I used to read the animal version of “stone soup” by Anaïs Vaugelade to my kids. Instead of 3 soldiers a wolf was responsible for the stone soup and the other animals happily got the ingredients. A very fitting analogy… Hilarious! Thanks for your newsletter! Best regards from Germany
Thank you for sharing that, that's great. Apparently some versions of the story involve an axe instead of stones? Just what are y'all up to in Europe, hmm? (Kidding.)
Step 1) get people to buy in through hype, fomo and propaganda 2) undermine their confidence in the value of the old ways 3) alienate them from use of the old ways for long enough that they couldn't go back even of they wanted to... Stone soup's ready everyone... Great piece!
I don’t know if this relates to the AI metaphor, but I had always interpreted the soldiers in the story as doing something good for the town. If we assume the villagers’ claim of each being practically starving to be true, the villagers are in a pretty bad position by keeping their food to themselves. However, when the soldiers come, they convince the villagers to each engage in an action that would be good for all of them. Each villager then gets access to good soup (rather than individual onions and such), and the soldiers’ ingenuity in convincing everyone to pool their resources rewards them.
This could be read as a sort-of pro public works metaphor: by taxing individual citizens each a little bit, we can build a bridge making the town easier to navigate for all. In that case, the soldiers could be the contractors who come to town and convince everyone to pool their money. Sure, the soldiers get an individual benefit through their profits, but so do the townspeople. From what I can tell, your original book isn’t condemning the soldiers in any way; you are the one that is doing that. You don’t have to be “Marxist/Leninist” to agree with the message of the story, you just have to be pro sidewalk or something, and I don’t think the story really reads as a communist parable.
I think that's a fair interpretation! I was having some fun imputing socialist messaging to the Stone Soup parable, but in many ways I agree with your take about the power of humans working together. I just would like more emphasis on the "humans" and "working together" aspect, and less so "algorithms".
Love this. Fauxtomation/Potemkin AI - where human beings actually do the work of the supposedly automated system - is yet another “flavor” added to this stone soup.
I'm familiar with a version of the stone soup story, which has the soldiers exploiting the villager at the end by selling them the stone - and I think the version I recall is an even better metaphor for the commercialisation of AI!
Even as a kid, I never understood why the soldiers were the villains of the story. Without them, there would have been no soup, no party. Everyone had a good time and contributed freely. They don't even really lie. They just get people excited about something that wouldn't work unless everybody contributes. It always puzzled me, and my teachers didn't get what I meant either. I had never considered its economic messaging until now. I also didn't believe people could be happy eating soup with stones in it, so imagined they must have been secretly removed, and didn't understand why that was left out of the story. So maybe that objection confused my point? Although no adult ever pointed out to me that the stones would be on the bottom while the vegetables would float.
I haven't thought about this story in awhile. By my accounting, this makes AI seem like the good guy. The problem is the soldiers didn't steal in any sense of the word. The contributions were given freely. In some case, the same is true of AI, but not nearly the majority of it. If you think the critical mass of training data must be public domain, you're mistaken.
TBF, I've never been convinced that intellectual property should actually be treated like ownable property, and I'm not convinced AI model builders using (much of) that non-"public domain" data was wrong. But, it's definitely more in line with the definition of theft than what the soldiers did.
Thank you for the article. Are you finding any tech-intentional universities? Maybe they forbid AI use, have no screen lecture/seminars, no screen cafeterias etc.
Thank you for reading. That's a very interesting question; I know of efforts to reduce technology usage in K12 schools, but off the top of my head I can't think of any university moving toward that. Might be fun to build one.
Mastercard cards are 30% of all credit cards in circulation and manage 20% of the global purchase volume. Almost 25% of the cards in the US are Mastercards. Sure, they are all rebranded as Chase (21%), American Express (19%), Capital One and Citigroup.
Because they ones you see are all branded by the banks. All you see is the red-yellow circle logo in the corner (the same spot where the banks have Visa, if that is what they are issuing); unless it is one of the metallic ones, then it is some light-silver - dark silver. https://www.mastercard.us/issuers/chase/
For the record you can add buttermilk to a vegetable based (water) broth.and it’s delicious.
As to the rest of this article - I’m so glad that this perspective is being properly shared and this analogy apt. I wish I had come across this yesterday before writing my first Substack article. But I will use it now with proper credit!
My Mom used to do it in a Polish soup called zalewajka (or at least that’s what she called it) You can also use a bit of sour cream. But buttermilk with a bit of flour to thicken the soup does the same thing. It adds a tangy flavour to it. It was a riff on a soup we fall zurek - which is a soup made on the basis of a sour dough starter. Polish people are really into soup, so if you want more recommendations I can make them 😂
That sounds delicious! And this makes some sense, since the origins of the folktale are European. Apparently in Poland the story is told with nails instead of stones, which sounds fraught with peril.
Perhaps the real insight from the Nigeria study is that effective AI integration requires intentional human orchestration. As Archimedes said, "Give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum on which to place it, and I shall move the world." What if AI is our longer lever, while the human user is the fulcrum, directing the application of force?
I used to read the animal version of “stone soup” by Anaïs Vaugelade to my kids. Instead of 3 soldiers a wolf was responsible for the stone soup and the other animals happily got the ingredients. A very fitting analogy… Hilarious! Thanks for your newsletter! Best regards from Germany
Thank you for sharing that, that's great. Apparently some versions of the story involve an axe instead of stones? Just what are y'all up to in Europe, hmm? (Kidding.)
Step 1) get people to buy in through hype, fomo and propaganda 2) undermine their confidence in the value of the old ways 3) alienate them from use of the old ways for long enough that they couldn't go back even of they wanted to... Stone soup's ready everyone... Great piece!
I don’t know if this relates to the AI metaphor, but I had always interpreted the soldiers in the story as doing something good for the town. If we assume the villagers’ claim of each being practically starving to be true, the villagers are in a pretty bad position by keeping their food to themselves. However, when the soldiers come, they convince the villagers to each engage in an action that would be good for all of them. Each villager then gets access to good soup (rather than individual onions and such), and the soldiers’ ingenuity in convincing everyone to pool their resources rewards them.
This could be read as a sort-of pro public works metaphor: by taxing individual citizens each a little bit, we can build a bridge making the town easier to navigate for all. In that case, the soldiers could be the contractors who come to town and convince everyone to pool their money. Sure, the soldiers get an individual benefit through their profits, but so do the townspeople. From what I can tell, your original book isn’t condemning the soldiers in any way; you are the one that is doing that. You don’t have to be “Marxist/Leninist” to agree with the message of the story, you just have to be pro sidewalk or something, and I don’t think the story really reads as a communist parable.
I think that's a fair interpretation! I was having some fun imputing socialist messaging to the Stone Soup parable, but in many ways I agree with your take about the power of humans working together. I just would like more emphasis on the "humans" and "working together" aspect, and less so "algorithms".
Love this. Fauxtomation/Potemkin AI - where human beings actually do the work of the supposedly automated system - is yet another “flavor” added to this stone soup.
I'm familiar with a version of the stone soup story, which has the soldiers exploiting the villager at the end by selling them the stone - and I think the version I recall is an even better metaphor for the commercialisation of AI!
Even as a kid, I never understood why the soldiers were the villains of the story. Without them, there would have been no soup, no party. Everyone had a good time and contributed freely. They don't even really lie. They just get people excited about something that wouldn't work unless everybody contributes. It always puzzled me, and my teachers didn't get what I meant either. I had never considered its economic messaging until now. I also didn't believe people could be happy eating soup with stones in it, so imagined they must have been secretly removed, and didn't understand why that was left out of the story. So maybe that objection confused my point? Although no adult ever pointed out to me that the stones would be on the bottom while the vegetables would float.
I haven't thought about this story in awhile. By my accounting, this makes AI seem like the good guy. The problem is the soldiers didn't steal in any sense of the word. The contributions were given freely. In some case, the same is true of AI, but not nearly the majority of it. If you think the critical mass of training data must be public domain, you're mistaken.
TBF, I've never been convinced that intellectual property should actually be treated like ownable property, and I'm not convinced AI model builders using (much of) that non-"public domain" data was wrong. But, it's definitely more in line with the definition of theft than what the soldiers did.
Thank you for the article. Are you finding any tech-intentional universities? Maybe they forbid AI use, have no screen lecture/seminars, no screen cafeterias etc.
Thank you for reading. That's a very interesting question; I know of efforts to reduce technology usage in K12 schools, but off the top of my head I can't think of any university moving toward that. Might be fun to build one.
Mastercard cards are 30% of all credit cards in circulation and manage 20% of the global purchase volume. Almost 25% of the cards in the US are Mastercards. Sure, they are all rebranded as Chase (21%), American Express (19%), Capital One and Citigroup.
Come on, even ChatGPT knows that ... ;)
So you say! And yet I've literally never seen anyone using one.
https://www.moneysupermarket.com/credit-cards/mastercard/
https://www.mastercard.com/news/press/2024/october/citi-and-mastercard-join-forces-to-transform-global-cross-border-payments/
https://www.bankofamerica.com/credit-cards/mastercard-credit-cards/
https://nilsonreport.com/articles/top-50-u-s-mastercard-and-visa-credit-card-issuers-2/
Because they ones you see are all branded by the banks. All you see is the red-yellow circle logo in the corner (the same spot where the banks have Visa, if that is what they are issuing); unless it is one of the metallic ones, then it is some light-silver - dark silver. https://www.mastercard.us/issuers/chase/
I'm just having some fun, Robert!
For the record you can add buttermilk to a vegetable based (water) broth.and it’s delicious.
As to the rest of this article - I’m so glad that this perspective is being properly shared and this analogy apt. I wish I had come across this yesterday before writing my first Substack article. But I will use it now with proper credit!
Wait, really? Name a soup that does this.
And thank you!
My Mom used to do it in a Polish soup called zalewajka (or at least that’s what she called it) You can also use a bit of sour cream. But buttermilk with a bit of flour to thicken the soup does the same thing. It adds a tangy flavour to it. It was a riff on a soup we fall zurek - which is a soup made on the basis of a sour dough starter. Polish people are really into soup, so if you want more recommendations I can make them 😂
That sounds delicious! And this makes some sense, since the origins of the folktale are European. Apparently in Poland the story is told with nails instead of stones, which sounds fraught with peril.
Hahaha. I didn’t know that. But I’m North American born and raised, so stone soup is what I know ;)
Just be careful when your mom makes soup.
hahaha, no worries on that one.
btw gave you a shout at in my newest article. don't have many subscribers as i'm new here, but it's the thought that counts right ;)
Perhaps the real insight from the Nigeria study is that effective AI integration requires intentional human orchestration. As Archimedes said, "Give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum on which to place it, and I shall move the world." What if AI is our longer lever, while the human user is the fulcrum, directing the application of force?