notes on the future of content

in response to a good friend’s thesis

• existentially interested by identity formation in content creation & consumption — if it we form our identities around the things we consume (see: https://www.google.com/url?q=https://evilfemale.substack.com/p/personal-style-is-dead-and-the-algorithm?s%3Dr%26curius%3D1299,2184,562,2441&sa=D&source=docs&ust=1721748930166978&usg=AOvVaw1xaGHt2jT5V9DkKd2Pp7N_) OR the things we create — and it becomes easier to both consume and create generic content — how does that affect the way we live authentically on the internet?

  • relevant docs: Copy of SP23 Reboot Article | Identity Formation in the Age of Digital Consumption - Google Docs

• curation-as-a-service

  • my intuition is a batch of curation apps rise in response to content overload
  • next-gen curation tools: are.na, curius, pinterest, cosmos, twitter
    • ai can’t directly define “good taste,” just what’s popular and well-responded to. i still trust recs from internet friends > recommendation algorithms (which is lowkey my normie irl friends)
    • aka there’s a bunch of shit on the internet — how do we cut thru and find the good shit
    • i also think there’s a consumption ←> curation ←> creation feedback loop, with most ppl consumers
      • curating is how you actively engage w the content u consume, and i curate with the intention of creating something in response to it

• ai in the creative loop

  • AI and the human creativity cycle | mathu’s thoughts (mathurah.com)
  • how do we leverage ai to help our creation process rather than replace it entirely?
    • from my exp in the graphic design program @ copenhagen, a lot of traditional artists are (justifiably) distrustful & look down upon gen ai output. totes valid. but then my professor made us use gen ai to help us create characters for a story.
    • i actually rlly enjoy using ai chatbots to help me brainstorm idea (e.g. asking dot how to visualize my friend graph)
    • Linus on Ai as a collaborator (2021, AI as a creative collaborator | thesephist.com)
  • ai within established creative tools
    • e.g. gen ai in lightroom (an actual savior to photo editors), DALL-E within Playbook (which i use for the 4TB free storage lmao) Playbook AI - Create & Store all Your AI Art & Prompts (toolspedia.io) Playbook AI

• ai content general use case vs specific verticals

  • Bruno Koba on X: “I’ve been investigating vertical AI startups profoundly for the past few weeks. I think we’re in a very strange part of the cycle in AI startup funding/development. Some thoughts (hot takes?) 1. Literally every vertical (finance, law, healthcare etc) is now populated with AI” / X
  • Garry Tan on X: “I don’t think it’s too late to enter almost any software market with an LLM-powered alternative if you want to. We are seeing tiny teams of a few people build valuable software leapfrogging incumbents with even today’s frontier models (get enterprise sales) The war will be” / X
  • “war on retention”
  • you prob have way more expertise to speak on this HAHH

• disruption of the publication industry /my personal aspirations

  • im rllyy curious by the future of content honestly. im trying to see the long term vision of my writing passion and idt it’s writing a book. is it becoming a think piece writer? short-form content creator?
  • i think there’s some next-gen end goal for writers. and i think we need to ride the early wave!
  • aligns with the new types of content — i think static words is not enough for me but idk what it is
    • ai is revitalizing generic content — ChatGPT Is About to Write BuzzFeed Content - and Investors Love It - Business Insider
    • https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666954423000194?curius=3996
    • → in these two studies (prob biased) ai-generated content is great at maximizing consumer engagement numbers (prob bc engagement can be “gamed” — humans are monkey brain and like patterns, which is perfect for algorithms)
      • im struggling to articulate how to measure/optimize for “meaningful” // identity-based // non-generic content. like content that makes me actively engage and think instead of passively scroll and consume. e.g. substack content
      • a random question i have: can ai form / interpret metaphors?
        • metaphors llms x language
        • in “Metaphors We Live By”, George Lakoff and Mark Johnson* argue that metaphors aren’t just poetic or rhetorical flourishes, but fundamental elements of human thought and language.
          • so rabbit-holey but llms excel at language but linguists contend they are not models of thought
            • succeed at formal competence, generating meaningful and coherent texts, but fail at *functional *compoetence

• remixing creative content

  • https://www.theverge.com/2023/4/20/23690825/google-advertising-generative-ai-plans-remix-content?curius=984

• a little off topic but some deep dives on networks for later

  • https://www.eugenewei.com/blog/2020/9/18/seeing-like-an-algorithm?curius=830,1756,1684,1889,1523,4306

• human identity in social networks

  • https://generative-identity.org/human-identity-the-number-one-challenge-in-computer-science/?curius=1927