@jamesshelley Thank you for such a thought-provoking article. I plead guilty to sometimes asking AIs for information on facts and finding the resulting, largely unsourced, lists of information useful. But I also struggle with the thought of having to separate ideas from the sources, people, and contexts from which they arose, and what this might portend for the future.
Two examples.
Last week I was teaching a piano student who was struggling with a piece. On a lark, I asked the Aria AI from the Opera browser what some practice tips might be. Aria effortlessly generated an unsourced list of 7 generic but useful tips on how to practice the piece. But what missing was the gentle encouragement and pinpoint listening of a teacher and how they can motivate a student and direct their growth, as well as the unforgettable feeling of that same student's satisfaction at being told the next week that they've done some great work, with room for more improvement in a few places. All that is lacking with an AI's straight-up list of what to practice.
When I studied Canadian Lit at UBC years ago, our prof brought in an elder to teach us about Indigenous literature. As a tenured white professor, he might have been able to teach us the facts we needed to know with a certain degree of understanding. But it would have lacked the ring of authenticity and embodied experience and he knew it. We learned some hard truths from the elder, including the widespread abuses that happened in residential schools. This was in the mid 80s, nearly 10 years before anything was reported in the press. Now imagine asking an AI about indigenous Canadian literature. You might get useful answers, but it would be completely lacking in context, in who gets to speak with authority about the subject.
So I'm going to continue having fun blogging and engaging with bloggers. I probably won't write as many listicles as I used to (knowing where they'll end up), but will try to keep reading and listening from as many diverse sources as possible.