The gigantic and costly industry Silicon Valley is building around generative AI is still struggling to explain the technology’s utility. AI chatbots and image generators are making headlines and fortunes, but a year and a half into their revolution, it remains tough to say exactly why we should all start using them. The most common rationale is a kind of circular reasoning: Everyone’s going to be using these tools, the argument goes, so you might as well get ahead of the parade. This spring, a chorus of thoughtful critics has begun sharing the nagging feeling that, fascinating and alarming as generative AI may be, it doesn’t have much practical use in their work or lives. In a recent podcast conversation, New York Times columnist Ezra Klein said, “I consistently sort of wander up to the A.I., ask it a question, find myself somewhat impressed or unimpressed at the answer. But it doesn’t stick for me. It is not a sticky habit … it’s not really clear how to make A.I. part of your life.” Software engineer Molly White, author of “Web3 is Going Just Great,” reports that generative AI tools are “handy in the same way that it might occasionally be useful to delegate some tasks to an inexperienced and sometimes sloppy intern,” but hardly a solid foundation for tech’s next big platform. Tech historian Margaret O’Mara compares today’s AI industry to the big business of beaver-skins. In the 19th century, a bounty of beavers roamed North America, so many that demand for men’s top hats drove a vast business in trapping for decades, until beavers were nearly extinct. Then hat-makers figured out how to work with silk instead, which they could have been doing all along. “I get a beaver-fur hat vibe from some of the AI conversations now,” O’Mara told tech journalist Caitlin Dewey. “These companies have so many resources: so much money, so much talent, all these massive data centers, the ability to create incredibly powerful models. And so they are creating those models, and the market is growing to meet them.” “But it’s not always apparent if we really need this technology, in every case, or if anyone’s asking those questions.”
Full commentary : As fascinating and alarming as generative AI may be, it doesn’t have much practical use yet.
