Amazon Prime’s AI

[Phyrebrat]

Hello everyone,

I was doing mundane tasks and decided to put on a guilty pleasure of mine. Often I watch true crime or UFO documentaries.

I fancied a bit of vacuous UFO stuff, but when I selected the program, the title card read, this program was created, researched and voiced by AI

Is this part of Amazon’s new business practices? If so, I will be cancelling my subscription.

There is no shortage of producers, directors researcher actors and all the other people that go into production. Amazon does not need to save money in this way. It’s absolutely disgusting and unacceptable.

 

[Jo Zebedee]

Hello everyone,

I was doing mundane tasks and decided to put on a guilty pleasure of mine. Often I watch true crime or UFO documentaries.

I fancied a bit of vacuous UFO stuff, but when I selected the program, the title card read, this program was created, researched and voiced by AI

Is this part of Amazon’s new business practices? If so, I will be cancelling my subscription.

There is no shortage of producers, directors researcher actors and all the other people that go into production. Amazon does not need to save money in this way. It’s absolutely disgusting and unacceptable.

It’s part of every big provider’s business model. Writers are losing jobs everywhere and it’s only just started

 

[paranoid marvin]

I guess Amazon did this to make it look like it was a good thing?

I don't think it will be long (if it isn't already happening) for almost every new programme and movie to have some assistance from AI.

 

[paranoid marvin]

It’s part of every big provider’s business model. Writers are losing jobs everywhere and it’s only just started

I wonder how many writers are already using it to some extent? Not because they want to, but because they have to in order to keep up with the competition.

There is room for the bespoke furniture maker or tailor in a world of automated manufacture, but if the product is to a certain standard, consumers will usually go for the cheaper option.

It's a sad state of affairs, but I think it's not likely to go away, especially as AI will only continue to improve until we get to a stage where it is virtually intistinguishable to the majority of the population.

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

I think when the novelty of AI wears off and where people become aware that AI-written books and scripts are inevitably lackingpeople will most likely lose interest.

Sure, lots of poorly- written and plotted books do amazingly well, but most of those share a quality that a software program can never duplicate: a passion and a belief in the story on the part of the author, who somehow communicates their enthusiasm to readers. Readers will forgive much, if a story has themes and characters that please them, they'll ignore plot holes, atrocious editing, etc. but I do believe that they need that sense of humanity in the writing to be truly satisfied.

 

[Cat's Cradle]

It's seemingly everywhere - I see so many Audible titles now that are narrated by 'Virtual Voice'... especially new horror novels (and there are so many novels now that I can't be sure the writers aren't AI, although I haven't seen 'Virtual Writer' credited yet, thank goodness).
I've never listened to even a snippet, and hope I never do. Seeing 'Virtual Voice' really makes me sad.

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

There is room for the bespoke furniture maker or tailor in a world of automated manufacture, but if the product is to a certain standard, consumers will usually go for the cheaper option.

But here is where those who pass off AI-written books as their own have made a serious mistake: most of those I have seen are over-priced, compared to human-written books of comparable length.

 

[paranoid marvin]

But here is where those who pass off AI-written books as their own have made a serious mistake: most of those I have seen are over-priced, compared to human-written books of comparable length.

MY initial instinct would be not to read any book written using AI, regardless of cost.

Having said that, if AI was able to write new MR James' ghost stories, and they were indistinguishable from the real thing, I would have a hard time declining the temptation to read them.

Equally, if an author passes away before their long running saga is complete, how many would be tempted to read an AI written story as a conclusion? We have already seen several authors attempt stories in the style of a now-deceased author, with varying degrees of success; it's quite possible that AI could do a better job.

And I wonder how long it will be before we see AI creating blockbuster movies. We have already had the art of model and specisl effects making superceded by CGI. Is an artificial director/writer or actor much different? And I do wonder how many would refuse to watch the latest Bond movie if it was revealed that it had been entirely created by an AI.

It really is a sad state of affairs. My hope is that AI will fail to bridge the gap between what is discernably artificial and what is not; but there's too much money to be made for that to happen.

 

[Phyrebrat]

for me, it’s not even about whether it’s indistinguishable from a human written product, or any other such concerns, it’s about us becoming second place to computers; and without getting all Marxist…We know what happens when we become expert in operating machines instead of becoming the tradesmen ourselves.

 

[paranoid marvin]

for me, it’s not even about whether it’s indistinguishable from a human written product, or any other such concerns, it’s about us becoming second place to computers; and without getting all Marxist…We know what happens when we become expert in operating machines instead of becoming the tradesmen ourselves.

I agree; for some people the very fact that an AI has taken away an author's livelihood will be enough to make them look elsewhere - regardless of cost or quality. Whether that will be the same for the majority will be the determining factor as to whether AI succeeds or fails.

I think that this is potentially the most significant event for writers since the introduction of the printing press. In many respects it is the Industrial Revolution of the mind.

We have Fairtrade, we have Cruelty Free make up, we have Dolphin Friendly tuna and we have Eco Friendly products. I'm not comparing 'AI free' literature to any of those things, or even comparing them against each other.

But it demonstrates that as consumers we have a choice. Price and quality of product may (or may not) be a factor in making that choice. What's important is that we are given that choice, and that we are kept informed as to what exactly it is that we are buying.

 

[Swank]

Maybe making UFO documentaries is like working with raw sewage - people just don't want to get their hands dirty with those kinds of work.

 

[Christine Wheelwright]

The problem is not that AI generated work will be good. It won't. The problem is that it will drown everything - including some great creative stuff - in a sea of excrement.

 

[Foxbat]

Slightly off topic but I found this article on how copyright law may eventually shift to incorporate AI generated content.

ChatGPT: what the law says about who owns the copyright of AI-generated content

We may know what ChatGPT can do, but questions remain over who owns the copyright.

www.port.ac.uk

 

[paranoid marvin]

The problem is not that AI generated work will be good. It won't. The problem is that it will drown everything - including some great creative stuff - in a sea of excrement.

This is the problem; it will likely lower the threshold for what is classed as 'good enough' to be broadcast. If there's the choice between commissioning a new documentary series that's been well researched and put together for £500k+ (plus repeat fees) or an in-house piece of AI that's done it for next to nothing, it's not hard to see where the temptation lies.

The common denominator is what the paying public will put up with.

 

[Robert Zwilling]

Computers have been taking away jobs from people for 20 years now. Most people probably didn't care about those jobs that were taken early on by computers because supposedly they couldn't have been much of a job if a computer could do it. That was then, now anyone's job can be on the line or its importance diminished. The tech industry has a vested interest in making their products irreplaceable because that's where they see their money coming from. Short sighted but that's how things are. They are standing in the same line as everyone else. Try looking on the great web and you see plenty of articles saying millions of jobs lost as well as millions of jobs created. Buckle your seatbelt, its going to be a bumpy ride.

Artificially created music has been around for a long time. Simple electronic tunes. Electric drums that play an endless beat. All the way to barely harnessed highly amplified noise. Perfectly acceptable. The voices maintained a sense of originality, something that apparently can now be mechanized as well.

It probably isn't going to matter what originators like or don't like. The purpose of the internet is to spread information as far and wide as possible under the best or worst conditions. The only true gatekeeper is access to the internet itself. Being able to access anything allows everyone to get what they might want. Since there is so much to choose from, no way to see it all, and no lack of followers, people have been able to appoint themselves as influencers of popular opinion. What becomes acceptable might be reduced to popularity contests based on random choices being pulled out of a hat.

There's talk about how hard it will be to tell the fake stuff from the real stuff. That could imply that the fake stuff and the real stuff will exist side by side.

 

[Swank]

I think we are being incredibly naive about all of this. People are not smart, or honorable, or sensitive. But they want to be pleased, and feel like they are having the mirror held up to the best of themselves. AI has an incomparable ability to short circuit the human aesthetic by leaving out all the flaws that keep any human product from being completely satisfying. No human song (keyboard samples or not) will ever be catchy enough. No book will touch us as deeply as we imagine. No conversation is going to bridge our isolation quite enough.

AI is going to change that. It will produce its version of cave paintings and Nickelback albums for awhile, but it will perfect its forgeries of the human experience until it is honestly better - the ultimate plot twists in stories full of the most interesting characters. Music you never want to stop listening to. Depths of empathy and kindness in the most intimate interactions.

Just look at what we have done to ourselves with the aliens called corporations and the manipulated interactions of social media. Those are extremely dumb non-human intelligences, and we let them eat us. A 'reasonable' embrace of AI will be the death of actual human sharing as we individually get everything we ever wanted from people, but couldn't.


Machine learning, unchecked, will give us our fantasies in a handful of years. Not decades.


People think that no machine could get that smart, but it isn't smart - just filtered imitation. Consider this: I am a reasonable talented pencil artist. I can draw a realistic person with accurate proportions and a realistic expression and posture without a model. But someone with hardly any ability can sit down with a photograph and turn it into a drawing that is much more realistic than anything I can create from my mind. I am humanity - the person copying the photo is AI. If we give AI access to all human art and speech, it will copy it better than anything we can make.

 

[paranoid marvin]

There's no doubt about it, AI is here to stay. And it will fill a need. Read all the Harry Potter books? Want some more? Not only will AI write us a story similar to HP about a boy wizard making his way through school, it will also (if we wish) write us the next 5 volumes of his story.

Want to know what happened to Sam Gangee after LOTR? Want the further adventures of Aragorn? Or do you want a story which is very similar to Tolkien's original, but produces a different outcome? Would you like a more graphically violent version of LOTR, or perhaps a HP or LOTR book written from the perspective of Sauron/Voldemort?

All these things will be possible; not through commercially sold books (which would never jump through all those legal hurdles) but through at-home apps, where you type into the parameters you require, and out will pop a book written just for you.

The stuff of dreams, being given exactly what we want? Yes. And no. One of the beauties, and the joys, of reading is to have a need fulfilled that we never knew existed; to have a novel speak to us of love or life in a way that we hadn't thought possible.

Remember that book you picked up that changed your perspective on life? That helped define the person you are today? That filled a space in your heart and your soul that you didn't realise was there? That didn't come about through reading a story where you knew exactly what it was you were getting; quite the opposite in fact.

This is where AI will fail. Where it will fall short. And where the human author will excel. Because AI doesn't understand what it means to live. Or love. Or laugh. And it never will. That is its weakness; and that is our strength

Perhaps one day AI will evolve to an extent when it vecomes self aware; that it picks up a paint brush, or a pen and paper, or a video camera and decides to create something because it wants to; not because it has been instructed. Such an evolution will cease to be 'artificial' intelligence, and will become 'real' intelligence; and then whatever originaity or inspiration it creates will be worth reading or watching or commentating upon. But that is for the future.

 

[HareBrain]

I'm less pessimistic than Swank about AI's ability to replicate the talent of a real author. Given that large language models are basically a highly advanced predictive text, it can't do anything truly innovative or unpredictable except by accident -- and if it does it by accident, it won't be able to judge whether it's a happy accident or a bad one. AI can't truly play, nor think emotionally, and I can't see how it will get to the point where it can. The day AI comes up with an original and funny joke, I'll be very surprised.

 

[Brian G Turner]

Hello everyone,

I was doing mundane tasks and decided to put on a guilty pleasure of mine. Often I watch true crime or UFO documentaries.

I fancied a bit of vacuous UFO stuff, but when I selected the program, the title card read, this program was created, researched and voiced by AI

Is this part of Amazon’s new business practices? If so, I will be cancelling my subscription.

There is no shortage of producers, directors researcher actors and all the other people that go into production. Amazon does not need to save money in this way. It’s absolutely disgusting and unacceptable.

There are some low-budget productions in Amazon Prime Video, some interesting, others not. I'm not sure how they get in there, but I think you'll find they are not commissioned or produced by Amazon.

 

[Parson]

If we use the Industrial Revolution as our model the likely development will be that at first (where I think we are now) the machine will be able to produce inferior products more cheaply than a human with skill could. In time (probably shorter than we imagine) it will be able to produce works that are roughly equal to human craftsmanship. Eventually, much of the machine produced will be arguably better, but not as highly regarded as those made by humans. --- I think this can easily be seen in the garment industry. There are human tailored bespoke pieces which are extremely well crafted and designed and whose cost is out of the reach of 95% of the population, and then there is everything else all the way down to the level of what is called disposable fashion. --- Resulting in a very few highly paid crafts people, and most everyone else doing quality control and the like at a very low wage.