One of the most unexpected aspects of the advent of AI is the way it’s being developed. In many ways LLMs and related models are becoming commoditized. Science fiction usually depicted artificial intelligence originating in some secret government research lab, or being used in the shadows by some megalomanic billionaire.

Who could have predicted we would see free AI chatbots and art generators open-sourced on a website called “Hugging Face” with new announcements being decorated with rocketship and exploding brain emojis? I certainly did not.

The meta-theme underpinning every news article and PR announcement relating to the newest AI breakthrough is how shallow and immature the discussion is. There’s no real philosophical thought about the long-term implications of this technology. The only caution seems to be how to enshrine the bankrupt post-post-modern ideas of our time into the AI so it can’t be used to rewrite their agreed-upon end of history. Criticism is limited to naive denialism of the impact of the technologies or some myopic obssesion with the economic impact of job displacement.

There’s not much in the way of thought about how this will impact the way young men and women develop. Will the children of today be able to reason without this technology? Will it lead to stagnation? Is it wise to displace so many people’s occupations that provide stability and purpose? Why are we so hellbent on outsourcing every ounce of challenge and struggle to machines?

Is having the ability to generate infinite art and entertainment as wise thing? What are the spiritual implications for man?

I don’t see much discussion on any of these points, and this is only me writing a stream of thought. I’m sure there are even deeper questions that man needs to ponder about the path we walk. But we will live through the answers to these questions, whether or not we have the wherewithal to ask them.

But for now, expect an endless flood of emoji-laden aphorisms and promises of utopia from AI-powered pied pipers who are desperate to pry open Pandora’s box as fast as is AI-poweredly possible.