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ChatGPT Should Not Exist

David Golumbia
8 min readDec 14, 2022

It Isn’t Just Bias and Threats to Creative Livelihoods. Generative AI Is Built on Nihilism. Its Real Product Is Despair.

Image source: Springboard

Every month it seems we are greeted by news of the launch of yet another artificial intelligence tool that simulates human creativity. These tools are usually lumped together under the heading of Generative AI. The latest is ChatGPT, a text-producing engine that generates remarkably human-sounding English. There are many reasons to be very concerned about Generative AI. But some of the major questions surrounding it need to be asked more publicly. When we look at the justifications developers give for pursuing these projects, we find them embracing a profound nihilism on the one hand, and offering no coherent reason for being on the other.

As they have with other Generative AI programs like DALL-E and Stable Diffusion, creators have raised alarms about the technology. Some of their worries have to do with replacing their jobs — jobs which, it should be noted, are generally among the kinds of work that people enjoy doing and, presuming they are properly compensated, derive significant satisfaction from doing. Some have to do with consumers of the simulated product confusing it with work by human beings. Some have to do with students and others substituting the AI product when human work is required, especially in higher education.

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David Golumbia
David Golumbia

Written by David Golumbia

Professor, Writer on Digital Studies, Language, Theory

Responses (10)

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This "hot take" is doing itself such a disservice. There are some really important questions in there, but the moment you start with "Generative AI is a product of despair [what?! lol] and should be banned", no one will take you seriously.

FROM CHATGPT:
The arguments presented in the article raise valid concerns about the potential negative impacts of generative AI tools like ChatGPT. Replacing human jobs, causing confusion among consumers, and perpetuating biases are all potential…

My sense is that the debate over AI is over-intellectualized. People look at ChatGPT through an anthropocentric lens. It is just a tool, a new and powerful one, but still a tool. The fear of AI is similar to the fear of weaving machines in 19th-century Europe.