By Invitation | Artificial intelligence and society

Large language models will upend human rituals

The results could be disturbing, argue Marion Fourcade and Henry Farrell

Illustration: Dan Williams

ARTHUR C. CLARKE wrote a story in which the entire universe was created so that monks could ritually write out the nine billion names of God. The monks buy a computer to do this faster and better, with unfortunate consequences for the rest of us. The story’s last sentence: “Overhead, without any fuss, the stars were going out.”

From the September 7th 2024 edition

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