We did it! We finally finished reading through Wineburg and Caulfield’s Verified. We discussed the last couple chapters and post-script sections in class this week. We’re also finishing up our own Verification Quests, implementing the strategies we’ve learned on a “real-world” situation, and moving on to the Interactive Nonfiction.
The final sections of Verified covered emotions and AI. Emotions are a tool more than a guiding force, which is something I’ve learned from mentors throughout my life, but in an IRL application–so it was honestly really cool (and it makes sense) to see that those ideas translate to our online experience as well. It feels easy to me to separate our real-world experiences from our online ones, but then we need to remember that humans built the internet. As strange and sometimes disconnected as it can feel from real life, it’s still made by people for people. Our behavior and habits can sometimes travel really well between the two spaces.
The authors had included a post-script in the book discussing AI. They mentioned things we had pretty much already covered in class, like how AI can be used as a tool to gather information, but that it’s still essential to double check that info and make sure the AI pulled from legit sources. It likes to make things up, not because it knows what it’s doing, but because it just strings together the most mathematically likely sentence. Facts aren’t always the most widely dispersed things, unfortunately, so we can’t 100% trust AI’s “most probable” approach.
During the class discussion, one of my classmates said something I thought was pretty remarkable and worth mentioning when discussing the use of AI. Because it’s built to pull the next most average word out of its database, the pieces it writes will always be mediocre. That’s literally all it can write: the most average next sentence. It pulls from the bad sources and the good ones alike, evening them out and smoothing out any sort of wrinkle–or sparkle. On top of the fact that AI is theft, that’s a real convincing reason for me to continue in my aversion to using AI. I want my works to stand out. I want to use words that will stick in my readers’ heads. If all I’m creating is the mathematically-supported absolute most average piece of work, that defeats the entire purpose of writing.
Aside from the completion of Verified, we’re also digging deeper into our group project, Interactive Nonfiction. I feel like our group has a great start using Twine and its features, and I’m excited to sink my teeth into CSS utilized on a larger scale to create something really engaging.
Comments
2 responses to “We’re Basically Verified Now”
It is really strange how disconnected I feel from the internet now. I used to feel like I was in a community on social media when I first got different social media apps as a young teen. Now I feel more distant. And I’m not the only one, either. Many of my friends have voiced the same thing. Certain aspects lack genuineness, the newness that I once enjoyed. I know it wasn’t perfect or as glamorous as I remember it, but I wonder why that is. Is it a more personal feeling/experience? Or do other people feel the same? What about the internet has changed so that it feels distant?
Verified has given me some great tools to not feel overwhelmed during research. I try to avoid emotional topics online because I don’t like getting intertwined in the dramatics, but I know I need to dive in despite the storm.
Hey there. To echo the above post, I definitely feel a certain distance between the Internet and I that wasn’t there before. Your aversion to AI is something I feel as well. The section in Verified about the death of style really shook me. I’ve been trying to find my own voice in my writing for years, so it’s a little disheartening to know that mimicry is becoming more important than originality. Your last paragraph hit me right in the stomach. I want my writing to be remembered, and mediocrity is normally forgotten quickly. Our class’ discourse surrounding AI has been fascinating this semester, and I think that you’ve tied a lovely bow on it.