let's talk about AI

and why i hate it so much

Listen. I have made no secret of my increasing abhorrence for and suspicion of artificial intelligence. I find it lazy at best, exploitative at worst, and frequently both.

Earlier this week, Scarlett Johansson, a person I respectfully do not much care for, did something I appreciated: used her significant platform to call out (see also: threaten to sue) OpenAI and its CEO Sam Altman.

Why? Because OpenAI, in its infinite wisdom, decided to use a voice eerily similar to Johansson’s for its ChatGPT program, even after the actress had declined the offer to license her voice several months ago. In an unquestionably happy turn for Johansson’s legal team, Altman tweeted the below on May 13, the day the new voice was revealed:

Now, I’m a big fan of coincidences, but tweeting “her,” famously the title of a 2013 film in which Johansson voiced a highly-advanced AI bot? On the day “Sky,” the new ChatGPT voice that sounds just like the actress’s, who was offered and then rejected to voice the same, debuts? A lot of people have called Altman’s tweet stupid, but it’s more than that: this is the work of someone whose company has been allowed to steal from less famous people, unimpeded, for years — until it foolishly tried to take advantage of Johansson, a person who has sued Disney and won.¹ 

Say what you will about highly litigious people, but when their actions help those of us without the resources to legally take on massive corporations, I’ll swallow my pride and applaud them.  

Important to note that I have been cheesing my way through beautiful Seattle for a couple of days, but the amount of Ama*on and M*crosoft buildings and branding I’ve seen have affected me (derogatory).

Clara, why do you hate AI so much?

I have to deal with this question on an annoyingly regular basis from [REDACTED], so let’s make this a post that I can add to my personal FAQs, shall we?