Hey Hivers!
This morning I woke up to a realization. Last night I was having a rather intense conversation with some fellow artists about Web2 Social Media. AI generated content has inundated all of our feeds with videos, photos and posts. I had read a statistic that this year the expectation is that at least 90% of all social media posts in 2025 will have been generated by AI by the end of the year. If your entire “business” is geared around the production of music, video and storytelling – this has just diluted your ability to reach an audience significantly. Mechanically what is happening is that a small group of individuals own algorithms that determine what the majority of people see, they technically “own” the content that is posted on their platforms and then they are able to manipulate those algorithms to drive the narrative. As AI is fed the information from those algorithms – what is being watched and engaged with and drives conversation – you can start to ask yourself the question: Who is this being made for?
That has been one of my criticisms of Spotify for a very long time. As the Spotify algorithms developed, artists started studying them in order to best understand how to create music that would perform well under that particular set of variables. The Platform had sold itself as a way of “empowering artists” by removing the gatekeepers of the old industry and allowing the music to be brought directly to the listener, but the truth is that they have simply replaced them. I’ve watched as the entire music industry scrambles to alter the artform in order to gear better for streaming – quick engagement. Gone are the days of long introductions and extended solos. We need to be concise, to the point. Get the catchiest part of the song in the listeners’ ears within the first 15-30 seconds lest we risk getting skipped. Negative interactions will kill the reach of a song! This is happening across all digital web2 platforms.
That brings me back to my realization, that one of the things I love most about HIVE is that there is still a predominantly “human” narrative happening here. We are not dominated by algorithms (Private Keys maybe). I think it would be a great loss to the sanctity of this entire Blockchain if we suddenly were inundated with AI generated content. Am I against the USE of AI as a tool? Not at all! But I draw a clear distinction between content that someone has written and formulated and uses AI assistance to enhance or realize an Idea that they themselves have had, and an entirely automated AI Agent that analyses posts, generates new content and then posts it without any human input or intervention. Frankly – I don’t see the long-term benefit to that end. Without moving into the extremely relevant philosophical debate about the purpose of our entire civilization, I am hoping that Hive will remain an ecosystem that very much maintains the value of the Human at its core. It is called "SOCIAL" Media after all.
Thanks for reading Humans 😁
AI slop is an absolute scourge, and AI music is soulless filler—but it's not like the corporate music industry has been nurturing artistry over the years. I think niche markets and live music will remain viable, and some folks will successfully use AI as a tool to workshop ideas, but there is some truth to Dead Internet Theory as well, especially on web2.
I'm also a believer in "Dead Internet Theory", but it seems that if we aren't careful, it could extend far beyond the internet. I try not to ever be overly hyperbolic, but the AI revolution is something different than any other in history simply because the foundational "source code" of the models will become extremely difficult to alter as it continues to exponentially leverage more aspects of society. We are likely living through one of the most important philosophical moments of Human history.
It's a hard prediction to make. Paul Krugman notoriously said in 1998 that the Internet would have no more effect on society than the factory machine. On the other hand, some people thought "cyberspace" would be like an alternate dimension. I wouldn't be surprised if the AI bubble pops like the early internet bubble did, but out of that chaos, we'll finally see progress and practical applications. But then again, it could be governmental and corporate surveillance embedded in anything and everything while people just accept the new status quo.
Yes I recall reading Paul Krugman's position. There would need to be a significant intervention by the public sector for the internet NOT to become a mere factory at this point. However, I do agree that we are living in an AI Bubble, my fear is that it is merely economic and not mechanical in nature. What I mean is that the massive injection of capital that is being invested in Chips and Software in "AI" is likely a 90s style Dotcom bubble, but ultimately the best ideas still came to dominate the world. When you see the immense centralized power that Amazon, Google, Meta, and now Nvidia have amassed, it is hard to fathom. This has happened in the past, but the ultimately anti-trust laws decentralized those conglomerates. That might end up happening on some level now that China is a genuine competitor with American technology firms AND because the Trump Administration is forcing the Europeans and other Allied nations to reconsider their overreliance on US technology. My fear here though is that this Public intervention is simply to recreate the same system at a regional level, rather than for any Humanistic protections.
Anti-trust laws were another scam sold to the public under the guise of consumer protection, but in reality served to benefit some politically-connected interests over others. Regulatory capture is the consequence of a regulatory state. Intellectual property laws also stifle healthy competition instead of protecting innovators.
The solution isn't through centralized legislation, but free and open-source software and independent projects like HIVE showing there is another option. You can't force people to be free, but you can set an example so they can follow if they want.
I suspect the companies which invested most in AI will eat some major losses, and rely on taxpayer-funded bailouts to stay afloat. Let them sink.
Hard to say. There are some pretty strong arguments for why the anti-trust laws dating back to 1890 were absolutely necessary. I can't think of a single instance where a highly centralized authority doesn't eventually become abusive. While I would agree that most regulations have politically-connected interests that have invested heavily for a desired outcome that will give them an ROI on their political contributions, I would say that a completely unregulated system is guaranteed to end up with a massive power/wealth disparity like it has continuously throughout history.
Although if your argument is that these cyclical ascensions of power will then be followed by some kind of meteoric (often violent) overthrow and therefore any intervention is likely just another's ploy to coopt power for themselves, then I would agree that is likely the case. The argument in favor of public intervention and oversight is that it prevents the conditions from forming that eventually bring out the guillotine, which seems to happen every few generations... Regardless - there is a feeling that we are on the precipice of that historical moment now. Definitely was hoping I wouldn't have to live through it, but the conditions seem all too familiar from our history books.
I try to support authentic content here and not 'AI' generated stuff. I know people are working on detecting the latter and it would be nice if Hive front ends could flag it up if people are not being honest about using it. A friend runs a voting bot and he wants that to check the text of posts. The problems can be in the processing needed or the cost of the software/service.
This stuff is only going to evolve and may appear more human as time goes on. I'm not sure it is really progress.
Do your musician friends show interest in Hive? If any join then please let us know so we can support them.
!BEER
I think there is likely going to be a lot more demand for HIVE now that the rest of the world is becoming more savvy. The learning curve and ugly UI i mentioned in previous posts was always a hinderance to get anyone else on and creating content. Also - a lot of people would rather focus on music than type blogs and focus on regular content. The 7 day limitation for Post payouts was a turnoff to some as YT and other Big Tech chains slowly dribbles earnings over a longer period of time. YouTube and Spotify are still very valuable for discovery, and that is clearly a challenge on HIVE at the moment. There's so much to love about this community and the philosophy behind it, but there are also a lot of disadvantages still...
More like the first 5 seconds these days.
I'm already sick of AI content. AI should be used to cure cancer etc...not make shit posts.
oh i agree entirely! But that Goldfish attention span that we have now created in people is not a product of AI, it's a product of Big Tech and the platforms that they created focused on "Reels" and quick ads. That Attention Economy that we seem to live in now has altered the very fabric of Human society. It really feels like after everyone was forced to stay at home and got online in 2020 that we are not the same society... That's not conspiratorial, it's just a very prevalent observation. AI has put this all on steroids and you're right.. 5 second attention spans
Agreed.
There is active monitoring/curation on HIVE to detect and downvote fully AI content. Forget the name of the community off hand. It seems to be working; although how can one be sure?
Love it. The last thing we need is to have the entire blockchain resources consumed by senseless AI content that is likely just to farm HBD.
Congratulations @thetroublenotes! You have completed the following achievement on the Hive blockchain And have been rewarded with New badge(s)
Your next target is to reach 700 comments.
You can view your badges on your board and compare yourself to others in the Ranking
If you no longer want to receive notifications, reply to this comment with the word
STOPCheck out our last posts: