI slop? That might be the saddest race to the bottom we’ve ever run.
In our latest episode of It’s Just A Model, Ron Kersic and I dug into Cory Doctorow’s “reverse centaur” meme. As he put it: as AI floods the world with “stuff,” humans get demoted to checking it, and maybe, if necessary, sprinkling in a bit of humanity on top.
So by the grace of shareholders and algorithms, people get to be a footnote in their own production line. Yeah. No. That’s not just a bleak outlook; it’s the wrong approach, applied at the wrong end.
People shouldn’t be stuck “checking” or “adding a dash of soul” to mountains of AI output. AI should be the tool that maximizes humanity, kindness, collaboration, quality and not shrink human contribution to a garnish.
One article here claimed “people will make sure AI product quality stays up to snuff.” Unfeasible and ironic, because that quality check will eventually get automated too, by AI!
This isn’t about jobs or the future of work. It’s about using AI to maximize humanity, better people, more joy, more quality. It’s not about keeping humans busy, but about humans using AI, not the other way around.
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Humans aren’t the spice on top of AI
