“When readers found the reality about how the e-book was created, many had been harm. I deeply remorse that, nevertheless it was obligatory,” he says.
WIRED interviewed Colamedici in a dialog that explored the nuances of his undertaking.
This interview has been edited for size and readability.
WIRED: What was the inspiration for the philosophical experiment?
Andrea Colamedici: To begin with, I train immediate considering on the European Institute of Design and I lead a analysis undertaking on synthetic intelligence and thought techniques on the College of Foggia. Working with my college students, I spotted that they had been utilizing ChatGPT within the worst doable means: to repeat from it. I noticed that they had been shedding an understanding of life by counting on AI, which is alarming, as a result of we dwell in an period the place we have now entry to an ocean of information, however we don’t know what to do with it. I’d usually warn them: “You may get good grades, even construct a fantastic profession utilizing ChatGPT to cheat, however you’ll grow to be empty.” I’ve skilled professors from a number of Italian universities and plenty of ask me: “When can I cease studying use ChatGPT?” The reply isn’t. It’s not about finishing an training in AI, however about how you be taught when utilizing it.”
We should maintain our curiosity alive whereas utilizing this instrument appropriately and educating it to work how we wish it to. All of it begins from an important distinction: There’s data that makes you passive, that erodes your skill to suppose over time, and there’s data that challenges you, that makes you smarter by pushing you past your limits. That is how we must always use AI: as an interlocutor that helps us suppose in another way. In any other case, we received’t perceive that these instruments are designed by massive tech corporations that impose a sure ideology. They select the information, the connections amongst it, and, above all, they deal with us as prospects to be happy. If we use AI this manner, it can solely affirm our biases. We are going to suppose we’re proper, however in actuality we is not going to be considering; we will likely be digitally embraced. We are able to’t afford this numbness. This was the start line of the e-book. The second problem was describe what is going on now. For Gilles Deleuze, philosophy is the flexibility to create ideas, and in the present day we’d like new ones to know our actuality. With out them, we’re misplaced. Simply take a look at Trump’s Gaza video—generated by AI—or the provocations of figures like Musk. With out stable conceptual instruments, we’re shipwrecked. thinker creates ideas which can be like keys permitting us to know the world.
What was your purpose with the brand new e-book?
The e-book seeks to do three issues: to assist readers grow to be AI literate, to invent a brand new idea for this period, and to be theoretical and sensible on the identical time. When readers found the reality about how the e-book was created, many had been harm. I deeply remorse that, nevertheless it was obligatory. Some individuals have stated, “I want this writer existed.” Effectively, 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 permit 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 standard means. I developed a way that I train on the European Institute of Design, primarily based on creating opposition. It’s a mind-set and utilizing machine studying in an antagonistic means. I didn’t ask the machine to put in writing for me, however as a substitute it generated concepts after which I used GPT and Claude to critique them, to present me views on what I had written. Every little thing written within the e-book is mine. Synthetic intelligence is a instrument that we should be taught 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 skill to suppose. We grow to be silly. Nam June Paik, a fantastic artist of the Nineties, stated: “I exploit know-how to be able to hate it correctly.” And that’s what we should do: perceive it, as a result of if we don’t, it can use us. AI will grow to be the instrument that massive tech makes use of to regulate us and manipulate us. We should be taught to make use of these instruments appropriately; in any other case, we’ll be dealing with a significant issue.
