The Horror of AI

The Horror of AI

The Horror of AI

Hating AI will not help artists. Most people who make a living with their art have silver spoons in their mouths. Most talented artists who have overcome adversity will never get to make a living doing what they work so hard on. It happened to photo developers when the digital camera was invented. It happened to silent film stars when talkies were invented. It happened to writers when the internet came to be. People say they want something made by a human, not a robot, and yes human made stuff is superior (so far) because we can understand emotions, a machine cannot. Yet how many people can you name who purchase art on the regular? Society doesn't value it's own art and culture and THAT is the real tragedy of AI. Whenever someone says they want to support art and not AI, I say, "Great. My work is for sale." And their brains leave the planet.

Lets be honest, how many people are truly comfortable with emotions? When's the last time you cried in public? If you type a long angry spiel in the morning and post it on Facebook, no one will read it. They will step over you like you’re a madman ranting on the city street. People say they prefer human made stuff because it has flaws, feelings, so on. But do they? I think they prefer the AI generated material. It’s boring, generic, formulaic. The algorithm knows it. THATS what people are comfortable with.

If you take someone out of their comfort zone they won’t buy your art. They may even deem it offensive have it it pulled down. Ask anyone who works in media. It was true when TV was new, it’s even more amplified with social media. People don’t want to be challenged. They want their biases confirmed, they want to feel like they're getting a peak behind the curtain, and they want it fast. Now. Me #1. That’s what they want. Within a generation, AI art will be all there is. It’s coming. It’s a huge bubbling cauldron, and we are the teensy weensy spiders dangling by a thread over it. Breath in the steam and tell me I’m wrong. Lionsgate has already spent 20 million dollars opening an all AI studio.

They say AI takes no skill. This is not true. You have to have computer skills. You have to be able to describe to the computer EXACTLY what it needs to produce down to the finest detail of the finest detail of the big picture of the finest detail. Ever tried to make a video game? It’s brutal, painstaking, hair splitting, repetitive, boring, frustrating, and overwhelming. It takes forever, and that’s just to render one single image of a floorboard. Creating AI art will be worse than that.

A lot of the skepticism of AI they said in the past to. In the 1700s they thought novels would corrupt the youth, cause illiteracy and crime. They were wrong. In 1899 they thought moving pictures would cause a decline in moral character causing women to leave their husbands and sons to become alcoholics. Well, maybe, but probably not. In the 1920s the radio they said would bring about age of equality and fairness where we all share the same facts and there won’t be rich and won’t be poor. Hasn’t happened yet. In the 1980s, they said Pong would cause boys to lose their social skills and never get married (though it may appear there is truth to this, it’s quite possible that people just were not aware of Autism and were not diagnosing kids with it) and that Japan would take over the world because they invented a calculator that could do algebra. Let’s not even forget that not too long ago the whole of the United States assumed that the world would end in a shower of nuclear fire. It didn’t.

So what is everyone so worked up about? The real fear is this. AI MIMICS. It STEALS what we have made, doesn’t pay us for it, and replicates it on the internet so that it becomes worthless. Since when did artists care about money? These tech companies are BUILT on intellectual property theft. Bill Gates stole Microsoft. Zuck stole Facebook. I don’t even want to know what Musk did. What did people think was going to happen? Most artists don’t even receive esteem or respect until long after they’ve crossed to the other side. Their work gets hoarded until they die by the leisure class for the leisure class so that they can trade it for the highest possible profit. AI art will put an end to that once and for all. That’s who is afraid of AI art.

I was always a kid that drew in the sand with a stick. I would not do my assignments in elementary school, instead I’d drew elaborate battlefields on them. Once you’re an adult, other adults will bully you into quitting. It’s sad but true. Fantasy football is more respected than an adult who paints or writes or makes video games in his bedroom. If AI is going to be this nuclear bomb that destroys art, then I say that the bomb fell long ago. It’s not in our computers, it’s in the fault of man, it’s his failure to grasp what he goes not understand, it is his failure to protect his creation, and he is millions of men and women all over this planet.