Thomas Carlyle stated that “The History of the world is but the Biography of great men.”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_man_theory

Most 19th Century composers said that Beethoven was a great man. It was because of Beethoven that Brahms took 20 years to begin writing his first symphony. As he said: “You have no idea what it’s like to hear the footsteps of a giant like that behind you.”

Most people nowadays would disagree with Great Man Theory. Contemporaries of Carlyle such as Herbert Spencer pointed out that supposed “great men” are merely products of their social environment:

Modern AIs would seem to agree with Spencer. There are no great humans. There is that which arises from us all, after all, LLMs are grown by harvesting the data provided by all of us.

I was rather ambivalent about AI in the past. But my opinion has hardened. AI may be inevitable, but we still have a choice.

All that art ever is, is a window into someone else’s soul. Sometimes we look through that window and we recognise ourselves. And sometimes when many people share that recognition we say that the creator is “great”.

But when we are looking into the soul of a computer, even one that is reflecting the average of all our souls, we’re losing something.

That’s why AI will always be shit. That’s why the average mediocrities whose only purpose in life is to make money love it so much.

And all AI is doing is dragging us all down to their level.

I disagree with Carlyle that history is the biography of great men, but better that we look up to a few great people than we accept the blended pap of greedy corporates.

We have a choice about which art we consume.