Anti-AI sentiment will get massive applause at SXSW 2024 as storytellers dub AI cheerleading as ‘terrifying bullsh**’

A whiff of anti-AI sentiment obtained massive applause on the SXSW convention in Austin this afternoon. Award-winning writers and administrators Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, collectively referred to as “DANIELS,” initially premiered their movie “Everything Everywhere All At Once” at SXSW in 2022. The film later went on to win 7 Oscars, together with Finest Image, Finest Director, and Finest Screenplay. In a dialog about the way forward for storytelling, the duo commented on the inevitable rise of AI and tips on how to strategy it, calling the expertise each “amazing” and “terrifying.”

As Kwan first defined, fashionable capitalism solely labored as a result of we compelled folks to work, slightly than compelled them to take action.

“…We had to change the story we told ourselves and say that ‘your value is your job,” he instructed the viewers. “You are only worth what you can do, and we are no longer beings with an inherent worth. And this is why it’s so hard to find fulfillment in this current system. The system works best when you’re not fulfilled,” he stated, then pausing. “Which brings me back to AI,” Kwan continued, to a thunder of applause and cheers.

Remarking that the gang should love AI, given the hoots and hollering that was being heard, Kwan admitted that many individuals will name the expertise superb and he agreed.

“It’s magic,” he stated. “It’s probably going to solve cancer. It’s probably going to give us a lot of climate solutions. This is a powerful thing,” Kwan continued. “But I’m really terrified of what this new story we’re going to have to tell ourselves in order to accept this new convenience, this new progress. It’s terrifying,” he added, as a single solitary voice cheered within the now in any other case quiet crowd.

“So imagine what this technology will do within this current system, within this current incentive structure. This is the same system that brought us climate change, income inequality, and the general lack of gratitude and understanding of our worth and the worth of those around us,” Kwan stated.

Plus, he famous, in case you are feeling anxious about AI, it’s most likely as a result of, deep down, you’re subsequent. “Even if the jobs aren’t going to be lost, the value of the job will go down, right?… It will slowly be compounded and normalized until we don’t even realize it,” he stated.

Kwan pointed to how social media had already altered our story. A expertise meant to attach us ended up making us lonelier than we’ve ever been. However, with AI, we nonetheless have the chance to “rewrite the stories and rewrite the systems for tomorrow,” he defined.

Nonetheless, he cautioned that didn’t imply we might select to disregard AI’s progress and even its usefulness.

“I also want to say, we’re not saying ‘don’t use AI.’ I don’t believe in dogmas. I don’t believe in that kind of puritanical lifestyle — it doesn’t work. AI is here. It is going to be rapidly deployed in every aspect of our life,” Kwan stated.

Scheinert agreed, including that, as an alternative, folks ought to take into consideration why they’re utilizing AI.

“Are you trying to use it to create the world you want to live in? Are you trying to use it to increase value in your life and focus on the things that you really care about? Or are you just trying to, like, make some money for the billionaires, you know?,”  Scheinert requested the viewers. “And if someone tells you, there’s no side effect. It’s totally great, ‘get on board’ — I just want to go on the record and say that’s terrifying bullshit. That’s not true. And we should be talking really deeply about how to carefully, carefully deploy this stuff,” he stated.

The gang then erupted into sustained applause.

They, too, had their reservations about AI, it appeared.

Kwan jumped again in so as to add that individuals want to have a look at why it “feels so wrong to use AI,” whereas additionally surviving this present setting the place AI will principally be all over the place. He additionally reminded the viewers why we create artwork.

“Why did we write ‘Everything Everywhere All At Once’ the way we did? And the answer is, we did it to save ourselves. Every story…that we make is an act of saving ourselves and our value from a system that wants to devalue us and the people that we care about,” Kwan stated.