What Xerox Hath Wrought

The panic induced by the Xerox machine in 1976 teaches a lesson about the Generative AI panic we are experiencing now

Here’s a funny article about the panic that Xerox induced when they unleashed the photocopier on the world in 1976. Writers were panicking about the violation of their copyrights; scientists felt threatened by the uncompensated proliferation of their findings; and even the USSR tightly controlled access to photocopiers to maintain their political stability.

Of course the threat of an expensive and huge beige box with a camera attached to a printer has little resemblance to the potential impact of AI models that mimic the human brain and can be replicated or scaled almost instantly and invisibly. But, it does represent a tendency of humans to let their caveman instinct towards fear override any recognition of opportunity. When caught up in the moment by a new technology, there are many unknowns about how the future will play out. This leads many people to dream up really amusing worst-case scenarios. Additionally, “World may end!” as a headline will sell a lot more newspapers (or get a lot more clicks) than “Everything is still pretty much OK.”

We are definitely in a moment of “World may end!” headlines coming from Generative AI - ranging from jobs that will disappear to literal apocalypse prognostications. In these moments, it’s good to remember that Xerox machines actually didn’t prevent J.K. Rowling from buying a $20m yacht.