AI F1
A friend of mine who sings the praises of AI has suggested that I might farm out Touchstone fundraising letters to AI or perhaps even have it write an article or two for the magazine. What could I say? I shook my head in silence. Failing to catch my meaning, he assured me that improvements to AI over the past year have it writing at a professional level.
“So what?” I said. “Why would anyone want to read it?”
“Because,” he said, “it writes well.”
Again I said, “So what?”
I have all but given up trying to explain my opposition to AI to those who seem to think that, if AI can be programmed to mimic the best writing of which men are capable, then why wouldn’t I want to use it? I tell them that I presume AI is now every bit as capable as they say and will be doubly so six months from now. And still I say, “So what?” And still they earnestly try to convince me that AI writes every bit as well as I just conceded it does.
My friend is a Formula 1 racing fan, so I tried a new angle: “I am certain that if they took the men out of the cars (and the pit crews out of the pits), AI drivers could churn out better lap times than their human counterparts every time.”
He found my suggestion ridiculous. “Who would want to watch that?”
J. Douglas Johnson is the executive editor of Touchstone and the executive director of the Fellowship of St. James.
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