In 49 BCE, following a seven-year campaign to expand the Roman Empire into Gaul (much of Western Europe), Junius Caesar, then a general of the Roman army, approached a river that signified an important boundary between Rome and the rest of the world. According to Roman law, if anyone crossed that river–the Rubicon–it would be considered an act of war.
As we know from history, Caesar crossed that line, uttering the words alea iacta est (“the die is cast”), a phrase that has come to mean, “no turning back.”
Earlier this week, a prestigious literary magazine, Granta, crossed a metaphorical Rubicon of its own when it published a prize-winning short story that, evidence strongly suggests, was written not by a human, but by artificial intelligence.
Continue reading “Crossing the AI Rubicon”
Andrew Careaga 