Commentary: Cory Doctorow: Reverse Centaurs – Locus Online

https://locusmag.com/feature/commentary-cory-doctorow-reverse-centaurs/

This quote, about how to use AI (Whisper, a tool to turn audio into text files) struck a core with me. Yes, AI can be useful, if we use it right. 

I recently installed some AI software on my laptop: an open source model called Whisper that can transcribe audio files. I installed it be­cause I was writing an article and I wanted to cite something I'd heard an expert say on a podcast. I couldn't remember which expert, nor even which podcast. So I downloaded Whisper, threw 30 or 40 hours' worth of podcasts I'd recently listened to at it, and then, a couple hours later, searched the text until I found the episode, along with timecode for the relevant passage. I was able to call up the audio and review it and match it to the transcript, correct a few small errors, and paste it into my essay.

A year ago, I simply would have omitted the reference. There was no way I was ever going to re-listen to hours and hours of podcasts looking for this half-remembered passage. Thanks to a free AI model that ran on my modest laptop, in the background while I was doing other work, I was able to write a better essay.