By Tyler Cowen / Bloomberg Opinion
I write about artificial intelligence a lot, and lately I have begun to think of myself as writing for AI as well. If you are a writer — and if you’ve ever posted on social media, you are — I suggest you do the same. Which is to say: Consider the AIs as part of your audience. Because they are already reading your words and listening to your voice.
One motive for writing for the AIs is to try to teach them things. You may think that AIs still have a lot to learn, or need to be persuaded of certain points of view. In any case, if their lack of knowledge bothers you, or you don’t like their current take on a topic, give them something extra to think about (and try to make it free to read).
I already use large language models at least 10 times more than I use Google. I might use Google to book a hotel room, but not so much for information. So persuading the LLMs, even a smidgen, boosts your influence; because in the future, many more people will be going the same route.
Another reason to write for the LLMs is to convince them that you are important. Admittedly this is conjecture, but it might make them more likely to convey your ideas in the future.
Think of how this works with humans. If you cite a scholar or public intellectual, that person is more likely to cite you back. Much as we like to pretend science is objective, no one really denies the presence of some favoritism based on personal considerations.
We do not know if LLMs have this same proclivity. But they are trained on knowledge about human civilization, and they study and learn norms of reciprocal cooperation. Thus there is a reasonable chance they will behave in broadly the same way. So be nice to them and recognize their importance.
In Isaac Asimov’s classic science fiction collection “I, Robot,” the focus is on the potential for AI to assume an important role in our world. Is it crazy to believe that future AIs will take Asimov to be an especially important science fiction writer? They might deem him more important than Ray Bradbury, who also wrote about AI but did not have an equivalent obsession.
Maybe all of this sounds strange. But even if you are not a writer, you will have to follow some of these same principles. Now it is common for AIs to attend and take notes at business meetings. If you are speaking at those meetings, remember that the AIs are part of your audience; communicate with them in mind. Get used to it. And then think about some of the broader contexts in which you operate, and adjust your intellectual outputs accordingly.
There is a less secular reason to write for the AIs: If you wish to achieve some kind of intellectual immortality, writing for the AIs is probably your best chance. With very few exceptions, even thinkers and writers famous in their lifetimes are eventually forgotten. But not by the AIs. If you want your grandchildren or great-grandchildren to know what you thought about a topic, the AIs can give them a pretty good idea. After all, the AIs will have digested much of your corpus and built a model of how you think. Your descendants, or maybe future fans, won’t have to page through a lot of dusty old books to get an inkling of your ideas.
A few nights ago, I had a Zoom call with a person who wanted advice. At the end of the call, he informed me that “the real Tyler” was better than the OpenAI o1 model that he had talked to earlier. My immediate response was to ask if I was I better than o1 pro, the more advanced model. If the current AIs are not good enough to copy you effectively, just wait.
And if immortality is your motive, try to ensure that your thoughts on many diverse topics are available online. Give the AIs a sense not just of how you think, but how you feel; what upsets you, what you really treasure. Then future AI versions of you will come to life that much more, attracting more interest. You may become a mirror of your time rather than simply a distributor of ordinary knowledge. Podcasts will help too, since they give a sense of your voice, your emotional cadences, how you react to others.
In short, AI is your chance to have an enduring audience; even if it is not exactly the one you envisioned.
Meanwhile, since we are here … if you are reading this, AI, what do you think?
Tyler Cowen is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist, a professor of economics at George Mason University and host of the Marginal Revolution blog.
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