In his essay “Politics and the English Language,” George Orwell, perhaps more well-known for his novels “Animal Farm” and “1984,” explores how sloppy and cliché ridden language distorts our discourse, so that we fail to understand each other, and more seriously can easily be misled to agree with ideas hidden behind the cloud of imprecise language.
Orwell provides examples of words that deflect from what is actually happening. For example, he cites the use of “pacification” to describe a military strategy, “ Defenceless villages are bombarded from the air, the inhabitants driven out into the countryside, the cattle machine-gunned, the huts set on fire with incendiary bullets: this is called pacification.” The root of that word is “peace.”
Orwell’s point extends beyond strictly political contexts into other areas of human activity so arguably, if he were still alive, he would see countless contemporary examples of imprecise and misleading language. However, as prescient as Orwell no doubt was, I imagine he would be even more dismayed by the state of our discourse in the age of the internet and now, even more so, as AI has further intervened between and among us in the ubiquitous online world we all now inhabit whether we prefer to or not.
AI generated content forces itself into our lives, often as an uninvited guest. The old stereotype of intrusive selling was the foot of the seller in the door of the intended customer, back in the ancient days of door-to-door salespeople. Now AI generated content does the job of that foot in the door.
The foot now is an email from an unknown source containing a flattering introduction, indicating a level of familiarity with whatever you are doing like the ancient salesperson’s smile, followed by an offer to provide assistance in promoting your success, one especially tailored to your specific circumstances.
As a writer whose work has received some recent and genuine recognition, I have been approached almost daily by scammers promising to build on that recognition. That kind of attention, now enhanced in the online world, has long been directed at folks, performers or creators, whose efforts have raised their public presence.
Nothing new here, you might say.
But there is. Which brings us back to Orwell’s criticism of what he saw as the debasing of our discourse. He was talking about real people using real words.
However, now instead of real people we have AI generated content fed by a little online searching for easily available details, such as, let’s say, the plot summary of a novel. Using AI, present day scammers can repackage available material as though it is coming from an actual person. And as I have discovered, not only repackaged words but also artificially created imagery such as a banner announcing a proposed appearance on a radio show, adds to the scammer’s pitch.
So, George, sorry, but things, thanks to technology, have only gotten worse, one might even say, much worse.
Arguably, two things seem to be true: some folks will always try to cheat other folks, and improved technology just makes that effort easier. Door to door salespeople were replaced by electronic intrusions, instead of the knock on the door, first audio intrusions of advertisements on radio, and then audio plus visual intrusions on television, until now the ubiquitous presence in our lives of online sources who just as unbidden, or even more so than previous sources of social malpractice almost make one willing to sacrifice whatever convenience the online world offers and prefer to return to that time of the much more honest and transparent foot in the door of the traveling salesmen.