This content originally appeared on DEV Community and was authored by M. Eddoum Arteex
I wake up, and if you’ve already woken up too, you might relate to my thoughts. But if not, I may sound like I’m losing my mind—and you wouldn’t be wrong.
Sorry for the dramatic start. I know this post feels personal, like something I should write in a journal or discuss with a close friend while we're a little high, but I’m sharing it here. As I write this, I’m afraid of sounding like a clueless boomer.
I’m pretty sure we share at least one of these feelings or questions:
- Time has lost its value, and it flies by too fast.
- AI is killing the internet.
- There's fear of the unknown future.
- Why do we always feel outdated?
- Why do days seem so repetitive?
The last five years have flown by, and this last year has been the fastest, filled with too many changes. From my perspective, it’s always linked to the misuse of our innovations. Humanity has been making mistakes for a long time. Innovation itself might be the first mistake we’re still paying for, and every attempt to fix it—to make life peaceful again—seems to lead to more mistakes.
Take the discovery of iron: one of the greatest resources, it helped us make tools to survive, but also knives and weapons that caused more death. Or plastic, initially created to save the environment, but now one of the worst inventions, harming the environment more than helping it.
Now we’re facing the same dilemma with AI, a trendy new invention. It's everywhere—in software like apps, hardware like phones, even cars. With AI tools, a task that used to take me an hour can now be done in seconds, with results that are fast and accurate.
AI can create visual content—videos, articles, images, even music. And people are finding it harder to tell AI-generated content from human-made content, and it’s only getting better. In some cases, AI feels like a blessing, a useful tool. But when misused, it becomes a curse, one that will completely ruin the internet. Let me explain how.
I see AI as a small stream that could grow into a flood of dominance. As you know, the internet has been a great tool for people to reach their goals, share knowledge, and learn from each other. It has given individuals the opportunity to be discovered. Everyone online contributes to the internet, especially creators who provide original content. Whether you're a writer, a video maker, a programmer, or a designer, you're part of this ecosystem.
The internet is mostly made up of visual content shared on platforms like YouTube or TikTok. These videos are, or should be, created by humans. But when AI-generated videos take over, you’ll feel like you're watching endless variations of the same thing. Over time, this will devalue content and stifle creativity.
The same thing will happen with articles or images. You’ll be wary of consuming content because you won’t know if it was made by a human or generated by AI.
To understand my perspective, let’s look at the evolution of online culture. I believe it has gone through four major eras:
- 1. 2000-2008: The Messaging Era
- 2. 2008-2016: The Messaging and Gaming Era
- 3. 2016-2023: The Influencing and Gaming Era
- 4. 2024 and beyond: The Influencing and AI Era
This means that from 2000 to 2023, the internet was driven by humans. But from 2024 onward, it will be increasingly shaped by AI.
Imagine using YouTube, searching for "How to tie a tie." The platform then generates a full tutorial just for you, with a realistic human body and voice showing you how to do it. Or it could create an informative video in a style similar to Kurzgesagt. This could discourage human creators from producing content. Who would want to spend time and effort creating something, when tools can generate content that’s sometimes even better?
Soon, you won’t be able to tell if a piece of content was made by a human or a robot. It’ll be like playing a game against bots—you’ll get bored, lose interest, and disengage from the digital world. At first, this might seem good, as it could push people to focus more on real-life things. But unfortunately, we’re so reliant on online services now that we won’t stop using them. Instead, we’ll be stuck consuming endless, repetitive content, browsing unreliable sources, and falling for fake news and unchecked information created by AI.
It’s true—we created bots, but now those bots are creating something that’s burning down what we’ve built. By relying on AI to create content, we’re destroying everything we've worked so hard to make. It’s like setting fire to a masterpiece you spent years perfecting.
AI isn’t just killing the internet or media culture—it’s becoming a dangerous tool. Its development is illogical. Companies are racing to provide the best tools that can replicate human results. With just one image and a few seconds of your voice, AI can generate a full video that never actually happened, instilling fear in people and making them vulnerable to fabricated videos.
The rise of AI is driven by amateur creators who want to make quick money. AI tools make it easy for them to create content, often without any real value or fact-checking. This frustrates professional creators and gives AI-generated content a chance to dominate the web. But eventually, everyone will suffer—starting with the companies and developers who provide these tools, followed by the consumers.
The internet was meant to be a blessing, a human innovation for communication and learning. It should be kept clean and safe. We can’t let a cursed glitch take over.
How AI Should Be Used
AI should be limited to areas like:
- Web development (to improve user experience)
- Data analysis
- Predictive modeling
- In other words, AI should be an assistant, not the one in charge of the entire process.
How to Stop the AI Culture
There’s always a solution to every problem. Here are my suggestions:
- Big companies must stop promoting AI-generated content in their search results.
- Encourage and support creators who produce non-AI content, and stop endorsing those who rely entirely on AI for content creation.
- Limit the overuse of AI tools.
- Implement advanced browser or system extensions that confirm whether content is AI-generated, whether it’s text, images, or videos.
If you have any thoughts or any suggestions on top the AI culture you can leave a comment or send them to me.
*Note: I corrected my grammar with the help of AI :)
This content originally appeared on DEV Community and was authored by M. Eddoum Arteex
M. Eddoum Arteex | Sciencx (2024-09-24T18:02:53+00:00) How to Stay Two Steps Ahead of the AI Curse. Retrieved from https://www.scien.cx/2024/09/24/how-to-stay-two-steps-ahead-of-the-ai-curse/
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