Since OpenAI launched ChatGPT in November 2022, generative artificial intelligence (AI) has taken over Google search results, transformed how we see em-dashes, run rampant on human mental health, and even led to new vocabulary with “AI slop,” a term coined to describe meaningless content byproduct. The main entities excited about AI seem to be, by far, tech companies and CEOs. However, plenty of people are already sick of generative AI and the way it’s wormed its way into our lives.
On Thursday, December 4, Mother Foucault’s Bookshop hosted a panel of artists, writers, workers’ rights advocates. Dubbed “Machine Nightmares,” the forum of around eight known Portland locals came prepared to discuss AI critically, but also to build up camaraderie between those who resent the machine takeover.
Overall, those on the panel agreed about AI’s obvious problems. Its derivative creative output is made possible through stealing from human creators. The technology is being sold to businesses as a way to cut staff, but its use has led to harrowing examples of mental health crises and measurable instances of problem solving decay. And it does all of this by gobbling up immense amounts of energy and water resources.
Portland-based artist and activist Roger Peet moderated the talk, starting off with a material analysis of AI and the people pushing it on us.
“For centuries, magicians have been telling kings that they have access to the ability to produce value out of nothing,” Peet said. “AI is the latest version of the magic spell that makes the worker disappear.”
He went on to paint an image of the CEOs behind the AI hype factory as cowardly and pathetic:
“Wealth capital, the force that is driving the construction of these engines of artificial intelligence, is scared of being alive. It's scared of things it can't understand, and most importantly, it is afraid of dying, of dissolving back into the world it came from and becoming something else,” Peet said. “The only thing the rich fear more than death is losing the pile of money they've built up over the course of their boring and unhappy lives.”
In suggesting how to push back against the technology’s ubiquity, speakers encouraged the audience to organize their workplaces to protect their jobs from robots and to embrace the Luddite tradition.
Photographer Celeste Noche came at the topic of resistance from a different angle, observing the value of shame in preventing ego-driven artists from turning to AI.
“When you see a photographer using AI photos, roast them, eviscerate them,” she offered. “To embrace AI in this climate, in an industry already struggling to retain and support creatives, they're telling us that they don't believe in a better collective future for artists."
Not all the speakers were equally antagonistic toward AI. Nick Eng, a nurse and Oregon Federation of Nurses and Health Professionals secretary, said he was open to the various ways AI and other technology could be assets in the healthcare industry. But he also said it was crucial that frontline workers have a say in the tech’s rollout.
Since the first iteration of ChatGPT was launched, generative AI has become more sophisticated, making it harder to differentiate its output from images and writing produced by humans. But there’s still a lot that separates people and machines. The speakers at “Machine Nightmares” encouraged people to embrace those differences, even when it might be easier to stay home and talk to your computer.
Portland writer and musician John Niekrasz said people can be annoying. It can feel arduous to schlep out of your house on a chilly evening to hang out with them, especially when AI apostles say you can get everything you need from a chatbot. But Niekrasz advised to fight against the urge to isolate, pointing out that “annoyance is the price we have to pay to have community, and it’s worth it.”
“What scares me most is seeing how we're all moving slowly toward further isolation, at least in part because of capitalist technology,” Niekrasz said. “There's a real pressure there to remain in connection, to keep needing each other. I think we need to keep annoying each other.”
Related: Can You Watch Avengers: Endgame If You've Never Seen an Avengers Film? We took John Niekrasz to see it and asked him.
Author Lydia Kiesling spoke about dwindling career opportunities for authors and journalists, who used to be able to squeak out a living in the old media ecosystem. Kiesling mourned the glory days of the internet, before blog articles were covered in Amazon affiliate links and AI slop. But she encouraged the audience to embrace their humanity—in all its messiness—and help forge a new path forward.
“Some of you I first knew because of the internet, and now I know you in real life. And we're using the tools in ways they never planned, because now we're all here together in a room saying, ‘fuck ChatGPT,’ and that's beautiful,” Kiesling said. “God, doesn't it feel good to be reminded that you care about something so strongly it makes you feel alive? That's something a machine can never be.”
Overall, the most promising takeaway may have simply been the fact that the conversation was happening at all, drawing people out of their houses on a rainy winter night. Nobody knows exactly how to fight back against the purported intelligence of AI, but events like these give us a better shot of figuring it out.
