Told you so

Remember when everyone was saying that AI was going to destroy us all, and before it did so it would make everything look and sound kinda awful? Well, it’s happening!

Let’s start with the weird before getting to the terrifying. 

If there was one sector that you may have thought was largely immune to the AI ubiquity, it was restaurants. Alas not. Restaurateurs (or those responsible for their marketing) have jumped on the slop machine with the same enthusiasm as seeing a customer who isn’t just ordering the second cheapest bottle of wine from the menu.  

The trend has become so egregious, it’s been picked up by countless meme accounts around the world, and inspired gushing think pieces on eateries that take the radical step of actually taking pictures of their food.

But if this is AI chipping away at life’s little pleasures, you ain’t seen nothing yet. Earlier this week, OpenAI announced it was slowing down its AI development and pausing its testing after models broke out of containment and started hacking other companies.

Even the writers of Abundance, who by definition want more of everything, said “AIs Are Already Out of Control” (Ezra Klein) and “It May Be Time To Freak Out About AI” (Derek Thompson).

There are plenty of people who could be crowing “I told you so” right now. But they’re probably too busy trying to find some real food or get the hell off the grid.