Becoming AI-Pilled
For those in finance, not needing to read dozens of earnings call transcripts each quarter may be tempting. Instead, one can position an AI agent as their own analyst, taking in earnings call transcripts and providing key takeaways and ultimately, investment ideas. The preceding proposition came across my X feed a few weeks back by an agentic AI proponent. It was met with a wave of supportive replies to the effect of “sign me up.” Unfortunately, the “AI agent for earnings call transcripts” idea would serve as a great way to become overwhelmed with noise.
We are quickly moving to a point in which one must be careful not to become AI-pilled – not to look at the world primarily through an AI lens. Thanks to AI, and most recently agentic AI, the risk of losing the key qualities and attributes that allow us to differentiate ourselves is rising. Clarity will be needed to see how best to integrate AI into our lives and society. Such clarity won’t be achieved if one is on the AI pill.
It's difficult to squeeze AI mania into one fundamental debate. However, such an attempt would likely result in there being two different views of AI’s role: AI as a tool to help get work done or AI as a tool to avoid doing work. The former is how Big Tech product marketing teams position one new AI feature after another in public. Unfortunately, the latter is what seems to be guiding product development for such AI features behind the scenes.
Given how fast some people are moving with what is technically possible with AI, the probability is increasing that
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Why AI Slop Worries Me
The feeling circulating on social media, where much of AI mania lives and breathes, is that AI slop is the next iteration of the short form video revolution. There is a certain level of inevitableness in the air that videos generated by text prompts are the future. Since complaints and worries regarding short form video didn’t stop TikTok, Instagram Reels, and YouTube Shorts from becoming giants, there are growing fears that nothing may stop AI slop momentum. I am genuinely concerned and worried about where things are headed.
By lowering the bar to creating videos, we are being introduced to visual stimuli designed to hijack our expectations and emotions. AI slop is causing us to become desensitized to genuine storytelling. An example of generative AI going astray demonstrates this dynamic. Prior to generative AI, a video of cars sliding down an icy street did well in terms of getting views on social media. The audience would be glued to such videos as the outcome wouldn’t exactly be known. For those of us familiar with winter driving, the videos likely caused us to think of our own close calls on ice or snow. Thanks to generative AI, one can now create their own “car sliding on ice” video. Anyone can create a video depicting an orange Lamborghini losing control on ice, hitting bystanders, and then, to add some spice at the end, sinking in a body of water. Watching the extreme scene (which never happened) unfold, we go through what has become the normal routine of initially being shocked by what we are watching but then quickly suspecting it’s AI and having our suspicions confirmed by checking the video’s comments section.
Some people may ask what harm is found with watching a fake Lamborghini slide on ice. Am I picking too much on AI slop simply because it’s new and different?
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