Generative Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Public Knowledge

Abstract

Generative artificial intelligence (AI), in particular large language models such as ChatGPT, have reached public consciousness with a wide-ranging discussion of their capabilities and suitability for use in various professions. Following the printing press and the internet, generative AI language models are the third transformative technological invention, with truly cross-sectoral impact on knowledge transmission and knowledge generation. While the printing press allowed for the transmission of knowledge that is independent of the physical presence of the knowledge holder, with publishers emerging as gatekeepers, the internet added levels of democratization, allowing anyone to publish, along with global immediacy. The development of social media resulted in an increased fragmentation and tribalization in online communities regarding their ways of knowing, resulting in the propagation of alternative truths that resonate in echo chambers. It is against this background that generative AI language models have entered public consciousness. Using the strategic foresight methodology, this paper will examine the proposition that the age of generative AI will emerge as an age of public ignorance.

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