How generative AI is destroying society

Two Boston University law professors, Woodrow Hartzog and Jessica Silbey, just published the preprint of a new paper that blew me away and called How AI is destroying institutions. I urge you to read and think about it as soon as possible.

Here is the summary.

I hope that before the article is finally published, the authors will add the word “Generative” before “AI” in the title, since that is what the force of their criticism (as the last sentence of the abstract acknowledges) is really about current Approaches, not every possible approach to AI that you can imagine.

But, wow. This is one of the clearest and most powerful articles I have read in years. Here is the first paragraph.

If you wanted to create a tool that would enable the destruction of institutions that support democratic life, you couldn’t do better than artificial intelligence. Authoritarian leaders and tech oligarchs are using AI systems to undermine public institutions with astonishing speed. Institutions that structure…