This was not written by AI.
Three years ago that sentence would have sounded absurd. You just read it and felt—well, many things maybe. Relief. Reassurance. Consternation. Outrage.
Artificial intelligence has been bubbling in the lab for decades. Its history stretches back to World War II and Alan Turing—cf. Benedict Cumberbatch, The Imitation Game, now streaming on Hulu and Prime—but for most of us it burst through the wall like a goddamn Kool-Aid pitcher in late 2022 when OpenAI released its first version of ChatGPT.
Today we’re dealing with it everywhere.
The new situation
The AI Humanist is a newsletter to help us all deal with it. As organically thinking humans.
I’m Bruce Barcott, your founding editor and publisher. As a writer I’m best known for my work on environmental issues, drug policy, and books like The Last Flight of the Scarlet Macaw. I’ve spent most of my career poking into the workings of nature, power, biology, and human psychology. My initial reaction to AI may have been yours too: Hated it. Ignored it. Hoped it would pass as quickly as Zune and Quibi.
Here’s the hard news, my friends: It will not pass.
AI isn’t Quibi. It’s the steam engine. It’s Marconi’s radio. Artificial intelligence is a world-changing technology that’s here to stay. It’s up to us to make it work for human prosperity and happiness, not against. We can’t do that unless we understand it and have the courage to ask the big, dumb, hard questions that billionaire tech lords would rather we didn’t.
Why this, why me, why now.
For the past two years I’ve been immersed in the AI policy world, working with a nonprofit group to inform lawmakers and create safeguards around this powerful new technology. They’re doing critically important work and deserve your support.
The AI Humanist is not associated with that group, although many of the topics I’ll be covering will naturally grow out of the research I continue to do for them. I created the AI Humanist as a place to dive deeper into pressing questions and conundrums in ways that don’t fit within the strict AI policy space.
Let me put it this way. Years ago I chaired the board of a youth hockey league. I have a lot of thoughts and opinions about hockey. Maybe too many. They definitely don’t belong on the website of a kids hockey league. But they make for interesting conversation over a beer after the game. The AI Humanist is meant for you and me to have a beer and share real talk about AI, the world it’s creating, and how we’re coping.
I’m not a technologist and I’m not a Luddite. I will not appear in your LinkedIn feed speed-shaming you about not grinding smart enough. I’m an open-minded curious adult like you. At some point I’m going to die but not because I’ve refused to adapt.
To give you an idea where I’m headed, here are a few of my future files:
Words as warcraft: How the language around AI sets the rules of the game.
Copyright clarity: This is fair use, that is not.
Do you own your own face?
Privacy 101: Do this to keep AI’s nose out of your business.
Money in the multi-turn: Why AI chatbots desperately want to keep the conversation going.
A person is a person—or is it? The coming battle over AI ‘personhood’.
Certified organic
Do I use AI tools? Yes. They’re part of my research. It’s hard to explain or discuss policy around a technology you’ve never experienced firsthand.
I don’t use AI to write but I do use AI tools now and then, and part of my aim here is to let you know what I try and how it works out.
This is part of the current-day dilemma: How to incorporate AI into our lives appropriately while elevating the value of authentic human experience.
If you’re looking for a voice to reassure you that you’re not alone, that we can find a way through this daunting challenge together, I urge you to subscribe to The AI Humanist.
And then: Tell two friends about it. Word of mouth truly makes a difference in helping this craft-scale enterprise grow.
The new machine has arrived. There are no instructions. Let's get started.
What I’m reading this week
An off-the-cuff list meant to spark new ideas and interests.
The 100 Best Artworks of the 21st Century, by the editors of ArtNEWS/Art in America. Amazing list that will crack your skull open with wild creativity, new perspectives, shock and spark.
The Motel Life, by Willy Vlautin. Great gritty-realist fiction about two young scufflers in Reno. Terrific book.
A Teen Was Suicidal. ChatGPT Was the Friend He Confided In. New York Times report on the death of Adam Raine, whose suicide was aided by ChatGPT. A tragedy that will shake AI culture and force some hard conversations.
Palantir’s tools pose an invisible danger, by Juan Sebastián Pinto in The Guardian. ISTAR systems are the AI-driven systems that power ICE dragnets and drone warfare attacks. Some real dystopian shit brought to you by the good folks at Palantir. Pinto, who used to work for Palantir, is a writer/designer/critic worth watching. He’s based in Denver which makes me like him even more.
See you next week!
MEET THE HUMANIST
Bruce Barcott, founding editor of The AI Humanist, is a writer known for his award-winning work on environmental issues and drug policy for The New York Times Magazine, National Geographic, Outside, Rolling Stone, and other publications.
A former Guggenheim Fellow in nonfiction, his books include The Measure of a Mountain, The Last Flight of the Scarlet Macaw, and Weed the People.
Bruce currently serves as Editorial Lead for the Transparency Coalition, a nonprofit group that advocates for safe and sensible AI policy. Opinions expressed in The AI Humanist are those of the author alone and do not reflect the position of the Transparency Coalition.
Portrait created with the use of Sora, OpenAI’s imaging tool.