The Clockwork Penguin

Daniel Binns is a media theorist and filmmaker tinkering with the weird edges of technology, storytelling, and screen culture. He is the author of Material Media-Making in the Digital Age and currently writes about posthuman poetics, glitchy machines, and speculative media worlds.

A question concerning technology

Image by cottonbro studio on Pexels.

There’s something I’ve been ruminating on and around of late. I’ve started drafting a post about it, but I thought I’d post an initial provocation here, to lay a foundation, to plant a seed.

A question:

When do we stop hiding in our offices, pointing at and whispering about generative AI tools, and start just including them in the broader category of technology? When do we sew up the hole this fun/scary new thing poked into our blanket, and accept it as part of the broader fabric of lived experience?

I don’t necessarily mean usage here, but rather just mental models and categorisations.

Of course, AI/ML is already part of daily life and many of the systems we engage with; and genAI has been implemented across almost every sector (legitimately or not). But most of the corporate narratives and mythologies of generative AI don’t want anyone understanding how the magic works — these mythologies actively undermine and discourage literacy and comprehension, coasting along instead on dreams and vibes.

So: when does genAI become just one more technology, and what problems need to be solved/questions need to be answered, before that happens?

I posted this on LinkedIn to try and stir up some Hot Takes but if you prefer the quiet of the blog (me too), drop your thoughts in the comments.

2 responses to “A question concerning technology”

  1. Jo Toro Avatar
    Jo Toro

    Hello! Saw your message on AIxDESIGN slack channel.

    I’m no AI expert, just a young curious graphic designer, but genAI fascinates me.

    I honestly think that huge part of the fun right now is the magic, the mysticism. It’s like the tech feels alive on its own. It’s exciting (but scary for some), and it leaves so much room for imagination.

    But, to answer your question, I don’t think generative AI will ever settle into that broader category you’re talking about until it becomes understandable… (boring, but safe)

    Personally, I feel illiterate in such a fundamental way, it’s not like I’m struggling to use the tools, I actually don’t even know what it is I should be trying to understand. I don’t even know which questions to ask.

    I don’t believe this is happening because companies are gatekeeping information. It feels more like entropy, like the systems complexities are evolving so quickly, even the engineers at the very top will eventually lose the ability to fully explain them. (I just read Dario Amodei’s post “The Urgency of Interpretability” https://www.darioamodei.com/post/the-urgency-of-interpretability)

    To me, the biggest hurdle isn’t necessarily technical performance or regulation (at least not yet?). It’s the need to build a basic, human grammar of genAI. To build a way to help regular people like me go from guessing to actual intentional use.

    I don’t mean user literacy in the sense of “helping people use tools,” but focusing on a deep and collective human understanding of these systems.

    As someone in the creative field, I believe that once we understand the mechanics behind these magic illusions, we’ll finally move from using AI by instinct to mastering the craft. And that’s when things will start to get really interesting.

    Reply
    1. dan Avatar
      dan

      Hey Jo — thanks for finding the page and taking the time to post!
      100% agree that literacy is the key to unlocking ‘normalisation’ when it comes to genAI. And you’re right, it’s not completely tied up in proprietary protectiveness, but just in the scale and speed of not just development, but also just the fundamental systems on which all these tools are based.
      You also hit on something with that idea of ‘intentional use’ — not just flailing in the dark, but rather going in with the knowledge and confidence to get what you want out of the tools.
      Plenty to ruminate on!

      Reply

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