I definitely draw a distinction between like... famous medieval leaders and generals being well known versus what we do with people like Michael Jackson, Madonna, Kim Kardashian etc. I am sure they had local celebrities back then but there is no way they extended much beyond a small region or a single nation.
In my ideal world generating content becomes so easy that it loses all value unless you have some relation to the creator. Who cares about the new Avengers movie, Rick from down the street also made an action movie that we are gonna check out. Local celebrities return. Global figures are generated because why would Coke pay 100m for Lebron to dunk a can of coke on camera or some dumb shit when his image has been absolutely trashed by floods of gen content.
- How do I know Rick down the street, anymore, if I'm inside consuming perfectly addicting slop all day?
- How do I ensure that I am also consuming content that has artistic merit that is outside my pure-slop comfort zone?
- Why would I notice or care about a local artist when they can't produce something half as perfect "for me" as a recommendation algorithm trained on all human artistic output?
> Global figures are generated
This I agree with. Ian Macdonald wrote about "aeai" characters in his early 2000s novel River of Gods, where a subplot concerns people who watch TV shows starring AI characters (as actors, who also have an outside-of-the show life). The thing is, right now we see Lebron in the ad and it's an endorsement - how can an AI character of no provenance endorse anything?
In my ideal world generating content becomes so easy that it loses all value unless you have some relation to the creator. Who cares about the new Avengers movie, Rick from down the street also made an action movie that we are gonna check out. Local celebrities return. Global figures are generated because why would Coke pay 100m for Lebron to dunk a can of coke on camera or some dumb shit when his image has been absolutely trashed by floods of gen content.