Yet another generative AI remark - data, documents and interpretation

Documents and "evidence" are capable of multiple interpretations - including evaluations of reliability and accuracy and authenticity. Furthermore, different documents and evidences can appear to be contradictory - and this contradiction depends on analysis and interpretation - and generally they need to be integrated into a consistent interpretation. This depends on meticulous and careful analysis (including logical, linguistic and stylistic analysis), logical deduction, inference, hypothesis building, hypothesis testing, mutual comparison and evaluation of different hypotheses, historical reconstruction, counterfactual reasoning, decision - together with synthesis and abstraction.

All human intellectual progress (as well as jurisprudence and medicine) are based on a similar process. Scientific papers, books and data-sets are the unit documents and "evidences" which need to be evaluated, interpreted, revised, compared and harmonized. And not enough emphasis is given to the contingent sociological factors that shaped modern mathematics as well as the defeasibility, capacity of improvement, clarification and reformulation of mathematics proofs.

The above constitutes a powerful argument against the extensive use of Wikipedia and social media as vehicles for education and human intellectual progress. But most importantly, it supplies ground for rejecting the use of generative AI, which should be deemed harmful and of little valued save under very controlled and specific circumstances. The subtle process of analysis, interpretation, critical evaluation and harmonization is out of the reach of a crude statistical mashup of tokens extrapolated from already questionable, shallow and largely corrupt, unreliable and compromised data-sets.

There is a flow of consciousness and a train of thoughts. But the same goes for the flow of information in our life-experience.  Many important advances come through seemingly chance encounters and discoveries (for instance finding a book in a second-hand book store, browsing through one's own half-forgotten things in the attic,  or a chance meeting with someone or the sudden occurrence of a new idea sparked by a casual conversation). Generative AI and social media destroy the way our cognitive, semantic, informational and social spaces were organized and stratified and harmonized together allowing such moments to occur in a meaningful and life-enriching way.  Social media is the negation of the true sociality and social potential of mankind just as generative AI is the negation and counterfeiting of intelligence, research and authentic linguistic expression.