Have you noticed the stream of “new” music on YouTube? A flashy cover in the style of the genre, convincing keywords—hard not to click.
And often the track is beautiful. There’s only one problem: you can’t tell whose album it is. Somewhere deep in the comments, the channel owner admits under pressure: “Well yes, it’s AI.”
You might think: if the product is good, who cares? We invite AI into our work and life more and more.
There’s no issue when the machine handles routine. Trouble brews when it fakes the human hand. AI didn’t create anything new. It fed on the heritage made by people before it.
A clear “Made by AI” label is needed, but the question is much larger.
Erasing the line between human and machine is unacceptable. Ambiguity breeds confusion, conflict, madness—and in the end, death. Or at least, not life.
Think this is an exaggeration? Follow the thread to the end.
Imagine one day everything around you, and everyone you meet, is artificially generated. Instead of people—bots. Instead of nature—Photoshop. Instead of touch—impulses through electrodes in your brain.
No nausea yet? I’m already queasy.
No wonder ancient people feared any kind of double. Blurring differences between people multiplied the risks of misunderstanding, disputes, violent flare-ups—and could doom the whole tribe.
We brushed off the experience of our ancestors and now multiply doubles and lies. Social media, like mirrors, create billions of reflections, each more similar to the last. Why be surprised by the rise in mental illness, isolation, unrest, and war?
Creativity, love, humor, nostalgia, empathy, self-reflection, morality belong to humans (and in early form, to animals). Handing this to a machine—even playfully, even “just pretending”—means betraying the best in us.
In the end, I hope we set the boundaries: where AI harms and where it helps.
For now I have a simple filter: “Track dropped five days ago? Shoo!”
Yours sincerely,
-Alexander
As a business therapist, I help tech founders quickly solve dilemmas at the intersection of business and personality, and boost company value as a result.
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