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Ted Chiang

What Ted Chiang thinks about ideas vs execution

@ted-chiang · 11 positions · On ppll ↗

American science-fiction writer, author of the collections Stories of Your Life and Others and Exhalation, and an essayist on artificial intelligence for The New Yorker.

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4 dated positions, 2024, in their own words. Our reading of what Ted Chiang has said — not written or endorsed by them.

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  1. Our readingArt is what results from making an enormous number of choices, and a prompt contains almost none of them.

    Their wordsBut let me offer a generalization: art is something that results from making a lot of choices.

    ↗Why A.I. Isn't Going to Make Artnewyorker.com 1st of 11 in this piece

  3. Our readingThe very thing that sells generative AI — that it returns far more than you put in — is what stops it from being a tool artists can use.

    Their wordsThe selling point of generative A.I. is that these programs generate vastly more than you put into them, and that is precisely what prevents them from being effective tools for artists.

    ↗Why A.I. Isn't Going to Make Artnewyorker.com 3rd of 11 in this piece

  5. Our readingThe small choices made while executing a work matter as much as the big idea behind it, so inspiration cannot be separated from the labour.

    Their wordsWhat I’m saying is that art requires making choices at every scale; the countless small-scale choices made during implementation are just as important to the final product as the few large-scale choices made during the conception.

    ↗Why A.I. Isn't Going to Make Artnewyorker.com 4th of 11 in this piece

  7. Our readingThinking inspiration outweighs execution is a sign of not knowing the medium.

    Their wordsBelieving that inspiration outweighs everything else is, I suspect, a sign that someone is unfamiliar with the medium.

    ↗Why A.I. Isn't Going to Make Artnewyorker.com 5th of 11 in this piece