🔮 AI & culture; European defense & innovation; crypto emperors; lost languages ++ #379

Hi, I’m Azeem Azhar. I convene Exponential View to help us understand how our societies and political economy will change under the force of rapidly accelerating technologies.

🧭 I am away this weekend taking my youngest daughter camping, so this week’s EV is a little shorter than normal. Premium members will get my thoughts on what the new defensive posture in Europe means for innovation and the green transition separately – see the Sunday Commentary below, and a special announcement in my End Note.

The near future

🤔 AI hype
A great deal of children’s fiction is formulaic and dreadful. This is why a combination of large AI models (such as GPT-3 and DALL-E) can produce illustrated children’s stories that could pass muster. This tells us less about “artificial intelligence” but more about “natural stupidity” –  the dumbing down of media and culture in the name of sales volume.

Elsewhere: Karen Hao on how big company AI hype doesn’t match reality. This is a  great analysis of how computatio…