How generative AI is trying to rip the screaming soul out of the Enlightenment

The Enlightenment is seen as the Age of Reason, science and technological progress, but it was equally an age of expression – writers, artists, musicians etc. We often have a strong desire to balance the ‘Mind’ – our faculties of reason and problem-solving – with ‘heart and soul’ – our faculties of feeling and emotion and expression. The article argues that these two poles of ourselves have a tense relationship, especially under capitalism, and that generative AI represents the former attacking the latter: the tech tool-builder class – which represents the spirit of industrialism – has been enlisted to build automation technology that will attach the spirit of romanticism, for the purposes of cutting costs for enterprise. The question is whether societal backlash against AI will be stoked by this sense that the romantic and sublime is being automated

AI isn’t doing anything. It’s just a tool and humans still make the bad decisions.