Recently, a rock climbing partner mentioned that he had used AI to create a motivational poster for his bedroom wall. It featured a bear walking a slackline over a canyon, holding a sign that read “Do cool shit.” The man seemed proud of it, but also puzzled that nobody ever commented on it. Polite noises are apparently the most common reaction.
There is something deeply unsettling about that story, beyond the obvious combination of motivational poster kitsch and AI-generated imagery. Unlike a handmade piece of art, even a clumsy one, an AI poster involves no real effort, no expression of the maker's mind, and no investment of time or attention. The person who prompted it did not draw the bear, compose the scene, or struggle with color and composition. There is nothing to react to because nobody actually made anything.
This anecdote is a useful entry point into Mark Zuckerberg's latest effort to sell the world on AI's future. The Meta CEO has published a 6,500-word manifesto, reportedly written by him or his communications team, that attempts to define a positive vision for artificial intelligence. The essay is clearly meant to counter growing backlash against AI: people resent data centers and higher electricity bills, and prominent AI executives have warned of painful job losses. Anthropic's CEO has said the technology may cause “unusually painful” unemployment across many industries. OpenAI's CEO has faced violent attacks at his home. Zuckerberg's response is to promise a soothing, streamlined future where AI boosts productivity and creativity for everyone.
The manifesto and its key promises
Zuckerberg's essay contains several familiar assurances. First, everyone will have a personal AI agent that understands you, your goals, and everything you care about, working around the clock on relationships, health, career, finances, home management, and hobbies. Second, everyone will have incredible tools for creation to express their ideas. Third, everyone will have access to powerful tools to create new businesses. Fourth, everyone will have a personalized tutor and coach with a PhD in every subject. Fifth, everyone can benefit from and contribute to scientific advances. Finally, Zuckerberg suggests that the best AI models should be freely available, rather than paywalled.
Some of these promises are impossible to evaluate because they assume technologies that do not yet exist. But the deeper problem is what Zuckerberg leaves out. For each proposal, the presumed outcome is accomplishment: a better recipe, a new business, a faster learning curve. There is no room for pleasure, experience, self-knowledge, or self-expression as ends in themselves.
The manifesto also includes sections meant to address criticisms. Zuckerberg says Meta is building power sources for some data centers in the future, though he does not ask for renewable energy. He invokes “preventing government tyranny” as a reason to trust AI. He offers a defense of Meta's AI-powered glasses, a position that critics find indefensible. And he dismisses doomsayers, writing: “It is surprising that the discourse from many developing AI is so filled with doom. I do not understand why anyone who believes that AI will eliminate most jobs and much of humanity's relevance would rush to build that future.” A reasonable response is that he could simply have picked up the phone and asked the people who express these concerns. Instead, he offers a vision that treats human life as a series of tasks to be optimized.
Relationships require attention, not automation
The most striking promise is the personal agent that improves your relationships. What strengthens a relationship? Almost always, it is personal investment. An AI might be better at predicting what your father wants for his birthday than you are, but it cannot give him your time and consideration. Love is not just a feeling; it is a way of paying attention.
Zuckerberg illustrates his point with an example: he asked an AI to pick a “personalized” recipe to bake with his daughter. A father who wanted to share an experience might instead think about what his daughter enjoys, what she can already do, and what he can teach her. He might pick a family recipe and tell her about his grandmother. Even a failed recipe could be a fun story. The AI shortcut removes all of that
Source:The Verge News