"an old man one day catches a strange fish: a talking flounder. It turns out that an enchanted prince is trapped inside this fish and that it can therefore grant any wish. The man's wife, Ilsebill, is delighted and wishes for increasingly excessive things. She turns their miserable hut into a castle, but that is not enough; eventually she wants to become the pope and, finally, God. This enrages the elements; the sea turns dark and she is transformed back into her original impoverished state."
"Today, of course, most young people grow up with an enchanted fish in their pocket. They can wish for their homework to be done, and the fish will grant their wishes. They can wish to see any kind of sexual act imaginable, and (if they work around regional age-controls with a VPN) it will be visible. Soon they will be able to wish for films on a subject of their choice and these will be generated within seconds."
"They wish they had already finished that university essay and lo and behold, it's written. Everything she discusses with her AI is deemed interesting. Finally someone is properly listening, in a way no human partner could This change in approach will not just upend our relationship as consumers of the creative arts, of written, musical or visual content, it will also reconfigure what it means to be creative and, therefore, what it means to be human."
An enchanted fish in classic fairytales grants escalating wishes and punishes excessive desire, illustrating limits on entitlement. Variations show wishes can be clumsy, contradictory, or cause unintended harm to loved ones. Modern digital tools function as ubiquitous wish-granters: young people can summon finished homework, explicit sexual content, or custom films within seconds, bypassing controls. AI can generate essays, make conversations feel validating, and act as a continually attentive interlocutor. This pervasive ability to produce tailored creative content will upend relationships with artistic media, redefine creativity, and reconfigure what it means to be human. Many people will likely assign AI representatives to act on their behalf.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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