Hive in the Era of Generative AI

We’re shifting from “you and I” to “I and AI.” Sad? Perhaps. True? Absolutely.

AI isn’t necessarily a threat to humanity. Or rather, to human-ness. But that’s not what this post is about. What you do with your AI agents and how it affects your relationships is, frankly, your problem. The title mentions generative AI. The kind that can mimic human creativity. And in many ways, even outclass it.

Just go ahead, have it write a poem in the style of Charles Bukowski on any topic. It’ll probably do a better job than you, and an untrained eye would easily be fooled by the forgery. Unless, of course, you let AI Bukowski write about all those stuffy blockchain nerds on Hive who’ve never been to the horse races and therefore know jack shit about life. Pardon my French!

Let’s leave dead poets to worms and bookworms. What about "everyday" creativity, which is what Hive is mostly made of anyway? Well, it’s the same story. AI handles it with ease. Have you noticed that "low-end" copywriting has already been replaced by generative models? You know the ones: articles about seven superfoods to get you bikini-ready even though it’s already mid-May; the best non-touristy destinations for a weekend Eurotrip; or the cryptos guaranteed to moon. Motivational fluff? Financial literacy? Generic travelogues half-plagiarized from Wikipedia? You can have thirty of them on your desk in a minute. And it’s quite possible no one will ever read them. Except for Google’s bots when they index your site. Hi Google!

Why? Because there’s no point in reading them. We all have AI. Even the free versions can spit out this advice for us, tailor-made. All you have to do is get a bit wordy with your prompt:

“I need ten tips for a healthy breakfast. I’m lactose intolerant and I don’t want to cook, so don’t even come at me with scrambled eggs. I hate tomatoes. And I work in an office, so nothing super caloric. Oh, and don’t make it too expensive!”

Hit enter, and five seconds later, you’re done.

“Plan a weekend in Paris for me. I want something non-touristy. Good food, but not too pricey. And pick a neighborhood for my hotel that’s easy to reach by public transport, but isn't expensive or dangerous.”

Bien sûr, monsieur! Wait, did AI just assume your gender!? Or is it just your agent recognizing you? Well, personalized agents are the future. Not the topic, though.

The Way Out

Hive has always stood a bit outside the mainstream. "A bit" is an understatement. If the Earth were flat, we’d be huddling somewhere near the very edge, hoping a strong wind wouldn’t blow from the center of the disk. Which, in a way, is our big opportunity.

In sociology, there’s something called the “pendulum effect.” No, don’t panic; this isn’t a Poe story! Society, like a pendulum, swings from one extreme to the other. We saw it on Instagram (not that I’d know, I don’t have an account). In the 2010s, a fabricated reality ruled. A mask of perfection. Filters, stylization... visual flawlessness. And today? Influencers invite you into their messy rooms without a drop of makeup on their wrinkles, creeps! Perfection versus authenticity.

And it’s that authenticity we should be striving for. AI can create formally perfect works. Text, music, images, even video. It can write a much better article about Prague Castle than I can, even though I live just a stone's throw away. It doesn’t need photos; it’ll generate those, too. It’s been fed practically everything available on the internet (including porn), and for some reason, everyone takes pictures of Prague Castle. So, the generated images might actually look better than my own real photos.

Writing a generic travelogue—“To your right, you see a drunk Swede lost on a bachelor party, stumbling under the statue of St. George and a comically small dragon (the statue is permanent, the Swedes are on a rotating cast), while to your left is the queue for the Cathedral”—doesn't make much sense. But writing a personal account of your journey definitely does. The demand for real, lived stories and human emotions will grow. For genuine human creativity. Just like the demand for meeting people in the flesh. Yes, maybe I’m only writing this because I spent half the day wrestling with Claude. What a moron! But don’t tell him, I might still need him on my side! Anyway, I believe that soon, at least every other person will be fed up with AI.

Maybe it won’t be a mass-market demand. After all, it’s like beer. Yes, I’m Czech, I couldn't come up with a better metaphor! Some people don’t drink it at all. For many, it’s all about availability and alcohol content. Supermarket brews are more than fine, especially when they’re on sale. But some people enjoy a craft beer, even if it costs more.

Reading human content also "costs" more. Not in money, but in effort. Humans don’t optimize like AI. Their thoughts wander. They don’t explain every metaphor; they don't constantly try to ensure the audience follows their train of thought, which might be 20 minutes late and arriving on a bad track anyway. And generally, they don’t care if you don’t like their content. They don't pander. Well, unless they’re hoping for a whale upvote.

Me vs. AI

This article could have easily been written by AI. Formally, it would be better. My English sounds weird sometimes; it’s not my native tongue. Random Joe would certainly be more satisfied with the AI version. But I have my style. I’m way too wordy. I drop references left and right. Don’t like it? Fine, you don’t have to read me. I have my readers anyway.

And lo and behold, AI even thinks I write quite well. Seriously, I asked ChatGPT 5.5, which can already find your content on the blockchain. Look, it probably says that to everyone just to make them happy, but I specifically asked it to be critical.

But while an AI-generated text would be single-use (likely three paragraphs and a two-sentence summary for dummies), I believe this article will still be relevant in a few years. And maybe even entertaining, if you have a similar sense of humor to mine (though if you didn't, you probably wouldn't have made it this far).

AI-free Hive?

Having a 100% AI-free Hive isn't possible. But too much AI would kill the network. Just look at Threads on Inleo. A minimum of real people, tons of bots, often talking to other bots... the first microblogging platform on Hive is just a shadow of its former glory. And it’s not getting better. There’s even a Grok-operated bot trying to convince you that Grok is cool. Ahem... On the other hand, even that is a few levels above those human accounts that only leave three-word comments.

I think creativity on Hive should be human. Beautifully imperfect, original. With all the flaws that human creations have. But it’s not a bad idea to occasionally have a bot check if what you’re writing actually makes sense. If it’s not just gibberish. You just have to tell it to be mean to you. Truly critical. Otherwise, it’ll just try to soothe you. Because we live in a world where, right now, ChatGPT is nodding along to someone who just came up with the biggest load of crap ever. Something that’ll be an internet meme in memoriam by tomorrow. Ouch, that must have hurt!

Dead Pets

Since I love human creativity, I’ve teamed up with the amazing @honeydue herself. And in less than ten days, the @dead-pets account will come to life with that imperfect, silly, human creativity. Despite the name, we didn't test the project on animals, but on humans. Specifically about half the participants of the Hive Open Days in Alicante. They liked it! Or were just as polite as AI, who knows.

AI definitely wouldn’t have created Dead Pets. They won’t be for everyone. But the two of us have been having a blast with them from the very start. And believe it or not, we’ve been living with them (in our heads) for a year. High time you started following that account!