Audrey O’Lightly (Vol.3 E2) Comic – AI and Existential Dread

Are you worried that AI will take over your job? Audrey O. tries to cope with the existential dread of AGI.

Hey everyone! Great news! Audrey O’Lightly is back and with a new name!

Yes, we’ve decided to rename your beloved Audrey O. to Audrey O’Lightly. I know since you’ve all gotten pretty used to the name, I’m sure not everyone will love this change, but when you read the story of this name change (coming soon), I hope you’ll understand and come to love this new name. Thanks!

Now that that’s out of the way, lemme just go on a short detour to talk about why Audrey O. has been missing in action all these months. Well, being a new mommy of twins aside, the notebook/sketchbook in which I plan Audrey O’Lightly’s comic strips and draw the rough frames was left in our Chennai apartment before we moved to Chandigarh for my pregnancy. And after all this wait, we shipped all our stuff to our new (temporary?) house, and I’ve just found it after months and years of waiting!

Long story short, I really missed making Audrey O’Lightly comic strips, and I’m so happy to be back. Making Audrey O’Lightly has become, while still challenging, somewhat therapeutic for me, and making this strip again is like Carrie finding her Carrie necklace back. I mean, it’s like finding myself back after the rollercoaster ride of pregnancy and motherhood.

Anyway, now that all the story is out of the way, let’s focus on this week’s comic strip (should we make them a monthly feature now?).

AI and Existential Dread a.k.a. How to Stop Worrying about AI

If you’ve been following the AI news like me, and have been using some of the countless AI tools like ChatGPT and Midjourney, you’ll know how AI is getting better and better at everything. Even in its nascent stages, many of us are worried it’ll get infinitely better than us at nearly everything before we have the chance to understand what’s happening. From Elon Musk expressing his “Existential angst” to many users on Reddit and Quora expressing their anxiety, this comic strip feels relevant right now.

audrey-o-comic-v3e2-cartoon-job-ai-existential-dread-anxiety

Yeah, we all hoped AI would help clean our homes and cook dinner for us, and instead here it is making better art than me and writing better than me. Sigh.

I’ve already written a lot about AI, so check out my articles here:

And if you’re not yet worried about AI taking over your job, I hope this strip will at least make you look up whether your security is misplaced or not. If you’re in a white-collar job, chances are it is. However, there’s no reason you can’t save your job with enough smarts. But that’s for another story.

Bye then!

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