AI: Miracle Tech or Just Another Pair of Chopsticks Lodged in Your Brain?

Journos

Suggested new phrase for the confusing pace of modern life:

"It's like having chopsticks stuck in your brain."

Not, of course, the song (we would never be so basic). No — literal chopsticks, but lodged in such a way that you can still go about your business ... just, everything just seems a lot harder. One man unwittingly has become the symbol for this new symbol, a man who got chopsticks lodged in his brain ... and didn't even know it.

So begins our exploration of weird stories about bodily invasion by foreign objects, from houseflies to, ahem, "a whole coconut."

Which of course led to the biggest invasion story of our time: artificial intelligence. In this episode, Brandon and Stephen survey the state of AI by looking at what it's doing to journalism, from clickbait to personalized news.

Will we leave it to machines to tackle the essential chopstick stories of our time? Will that free us up to work on real stuff that's not about a whole coconut that somehow found its way into somebody's ass? Will AI really be a trusty sidekick for our biggest stories? And will Angela Lansbury be the voice of the movement?

Most importantly: Why are mummies part of like the third-grade curriculum?

As one chopstick said to another, "We're really getting up to something now!"

NOTES

Complex’s combo chopsticks/housefly story // AI usage hype // The Sports Illustrated AI shitshow, and the weird fake author profiles // What people were reading on CNN in 2022 // A big-picture look at AI and journalism // AI and media predictions // One possible model for AI journalism // Our conversation with cartoonist Ted Rall from March