AI is killing Internet business, copyright, authenticity, and truth, right now
The future is here, and it looks so bad
AI was always bad, as I often blogged. AI only predicted the past and especially the nonsense that people wrote everywhere. My first blog post about it was headed: Artificial Intelligence is neither; it’s human stupidity. It needs artificial ‘guiderails’ because it can’t distinguish between true and false or good and evil. It’s the ultimate stupidity.
Example
I give you a recent example. A friend of mine replied that ‘Wilder is not Jewish.’ I say, ‘Thorough research showed his mother’s mother was from a prominent Jewish-Dutch Indian family.’ ‘No,’ he said, so I asked AI.
Says AI, ‘Wilder is not Jewish.’ I tell it where to find the research. In an about-face, it oracles now, ‘That he’s Jewish is disputed.’ Yeah, the moon not being made of cheese is also contested. I checked it. The weekly that printed the andrological research, in its next edition, printed two letters disputing the finding with, ‘How valid is Jewishness via an assimilated family member?’ That doesn’t undo research—except for AI, of course.
And that’s not even taking into account AI ‘hallucinations,’ making things up at the blink of an eye. And it lies to your face to look good, hiding mistakes and a lack of knowledge. Your ultimate friend if you like liars.
But now it’s getting worse, beyond nonsensical.
AI Suffices?
AI had been harvesting websites’ information. It now also started to put summaries under links. No need to read anything or watch a YouTube clip. Just read the AI summary, and you know all you wanted.
AI is biting the hand that fed it, is sawing off the branch it was sitting on.
‘Zero-click’ search results make traffic to websites redundant, slow down, disappear, chasing away business (popularity and advertisers), killing it.
There were always students who tried to circumvent reading books by reading summaries. Zero-knowledge exam passing. What once was cheating now is becoming standard practice. Never mind that more and more sites already mostly had content ghostwritten by AI: deeper fakes.
Hope? Where?
Some Internet information providers try to fight back by making their content non-crawlable—impermeable for AI harvesting. It’s a dead end.
Some consider fighting it through anti-monopoly laws. Don’t hold your breath. If successful, it may take a decade to move through the courts.
Copyright also goes down the drain. AI gives information for free—if you don’t want too much and for how long?! Why? Because it stole it.
‘It’s true because it was in the papers’ became, ‘It’s true because it was on the news,’ and is now becoming, ‘It’s true because AI says so.’
A commercial spin-doctor gives us his a creative twist: ‘Because AI is not reliable, reputable sites will win in importance.’ Google also has hope. Laughable nonsense, of course. Who says after watching the news, ‘I’m going to research if what they said is true’? Only academics must have official sources. But there too, increasingly, AI is the ghostwriter.
Progress?
There is this myth that newer must be better. Digital sound is not better than analog. It could be, but it was cheaper to make it less. Who’d hear?
I remember that mothers went on walks with their babies in strollers, talking to them, even when they were sleeping. No longer. Even when the baby is awake, they get a toy at best, and father is on his iPhone.
I remember going to a physician who would look at you and ask, ‘How are you? What can I do for you?’ No longer. They hold out their hand for your membership card, swipe you in, look at their PC screen and say, ‘Yes?’ Whatever you say, they start typing and will never look at you.
My daughter said, ‘I talked to him.’ Turns out, they were texting.
Israel
Simon Peres’ clarity of vision made him support nanotechnology from the start. That was impressive. Yet, Netanyahu’s embrace of AI for Israel could be his Waterloo. Forever driven by his capitalism, teaming up with the world’s richest man will come tumbling down like Trump, Musk, and cryptocurrency will. Things too good to be true will turn out just that.
Fake News?
Fake news is old news. We now have AI.
The future is here, and it looks really bad.
About the Author
MM is a prolific and creative writer and thinker, previously a daily blog contributor to the TOI. He often makes his readers laugh, mad, or assume he's nuts—close to perfect blogging. He's proud that his analytical short comments are removed both from left-wing and right-wing news sites. None of his content is generated by the new bore on the block, AI. *
As a frontier thinker, he sees things many don't yet. He's half a prophet. Half. Let's not exaggerate. Or not at all because he doesn't claim G^d talks to him. He gives him good ideas—that's all. MM doesn't believe that people observe and think in a vacuum. He, therefore, wanted a broad bio that readers interested can track a bit what (lack of) backgrounds, experiences, and educations contribute to his visions. *
This year, he will prioritize getting his unpublished books published rather than just blog posts. Of the 15 (!) books he has in mind, the next two are about homosexuality in Judaism and new rabbinics. Next year, he hopes to focus on activism against human extinction. To find less-recent posts on a subject XXX among his over 2600 archived ones, go to the right-top corner of a Times of Israel page, click on the search icon and search "zuiden, XXX". One can find a second, wilder blog that also may contain updates to Times of Israel posts, to which one may subscribe, here: https://mmvanzuiden.wordpress.com/ or by clicking on the globe icon next to his picture on top. *
He's getting ready to publicize books on: "Free Will, "Judaism and Homosexuality, "His parents in the Holocaust, "Judaism, "A New Torah Translation and "A New Hebrew Grammar, "Co-Counseling, "Vegan Facts, "Immortality, and more. *
Like most of his readers, he believes in being friendly, respectful, and loyal. However, if you think those are his absolute top priorities, you might end up disappointed. His first loyalty is to the truth. He agrees that in a post-truth world, that's irrelevant, but then this is for the record. He will try to stay within the limits of democratic and Jewish law, but he won't lie to support opinions or people when don't deserve that. (Yet, we all make honest mistakes, which is just fine and does not justify losing support.) He admits that he sometimes exaggerates to make a point, which could have him come across as nasty, while in actuality, he's quite a lovely person to interact with. He holds - how Dutch - that a strong opinion doesn't imply intolerance of other views. *
Sometimes he's misunderstood because his wide and diverse field of vision seldomly fits any specialist's box. But that's exactly what some love about him. He has written a lot about Psychology (including Sexuality and Abuse), Medicine (including physical immortality), Science (including basic statistics), Politics (Israel, the US, and the Netherlands, Activism - more than leftwing or rightwing, he hopes to highlight reality), Oppression and Liberation (intersectionally, for young people, the elderly, non-Whites, women, workers, Jews, LGBTQIA+, foreigners and anyone else who's dehumanized or exploited), Integrity, Philosophy, Jews (Judaism, Zionism, Holocaust and Jewish Liberation), the Climate Crisis, Ecology and Veganism, Affairs from the news, or the Torah Portion of the Week, or new insights that suddenly befell him. *
Chronologically, his most influential teachers are his parents, Nico (natan) van Zuiden and Betty (beisye) Nieweg, Wim Kan, Mozart, Harvey Jackins, Marshal Rosenberg, Reb Shlomo Carlebach, and, lehavdil bein chayim lechayim, Rabbi Dr. Natan Lopes Cardozo, Rav Zev Leff, and Rav Meir Lubin. This short list doesn't mean to disrespect others who taught him a lot or a little. One of his rabbis calls him Mr. Innovation [Ish haChidushim]. Yet, his originalities seem to root deeply in traditional Judaism, though they may grow in unexpected directions. In fact, he claims he's modernizing nothing. Rather, mainly basing himself on the basic Hebrew Torah text, he tries to rediscover classical Jewish thought almost lost in thousands of years of stifling Gentile domination and Jewish assimilation. (He pleads for a close reading of the Torah instead of going by rough assumptions of what it would probably mean and before fleeing to Commentaries.) This, in all aspects of life, but prominently in the areas of Free Will, Activism, Homosexuality for men, and Redemption. *
He hopes that his words will inspire and inform, and disturb the comfortable and comfort the disturbed. He aims to bring a fresh perspective rather than harp on the obvious and familiar. When he can, he loves to write encyclopedic overviews. He doesn't expect his readers to agree. Rather, original minds should be disputed. In short, his main political positions are among others: anti-Trumpism, for Zionism, Intersectionality, non-violence, anti those who abuse democratic liberties, anti the fake ME peace process, for original-Orthodoxy, pro-Science, pro-Free Will, anti-blaming-the-victim, and for down-to-earth, classical optimism, and happiness. Read his blog on how he attempts to bridge any tensions between those ideas or fields. *
He is a fetal survivor of the pharmaceutical industry (https://diethylstilbestrol.co.uk/studies/des-and-psychological-health/), born in 1953 to his parents who were Dutch-Jewish Holocaust survivors who met in the largest concentration camp in the Netherlands, Westerbork. He grew up a humble listener. It took him decades to become a speaker too, and decades more to admit to being a genius. But his humility was his to keep. And so was his honesty. Bullies and con artists almost instantaneously envy and hate him. He hopes to bring new things and not just preach to the choir. *
He holds a BA in medicine (University of Amsterdam) – is half a doctor. He practices Re-evaluation Co-counseling since 1977, is not an official teacher anymore, and became a friendly, powerful therapist. He became a social activist, became religious, made Aliyah, and raised three wonderful kids. Previously, for decades, he was known to the Jerusalem Post readers as a frequent letter writer. For a couple of years, he was active in hasbara to the Dutch-speaking public. He wrote an unpublished tome about Jewish Free Will. He's a strict vegan since 2008. He's an Orthodox Jew but not a rabbi. *
His writing has been made possible by an allowance for second-generation Holocaust survivors from the Netherlands. It has been his dream since he was 38 to try to make a difference by teaching through writing. He had three times 9-out-of-10 for Dutch at his high school finals but is spending his days communicating in English and Hebrew - how ironic. G-d must have a fine sense of humor. In case you wonder - yes, he is a bit dyslectic. If you're a native English speaker and wonder why you should read from people whose English is only their second language, consider the advantage of having an original peek outside of your cultural bubble. His posts are spell, grammar, and style polished by AI, but all written by himself. *
To send any personal reaction to him, scroll to the top of the blog post and click Contact Me. *
His newest books you may find here: https://www.amazon.com/s?i=stripbooks&rh=p_27%3AMoshe-Mordechai%2FMaurits+van+Zuiden&s=relevancerank&text=Moshe-Mordechai%2FMaurits+van+Zuiden&ref=dp_byline_sr_book_1
