I have to vent about this latest episode...

This is in regard to the latest episode, I Know What You Need.

First of all, nothing against David Kestenbaum, the kid from the story, or anyone on the team. I love and respect TAL so much, but I was really disappointed with this episode, particularly the story about the college student who ran the Claude experiment.

For what it's worth, I'm an MFA grad and have been a professional copywriter for a decade. I write freelance articles and publish fiction when I can. Not that this context should matter. I have just been so incredibly exhausted by generative AI the past few years. It's maybe been the most existential dread I've ever felt about anything. These companies were built on theft of intellectual property and are causing tremendous harm, not only to people's ability to think, job security, and creative fulfillment, but to the environment.

I know TAL, especially in recent years, has been a show about what's happening in the world, good or bad, but to run a story about a college student having to chatbots talk to each other? Really? I've seen kids do this on Instagram reels countless times and don't really feel like it was up to the show's standards.

Nothing about this is remotely interesting. To anthropomorphize these glorified calculators and laugh at their inability to stop talking back and forth as they wasted water felt gross to me.

I realize a lot of this might sound hyperbolic, but I needed to vent.