Is AI Suppressing the Truth…Oh! And the semi-colon?

St Paul is scathing in his criticism of those who suppress the truth…as was Jesus before him…and Isaiah before Christ.

‘The wrath of God is revealed against all…who suppress the truth in unrighteousness’ Rom 1v18

‘Woe to you scribes (interesting?) and Pharisees! For you shut the door of the kingdom of heaven against men; you neither go in yourselves nor permit others who are entering to go in’ Matt 23v13

‘Truth has fallen in the public square’ Is 59v14

When Mao, Stalin, and Hitler burned books, the world witnessed the power of dictatorships to suppress the truth. Watching Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 - the temperature that paper burns - at school was a good use of education.

Like all of us, I am watching the development of AI with interest. My antennae are twitching, trying to sift, discern, weigh, not condemn wholesale…but there’s more than one way to dictate what others are permitted to read or not. Burning books is one way. Preventing good literature (and awful literature) from ever reaching the printing press in the first place is another.

I’m in hunch territory. I’m seeking to understand; maybe you have more expertise in this area and would like to comment?

My hunch is this. AI is a powerful, time-saving, algorithm-driven managerial tool that can analyse the market and influence the market in the same breath. At one end are unscrupulous ‘authors’ who cash in with AI-authored ‘material’ (I could use a more Anglo-Saxon word). But are the invisible hands of the market-manipulating AI algorithms designed to maximise the profit and positioning of publishing houses, too much of a fiscal temptation for struggling publishing companies to resist?

One shudders at the thought of a new original writer, such as a Dostoyevsky, or GK Chesterton, or Charlotte Brontë, failing to comply with the market algorithm - the computer says No.

~~~

Now, if that’s a bit heavy, as a contrast, I found myself falling in love this afternoon - with the semi-colon. 

(Visitors to my website and fb page may have already read the poem: Semicolon Love).

Invented in 1494 by Venetian printer Aldus Manutius, the semicolon has stirred the hearts of lovers and opponents ever since: in 1837, two Parisian lawyers fought a duel over the use of semicolons; the prosecution of Nazi criminals at Nuremberg was almost undermined due to the effect of a semicolon obscuring the legal definition of War Crimes; Kurt Vonnegut said ‘Do not use semicolons. They are transvestite hermaphrodites representing absolutely nothing’; Mark Twain considered semicolons as ‘ugly as a tick on a dog’s belly’, and Leo Tolstoy’s love of a semicolon is best illustrated by his famous Anna Karenina quote, ‘Happy Families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way’.

And now the ; has found renewed use as a symbol to dissuade troubled minds from ending life prematurely.

Would I fight a duel over the humble semicolon? Unlikely. But I would stomp my foot to defend the semicolon from any existential threat, from any quarter.

I wonder, are you a fellow lover or a loather of the semicolon?

John Stevens

The Bait Digger (Resolute Books) – a historical spy novel set in 1796  (Amazon)

When the Rabbis Cry (Westbow Press) – a biblical and historical exploration of Israel post-resurrection (Amazon)

Website: www.unlessaseed.com

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