Will Machines Reshape Human Cultures?
We are already co-creating culture with machines. But perhaps less so than we might realise. Will this change? Will we allow it?
Since the dawn of modern humans, perhaps even with some of our ancestors like Neanderthals and Denisovans, we have used culture to survive as a species. All of it generated in those dizzying, ceaseless neurons flitting about inside our noggins. Culture was the exclusive domain of us. Only we created it. Until now.
The very word culture is complex and perhaps the most complicated and weird word in humanity. It has many meanings. Generally it includes our various norms, behaviours and customs, rituals and traditions. It also includes political and economic systems, militaries, aesthetics (art, literature, music etc.). But only we could create culture.
With the arrival of Generative AI (GAI), think tools like ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Midjourney, Soros and more, machines have become co-creators of culture. Mostly in the area of aesthetics like literature, videos, music and images. And they have already influenced culture.
To what degree are the machines then, co-creating culture and will we have to share this co-creation with the machines? What does this mean for human culture in the future and…
