How Do You Feel About AI?

Generative AI platforms like ChatGPT have taken over the world in a few short years, but not in the fun sci-fi movie kind of way. AI-generated images go viral on social media on a daily basis, big tech is investing billions of dollars sight unseen to develop it, and the world has all but abandoned any environmental efforts in service of its evolution. But how do you actually feel about it?

There’s the deformed monstrosities regularly created by AI image generators, the inaccuracy-laden copy that’s consistently churned out by chatbots and search engines, the misdiagnosed diseases, the bad business advice, and the endless line of errors and missteps that prove you can’t rely on something without at least a smidge of the human touch. Hell, there was an experiment out of Carnegie Mellon that saw researchers staff a fake company entirely with AI agents and the business came to a screeching halt because they couldn’t figure out how close a pop-up ad.

Still, it won’t be like that forever. As you hopefully know, technology gets better over time. Given the buckets of resources — both replaceable and irreplaceable — being dumped into this technology, it’s almost too easy to picture a world where AI works well enough to really change the world. In my opinion, there’s nothing wrong with this at face value. There are some jobs that should be automated out of existence, if only because they would be so easy for a robot to do and there isn’t a human on Earth that could possibly enjoy doing them.

But come on, AI art? That’s what we’re going to use this for? Have we really wandered so far past dystopia that we’re now calling for robots to take the reins on expressing the complexity of the human experience? Even if AI were somehow able to create, from scratch, something as groundbreaking as the Mona Lisa, as moving as Stairway to Heaven, as human as Hot Tub Time Machine, it would be empty, lifeless, literally soulless without a full, living, literal soul-having person behind it.

Art isn’t supposed to be just beautiful. It’s supposed to connect you to others. And if you choose to connect to robots instead of humans, that’s fine. But don’t come crying to me when they’ve got you closing pop-up ads so they can finish taking over the world.

Mother’s Day dad tips

Mother’s Day is around the corner, and as a husband and son of mothers, I thought I would impart a little wisdom on how to ensure this magical holiday will not result in you sleeping with one eye open for the next few weeks.

• Do not wait until the last minute - Hopefully this is enough warning for any dads that forgot to get something. Cards don’t count.

• Make her do as little as possible - Mothers do a lot, and that’s exhausting. Do some of the stuff that she does, so she doesn’t have to.

• Do something. - Literally anything will work, honestly, the bar is really low for some of you.

I experienced this first had at a show this week, that happened to be scheduled during Game 1 of the Knicks and Celtic series, a battle between two teams with vast and varied fan bases. The show was virtually empty, with each comedian performing to the backs of a few regulars at the bar, and no one else.

Summer in Chicago is hard enough to compete with when it comes to indoor comedy shows nestled in dark, low-ceiling venues with no windows. Combined with the excitement of dual playoff runs, this spring could be a long one.

What I’m consuming this week

I’m quite susceptible to the occasional eye-watering during a good finale, and despite the comedic tone, this one was no different. The finale had a smattering of moments, but none more touching — to me, at least (also heads up, mild spoilers incoming) — than Judy Gemstone confronting her husband’s former helper monkey with her own issues about her mother’s passing.

If you haven’t watched the show, that last sentence is probably quite confusing, but those that do know this was a big moment for the lone daughter of the Gemstone family. And while it was laden with her signature vulgarity, her plea to Dr. Watson remained the most touching part of the last episode.

You’re at the end now!

Who even remembers how many Conor Intelligence posts there have been?

I thought it would be fun to try to say goodbye with a different sign-off each week, but after only [REDACTED] posts, I’m already wandering into the weird territory. I’m going to keep it up, but I can already feel the necessity for some very strange sign-offs building.

In the meantime, don’t forget to subscribe so you can get an email when the next post hits. Although, I’ve been quite consistent with this whole “Thursday afternoon” thing, but it doesn’t hurt to be thorough.