Over the past few months, I've been experimenting with AI to build bits of software and revamp this Panda website and my coaching site. In doing so, I've spotted a pattern which I'm sure you'll be familiar with.
I ask for something and it comes back almost right. I then go back and forth trying to refine it. Doubts arise. Sometimes I revert to a sketch pad. We get there in the end.
AI gives us an approximation of quality. It rarely hits the nail on the head. It's easiest to spot in things like writing, or animation, or interaction design, where we 'feel' it when something is working.
When we read a great writer or watch a great scene in a film, it's satisfying because it's exactly right. It doesn't almost work. It really works. So well that it reminds us what real quality is.
I don't know for sure, but my assumption is that the models have been trained on quality stuff and on mediocre stuff. So when they choose what to present to you, there will always be an element of the mediocre in it. A great writer, filmmaker, software developer, or skilled worker in any field is defined by how they've lifted themselves above mediocrity by consciously filtering it out.
So where am I going with this?
Well, I think there is a danger that a lot of people and organisations will settle for approximate quality. The first, seemingly good response is very hard to resist. And if you don't really care about what you're doing, you won't.
It gets worse when the person using AI couldn't do the task without it. They can't judge the quality, so they accept what they're given.
The result is an approximate world, where things look about right on the surface but don't bear close inspection.
Does that matter? I think it does. I think we like to support other humans who are doing good things. It's most obvious in the arts, but it applies more widely. It's why branding exists. Brands give us the human cues we need to feel good about buying. We like to feel that another human is talking to us, even if they're selling a shampoo. If we know it's a robot we'll lose interest.
AI is amazing, and it will get better, but for now, it's not good enough to know what will convince another human. Right?