What is the new television show Pluribus about?
Quick primer: Pluribus is on Apple TV, from the creator of Breaking Bad, starring the lead of Better Call Saul (the one who wasn’t Saul). It’s seventh episode of nine premiers tonight.
It is ostensibly about an alien virus infecting the entirety of the human race except for 13 people, forming a hive mind where everyone is joined to a collective We instead of being an individual. There is no more crime, no more war, no more wasteful consumption of resources. It’s a utopia.
Or is It?
As a technologist, marketer, and business consultant, my view of the show is ever so slightly different. To me, it’s not a sci-fi story about the ultimate Invasion of the Body Snatchers.
It’s about AI.
It’s a direct response to the emergence not of an alien force, but of ChatGPT.
Consider this:
In the world of Pluribus, everyone on Earth besides the 13 “individuals” share the same collective memory, knowledge, expertise, and training. A T.G.I. Fridays server can fly a jumbo jet, a teenager can re-wire a power grid. Everyone on the planet can elucidate the meaning behind any of William Shakespeare’s sonnets, and tell you the history of each of Vincent van Gogh’s sunflower paintings. If one of the 13 individuals were so inclined, they could hang the Mona Lisa in their house.
But will anyone ever again be able to paint an original creation like the Mona Lisa? If all minds are now one collective hive, who will be able to use their experiences and creativity and engineering to make new art or new inventions?
Sound familiar? It’s the argument against AI slop.
Up to this point, the internet survived based on original content. A mechanic might make a YouTube video about how to change a spark plug. An accountant could write an article on the best tax deductions. Arc Intermedia would provide tips on proper tracking of digital marketing efforts.
These experts would share their expertise, and they would be rewarded with traffic and, hopefully, sales.
Since the invasion of ChatGPT, the fear amongst businesses has been that, if an LLM simply provides an answer instead of linking to an article, the creator of the article never earns that traffic, so no longer has an incentive to write original content, which no longer gives the LLMs original fuel to provide a good answer. The result is a snake eating its tale analogy of LLMs using AI-generated content to train LLMs to create more AI-generated content, and gone is original thought based on real-world expertise and innate creativity.
To me, Vince Gilligan and his facial hair have created an original work of art about how the proliferation of AI will end the creation of original works of art.
Is he right?
Maybe, but I believe we can stop it from happening. I believe we can prevent the Pluribusizing of humanity to AI invaders.
Here are my suggestions for each and every individual one of us:
- Continue learning. Don’t get an answer from an LLM and then move on without learning the underlying reasons behind the answer.
- Continue remembering. Don’t let your mind convince itself that it never needs to remember anything, because everything is a quick prompt away. It’s much better for you to learn something and remember it on your own.
Continue creating. Asking ChatGPT to paint William Shakespeare plucking a sunflower in the style of van Gogh is fun, but you know what’s more fun? Leveraging your own creativity. Don’t feel creative? Good news: Creativity is an unlimited resource that can be trained and cultivated. The more you act creative, the more creative you become. - Continue writing. Don’t forget how to structure a sentence. Because the next step will be forgetting how to structure a thought. It’s critical for society at large that you maintain your ability to write and edit without the assistance of AI.
- Check sources. AI answers are tremendously helpful. They’re also prone to hallucinate, and currently there is no solution for preventing hallucinations. So always always always check the cited sources accompanying the AI answers. Perhaps you’ll even get inspired to start researching and learning further.
- Don’t give up. We’ve heard from businesses that stopped producing original content and stopped conducting SEO, giving in to the false assumption that search is no longer an effective method for generating leads. Search remains the most effective method for gaining leads. You just need to know how to leverage the new world of search. That’s where Arc Intermedia’s AI & Organic Visibility program comes in.
What is AI & Organic Visibility?
When ChatGPT first hit the scene, my colleagues at Arc Intermedia had a premonition of the future. We immediately started working to understand how and why it works, and how and why it would impact the act of online searching.
As a result, we are now leaders in AI visibility, or ensuring that when an LLM provides an answer and cites a source, it’s your answer and your source.
This means you don’t have to give up! No more assuming that the snake will eat its tail into oblivion. You can fight back. You can take control. You can get the LLMs to work for you.
It starts by making first content. Reach out to us. We’ll talk you through the process, and explain how you are still very much in this fight.
So are we doomed to a Pluribus world of our own making?
No!
We will not reach the point Vince Gilligan is envisioning. Our consciousness — our humanity — will not be consumed by the AI slop.
Not if we all pledge (together, but individually) to fight back against the onslaught of AI, against the ease of laziness. Not if we agree to remain creative and inventive and explorative.
Pluribus is not coming for us. But I do highly recommend you watch the show. It’s great art, made by a very human collective of great artists.
