Boomers and AI
I've seen a lot of commentary describing AI as boomer technology. I don't have any data on that, but I can see why the boomer generation, as well as Gen X and older millennials, might be drawn to it. They've been doing things manually that they didn't want to do, so a tool that handles that work for them is like magic.Then another side of this too is that they've grown up under the ideas of what success looks like. Get a white‑collar job, maybe influenced by their parents or society, but they wanted to create something, yet they never built the skill. So they see these tools and think, "Oh, I've always wanted to write a novel; I have some ideas," or "I've always wanted to be an artist," and create something. They use these tools as a shortcut to make up for those lost decades, but I don't think there's an illusion that someone making themselves into a UFC fighter is calling themselves an artist. Yes, it might look like AI slop to others, but to the person creating it and the people who like it, that's entertainment. And so it is the same form as someone scrolling on TikTok, watching a YouTube video, or Netflix, which also have their detriments to the environment and society.