“When readers found the reality about how the ebook was created, many had been damage. I deeply remorse that, however it was vital,” he says.
WIRED interviewed Colamedici in a dialog that explored the nuances of his challenge.
This interview has been edited for size and readability.
WIRED: What was the inspiration for the philosophical experiment?
Andrea Colamedici: Initially, I educate immediate pondering on the European Institute of Design and I lead a analysis challenge on synthetic intelligence and thought methods on the College of Foggia. Working with my college students, I spotted that they had been utilizing ChatGPT within the worst potential manner: to repeat from it. I noticed that they had been dropping an understanding of life by counting on AI, which is alarming, as a result of we stay in an period the place we’ve got entry to an ocean of data, however we don’t know what to do with it. I’d usually warn them: “You may get good grades, even construct a terrific profession utilizing ChatGPT to cheat, however you’ll turn into empty.” I’ve educated professors from a number of Italian universities and plenty of ask me: “When can I cease studying tips on how to use ChatGPT?” The reply is rarely. It’s not about finishing an schooling in AI, however about how you study when utilizing it.”
We should hold our curiosity alive whereas utilizing this instrument appropriately and educating it to work how we would like it to. All of it begins from a vital distinction: There may be data that makes you passive, that erodes your capacity to assume over time, and there may be data that challenges you, that makes you smarter by pushing you past your limits. That is how we should always use AI: as an interlocutor that helps us assume in another way. In any other case, we gained’t perceive that these instruments are designed by massive tech firms that impose a sure ideology. They select the info, the connections amongst it, and, above all, they deal with us as prospects to be happy. If we use AI this fashion, it’ll solely affirm our biases. We are going to assume we’re proper, however in actuality we won’t be pondering; we can be digitally embraced. We are able to’t afford this numbness. This was the start line of the ebook. The second problem was tips on how to describe what is occurring now. For Gilles Deleuze, philosophy is the power to create ideas, and at this time we want new ones to know our actuality. With out them, we’re misplaced. Simply have a look at Trump’s Gaza video—generated by AI—or the provocations of figures like Musk. With out strong conceptual instruments, we’re shipwrecked. A superb thinker creates ideas which can be like keys permitting us to know the world.
What was your objective with the brand new ebook?
The ebook seeks to do three issues: to assist readers turn into AI literate, to invent a brand new idea for this period, and to be theoretical and sensible on the similar time. When readers found the reality about how the ebook was created, many had been damage. I deeply remorse that, however it was vital. Some folks have stated, “I want this writer existed.” Properly, he doesn’t. We should perceive that we construct our personal narratives. If we don’t, the far proper will monopolize the narratives, create myths, and we are going to spend our lives fact-checking whereas they write historical past. We are able to’t enable that to occur.
How did you utilize AI that will help you write this philosophical essay?
I need to make clear that AI didn’t write the essay. Sure, I used synthetic intelligence, however not in a traditional manner. I developed a way that I educate on the European Institute of Design, based mostly on creating opposition. It’s a mind-set and utilizing machine studying in an antagonistic manner. I didn’t ask the machine to write down for me, however as an alternative it generated concepts after which I used GPT and Claude to critique them, to provide me views on what I had written. All the pieces written within the ebook is mine. Synthetic intelligence is a instrument that we should study to make use of, as a result of if we misuse it—and “misuse” consists of treating it as a form of oracle, asking it to “inform me the reply to the world’s questions; clarify to me why I exist”—then we lose our capacity to assume. We turn into silly. Nam June Paik, a terrific artist of the Nineteen Nineties, stated: “I take advantage of know-how with a view to hate it correctly.” And that’s what we should do: perceive it, as a result of if we don’t, it’ll use us. AI will turn into the instrument that massive tech makes use of to regulate us and manipulate us. We should study to make use of these instruments appropriately; in any other case, we’ll be dealing with a significant issue.
