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A few weeks ago, I stumbled upon an Instagram account showcasing beautiful photos of interiors – mostly home offices and creative spaces with captivating nature views, framed by bookshelves, wall art and ceramics. When I realised that all of those images were AI-generated, I was somewhat disappointed about having been misled, but more so disheartened by the fact that these lovely, serene places didn‘t actually exist.
I’ve been observing the Generative AI hype from a distance. Like most new trends in tech, early media coverage usually over-emphasises ‘economic opportunities’ while largely ignoring potential unintended consequences. That’s why I tend to sit back, let the media buzz wash over it, and then seek thoughtful, critical perspectives.
Even from the sidelines, though, it’s clear that GenAI is not like other tech trends and will warp our reality in strange, obscure ways. This excellent new piece by Rest of World about the bias, stereotyping and reductionism inherent in algorithmic ‘creative’ output when portraying national identities offers a good glimpse into what the future might hold.
Don’t worry. This is not another ‘take’ on our future with AI. My views are very much raw and forming. However, last week circumstances forced me to take a stance.
Within a few days, two different companies that sell GenAI prompts-as-a-service (on-demand image generation for brands) had booked sponsor slots in DD. As a newsletter that prominently features the work of artists and writers, you may appreciate my moral quandaries about promoting a service that not only aims to replace the work by creatives but also – without their expressed permission – uses existing works to train its algorithms.
I reached out to both advertisers and ultimately decided to cancel and refund their bookings. The decision left me wondering what to make of the many products and services built on the back of this novel, nebulous technology.
The reality is that we can’t put the AI genie back in the bottle. Despite the many ethical or even existential question marks that persist, most of us have accepted – for better and worse – that algorithms will increasingly embed themselves into our work and lives in the years to come.
How do we contend with the very real and very negative impact of GenAI on artists and writers? How are we to think about human versus machine-generated art without simply dismissing the latter as worthless or immoral and burying our heads in the sand? If we assume some of this change as inevitable, what safeguards can we demand to protect the value of creative work – and from whom?
I have no answers to these questions. I’m not categorically against AI-generated ‘art’ (if that’s even the right term for it). Like so many others I’ve spoken to, I’m equally fascinated and apprehensive about the AI wild card, searching for some kind of mental scaffolding to help me gain a reasonable and workable perspective.
If you've come across any compelling and balanced discussions or resources addressing the ethical questions surrounding GenAI in practical and useful terms, please reply and share it with me.
– Kai
(PS: I have some available ad slots. 😉)
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Apps & Sites
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Innovative visual time management
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I’m not sure how practical Kyugo’s approach to time management is in day-to-day scenarios, but I salute it for trying something completely different to all other calendar apps: in Kyugo (iOS only) your day evolves around a visually inviting ‘time dial’ that breaks 24 hours into morning, afternoon, evening and night. The thumb-friendly interface makes adding new events to your calendar quick and easy. (All based on your existing Google Calendar.)
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Create step-by-step guides
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With Scribe you can automatically generate visual how-to guides – for using certain features in an app, for example. Simply press record and Scribe takes screenshots and, with the help of AI, adds explanatory descriptions. Then grab the share-URL and you’re done.
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Social network for film lovers
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Since its launch 12 years ago, Letterboxd has become a popular destination for film reviews and a lively community for film lovers. Last month, Letterboxd announced that investment company Tiny acquired a 60% stake – promising that “very little else will change”. While I’m not a regular user, I always admired the way the small indie team managed to built a thriving, thoughtful online community around a passion of theirs. Friends of DD enjoy a 20% discount on Pro or Patron subscriptions.
Become a Friend to access specials like this.
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Explore every musical genre
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A fascinating project that attempts to scatter-plot all existing musical genres through an algorithm. You can explore the genre cloud by clicking on a genre and play a sample. Then click on the arrow next to the title to see where it sits in relation to other artists and genres.
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Worthy Five: Julian Bleecker
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Five recommendations by designer, engineer and entrepreneur Julian Bleecker
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A concept worth understanding:
Recently, I’ve been fascinated by the concept of Holacracy, which is as much a manifesto as it is a form of organising teams. It resonates with my own work in trying to find a way to arrange and operate a self-sufficient distributed creative network. There has to be a way other than the hierarchies we’ve come to assume, that can sustain themselves without giving too much of its value away.
A book worth reading:
Bewilderment: A Novel by Richard Powers is a beautiful, pathos-rich story about a boy and the database containing the memory of his mother. It’s not fair to call it science fiction, but it’s the kind of futures fiction that I would enjoy reading more of.
A video worth watching:
I’m new to Desert Oracle but I’ve thoroughly enjoyed its haunting, humorous, lyrical storytelling.
An Instagram account worth following:
Julian Montague shares beautiful, evocative graphic design and illustrations with a penchant for creating fictional pasts and possible futures in the form of books, event posters, and other ephemera. Very Design Fiction-y!
A piece of advice worth passing on:
Frederic Jameson wrote in The Seeds of Time: “It seems to be easier for us today to imagine the thoroughgoing deterioration of the earth and of nature than the breakdown of late capitalism; perhaps that is due to some weakness in our imaginations.” It’s a reminder that we have to imagine harder, rather than wallow in despair, or become self-righteous and antagonistic. While our imaginations may be too weak to fashion a more habitable near future, we do in fact have this existentially vital capability to action, to create better imaginaries of possible futures. It’s not the quote itself, but the thoughts and actions it must provoke: it’s time to imagine harder.
(Did you know? Friends of DD can respond to and engage with guest contributors like Julian Bleecker in one click.)
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Books & Accessories
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The social history of the internet
In her debut book, writer and journalist Taylor Lorenz documents the internet’s far-reaching effects on all corners of our lives. From early mommy bloggers to today’s influencers, Lorenz examines what we have done to the internet, and what it has done to us. “Emerging seemingly out of nowhere, these shifts in how we use the internet seem easy to dismiss as fads. However, these social and economic transformations have resulted in a digital dynamic so unappreciated and insurgent that it ultimately created new approaches to work, entertainment, fame, and ambition in the 21st century.”
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Why our minds need the wild
If you enjoyed my intro to DD239 about humans’ innate affinity for life and living systems, this book may speak to you, too. Acclaimed journalist Lucy Jones asks: as we lose our bond with the natural world, might we also be losing part of ourselves? “Jones takes us to the cutting edge of human biology, neuroscience and psychology, and discovers new ways of understanding our increasingly dysfunctional relationship with the earth. Urgent and uplifting, Losing Eden is a rallying cry for a wilder way of life – for finding asylum in the soil and joy in the trees – which might just help us to save the living planet, as well as ourselves, from a future of ecological grief.”
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Overheard on Mastodon
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Despite the high cost of living, it remains popular.
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Food for Thought
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Related to today’s intro, this is a great, short opinion piece on why the language we use to talk about creative output matters. I particularly appreciated this observation: “In practical terms, ‘content creator’ neatly accomplishes two things at once: It lets people who make garbage think they’re making art, and tells people who make art that they’re making garbage.” (Possible paywall – free archived view)
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Writer and journalist (and TED alumnus) Oscar Schwartz about the history behind the TED brand and why he thinks so many ‘ideas worth spreading’ have done little to actually change the world. “TED’s archive is a graveyard of ideas. It is a seemingly endless index of stories about the future – the future of science, the future of the environment, the future of work, the future of love and sex, the future of what it means to be human – that never materialized. ... If the research wasn’t entertaining or moving, it was seen as somehow less valuable. TED’s influence on intellectual culture was ‘taking something with value and substance and coring it out so that it can be swallowed without chewing’, Bratton said. ‘This is not the solution to our most frightening problems – rather, this is one of our most frightening problems.’”
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A short book review/summary with a good introduction of the connection between mind and body. Ever since overcoming chronic pain by reading a book on the topic (see my intro in DD158), I’m a strong believer in the mind as a critical influencer of our physical wellbeing. “Despite these kinds of findings, the effects of our minds on our bodies are often called a ‘placebo effect’ in research and dismissed as irrelevant, says Langer. In fact, she argues, many studies find that a placebo is as effective or outperforms a drug, but those studies are rarely published. This makes it hard to understand and harness a placebo’s potential for healing. ... Langer also cautions us to be more mindful of our everyday experiences. She doesn’t mean meditate more – she wants us to notice variations in our state of being. If we pay attention to how our pain, energy levels, poor mood, or other symptoms of illness are changing over time, moment to moment, we can break out of rigid, fixed beliefs that we are sick or damaged and notice the moments when we feel happy, healthy, or pain-free.”
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Aesthetically Pleasing
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Kateryna Kryvolap is an artist originally from Ukraine, now based in Canada, who specialises in Petrykivka painting – Ukrainian ornamental folk art, displayed in colourful compositions with attention to detail. Some of her paintings and online courses teaching you how to use a paint brush to get started in Petrykivka are available on her website.
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It’s hard to believe that Silvie Mahdal’s art is actually drawn by hand. Check out her Instagram videos to see how she creates these hyperrealistic pieces with just a pencil.
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I love compact homes! This 1830s sandstone building in Sydney occupies a modest 40 square metres of land (430 sq ft) but creates 65 square metres (700 sq ft) of internal floor space, plus about 10 square metres of external space over the three levels. The warm and textured interior prove again that small can be beautiful and feel spacious enough. (via)
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Marcovaldo is a heavy condensed wedge serif, optimised for display design, with an impactful, refined aesthetic.
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Notable Numbers
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Global carbon emissions from power production essentially plateaued in the first half of 2023. Non-governmental organisation Ember says 2023 may mark a turning point, with the sector’s emissions having risen just 0.2% in the first half of the year.
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A new poll shows that 30 percent of US Americans don’t identify with a religious group. That group, commonly called ‘nones’, includes those identifying as atheist (7%), agnostic (7%) and nothing in particular (16%).
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London’s office market has plunged into a ‘rental recession’, with the share of empty space hitting its highest level in three decades. Late last month, Meta agreed to pay £149 million ($181 million) to break its lease on a 310,000-square-foot office near London’s Regent’s Park.
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The Week in a GIF
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Reply with your favourite GIF and it might get featured here in a future issue.
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