Ken Liu: Art in the Age of AI — Manifold #79
Ken Liu (born 1976) is an American author of science fiction and fantasy. Liu has won multiple Hugo and Nebula Awards for his novel translations and original short fiction. Liu's short story "The Paper Menagerie" is the first work of fiction, of any length, to win all of the Nebula, Hugo, and World Fantasy Awards. Besides his original work, Liu's translation of Liu Cixin's Chinese language novel The Three-Body Problem (the first in the Remembrance of Earth's Past trilogy) won the 2015 Hugo Award for Best Novel, making it the first translated novel to have won the award.
He studied English Literature and Computer Science at Harvard College, and graduated from Harvard Law School.
Steve and Ken discuss:
00:00 Meet Ken Liu: Acclaimed Sci-Fi and Fantasy Writer
04:25 The Immigrant Experience and Cultural Perspectives
09:22 Harvard, MSFT, HLS, Litigation
15:01 The Art of Storytelling and Technology
34:03 Controversy in AI Reasoning
34:31 Technology Outstripping Science
35:22 AI and the Arts
38:30 The Future of AI in Art
42:44 AI's Role in Creative Processes
50:04 Art, Automation, and Society
57:31 Favorite Science Fiction and Fantasy
01:03:06 The Genius of Philip K. Dick
Audio-only version and transcript: https://www.manifold1.com/episodes/ken-liu-art-in-the-age-of-ai-79
This was fascinating -- thanks! About halfway through I paused, got the Paper Menagerie story collection from the library, and resumed listening after I had read one of the stories. Your guest has deeper and better thoughts about AI's consequences for art and other activities than most people. A few parts confused me -- the notion that we should provide statements about what parts of our creations (writings, etc.) are done by humans and what are done by AI assumes that many people won't lie about this, which I find extremely hard to believe. You (Steve) did a great job, as usual, letting your guest speak at length rather than in choppy, interrupted fragments.
Your idea of Disney, for example, asking AIs to churn out Star Wars media is plausible, but not really dissimilar from what we already have. It reminds me of Hardy Boys books -- I assumed when I was a kid that there was a "Franklin W. Dixon" who wrote all these, and I was surprised to later learn that it was the pseudonym of a nameless collective. Now the collective, or at least parts of it, will be AI models, and its output can be video rather than simply text, but the basic idea remains.
I agree that Moby Dick is wonderful.
Very interesting and frank interview! I disagree with Liu's materialism, which is contradicted by the past life regressions I have performed, but think he makes some excellent points about literature..In our family, everybody has read PKD's novels and watched Blade Runner and Minority Report, amongst others....We are also devoted to Jack Vance, another great world builder who also started, like PKD, by publishing in Ace double novels, LeGuin, and others...
Thank you Professor Hsu!