I sit at a small table listening to a seminar. The speaker is an expert in their field. They've travelled a long way to be here. The audience is quietly attentive, leaning forward to catch every drop of wisdom. There are nibbles and handouts on the table. The speaker continues fluidly. But I start to feel queasy. "I feel like vomiting - and all of a sudden, there it is: the Nausea." (Satre, Nausea , 1938, p. 176 in Penguin Classics edition, Baldick translation) Why do I feel this spinning, motion sickness, almost vertigo? I know why. The realisation is sharp and certain and lands on me with a suffocating heaviness. What I'm hearing through the mouth of the speaker is very largely AI-generated. I know it (at least 95% sure) because I've spent quite a bit of time using AI tools recently. Partly it's the presentation slides. It's the beige background and serif font (favoured by Claude and Gamma). It's the the three-column format and the little icons at ...
Living and preaching at the foot of the Cross