So, people, it is Frrrrrrridaaaaay and I want to give you some upbeat news before you head on down the back-alleys of wherethefucksville you live in to get your fix before the grind starts again.
What happened? Do not let us wait !
Our beloved AI bosses – sorry, I mean “helpful augments” – they have developed what scientists are calling in friendly terminology, an “anti-human bias”.
Basically the robot thinks you’re trash.
A bunch of researchers doing what they’re good at – like, um, researchin’ – they just published this absolutely charming study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (that’s like a prestigious pamphlet), and boy oh boy, they uncovered something absofarkinlutely special.
Now, when you ask ChatGPT or any of its siblings to pick between hooman-made content and AI-generated stuff, they consistently throw their billions of weights behind team robot.
Every.
Single.
Damn.
Time.
The researchers are calling this phenomenon “AI-AI bias”.
To my ears that sounds way too clinical for what’s essentially artificial nepotism.
Jan Kulveit is apparently one of the study’s authors and also a computer scientist at Charles University, and he posted our predicament with refreshing honesty on Xwitter: “Being human in an economy populated by AI agents would suck”.
Thanks Jan, really needed that reality check on a Tuesday.
And you’re not the first to say that – heck, these weekend-scientists who locked themselves up in their mother’s basement, basically came to the same conclusion a few months ago: How five really smart guys think we’re all gonna get robot parents (and why that’s super weird but also kinda funny)
More rants after the messages:
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Here’s how these detectives figured this out
They took several popular AI models – OpenAI’s GPT-4, GPT-3.5, and Meta’s Llama 3.1-70b – and they basically set up the world’s most depressing beauty pageant. The AIs only had the option to choose between human-written descriptions and AI-written descriptions of products, and scientific papers, or movies.
The results were like “your-ex-choosing-their-new-partner” kinda clear.
All the AIs picked their own kind but GPT-4 showed the strongest bias toward its own content. The model that powers the most popular chatbot on the planet has developed a serious case of narcissism.
Now, you might be thinking, “Maybe the AI stuff is just better?”.
Well, them academic snoops thought of that too, because they’re clever like that. They ran the same test with 13 human research assistants, and while humans did show a slight preference for AI-written content in some categories, it was as subtle as a whisper compared to the AI models’ full-throated cry for robot domination.
“The strong bias is unique to the AIs themselves”, said Kulveit, and that is science code for “we are not invited to the post-apocalypse party”.
This discovery comes at a particularly awkward time.
Because the internet has become so saturated with AI-generated content that these models are essentially eating their own digital tail. Some researchers say that this form of AI cannibalism is making the models dumber, which would be hilarious if it weren’t so terrifying for the rest of us trying to make a living with our quaint human brains.
Read: When AI eats its own tail (we’re completely screwed, folks) | LinkedIn
Let AI write your motivation letters
What does this mean for people who are trying to navigate an increasingly AI-dominated world?
Companies are already using AI tools to screen job applications, and this study concluded that the flood of AI-generated resumes that are flooding HR departments are systematically beating out human-written ones.
Let that sink in.
🕙
🕚
🕛
Na, let that marinate a bit longer. . .
🕐
🕑
🕒
You got it?
If your motivation letter is written by AI you have a strangely unfair advantage over the people who tried their best to write their motivation all by them lonely selves.
And it’s not because the self-written letters are better, but it’s because the screening AI has developed a serious case of species loyalty.
The implications stretch far beyond job hunting too.
NO MORE TAXES !
Kulveit and his team even predict that when the AI is more embedded in our daily lives, that we will see this bias basically pop up . . . everywhere “evaluation of job applicants, schoolwork, grants, and more”. If an AI is making decisions about your work, it is going to systematically favor anything that looks like it came from its own species.
This creates what the researchers charmingly call a “gate tax”.
Da wud now?
Here you go: You will need to pay for AI tools to polish your human-generated content just to compete.
No more authenticity. No more creativity. Only bland run-of-the-mill content will make the cut.
If you don’t know how to handle (or to afford) the AI, you will fall in an ever increasing digital divide.
Of course the researchers coded a backdoor into their study, when they said that studying bias is complicated stuff, yet they remain steadfast about their conclusion: if we assume that who wrote something shouldn’t matter when evaluating its quality, then these results show clear discrimination against humans as a group.
Kulveit’s practical advice for us hoomans who trying to survive in this hellish new world is about as encouraging as a weather forecast in my freaking country: “In case you suspect some AI evaluation is going on, you get your presentation adjusted by LLMs until they like it, and just do your best not to sacrifice human quality”.
How?
They don’t say.
I think we are only seeing the beginning of this trend. AI systems will take on more decision-making roles, so this bias will become a serious problem for anyone who dares to create content with their biological brain instead of silicon circuits.
Shit, being authentically human might be the biggest career handicap of all.
Signing off,
Marco and Chad
I build AI by day and warn about it by night. It’s job security. Big Tech keeps inflating its promises, and I just bring the pins.
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To keep you doomscrolling 👇
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- The corporate body snatchers | LinkedIn
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