Use The Tool

Introduction

A recent Vocal Top Story by Jim Monge was shared by Call Me Les and they both shared concerns that AI and Computers could supersede our creative processes. The story is below

I then did a search and found NightCafe which does similar things and I have generated a few images. Including the one that leads this article. Night Cafe is here so you can quickly join yourself. If you are so inclined.

I have also seen applications that will write articles for you and given that these are continually advertised and can be bought I am assuming that people are using these. This article could be generated by an artificial intelligence interface but it is me so you know there is no intelligence involved in writing this article.

The Fear

Imagine a world where everything on the internet is generated by AI and the systems like Google, the News and Reference Pages we use ensure that all articles are machine-generated. That could easily happen but I could see real artists going guerilla to preserve real art.

We can see lots of examples of machine-generated music, writing and art and some of it is impressive but I think most people would not stand for a chart full of AI-generated music. Think about autotune. People who can’t actually sing, but do look the part now get the gig over people who can actually sing.

So How To Counter This

I can write and make music but my pedal has a drum machine built-in. I don’t play it, just select the pattern and then adjust it, so the machine gives me a rhythm. Is that wrong?

I use it as a tool.

If I walk into a dark room I press a switch and I get light. In the beginning, we had to wait for the sun and the moon, then man discovered fire. We burned torches, then got candles, wick lamps, gas lamps and eventually electricity. We don’t see our creativity being stolen here.

When I take a photograph I have not built what I see in the photograph, I have seen and by taking the photograph I can share it and bring pleasure to others. I could potentially sell it if people wanted it on canvas for their front room, but have I been creative?

I can’t see a reason for text generators except for maybe guides and documentation. Yes they can write books and I will probably read one at some point but the concept seems cold to me, but I think corporations will see this as a perfect way of making money.

Now my NightCafe AI pictures. I can’t paint and the paintings generated are royalty-free. I put in a text idea and select a filter then leave it to run away and generate a picture. I can also use my own paintings and then later add text to create a finalised image. The two images I have included here were created without really knowing what I was doing.

I use royalty-free images by other photographers and see this as a tool. If I were an artist I would not feel threatened by this. My friend the brilliant landscape artist produces some incredible work and I believe while a machine may generate something like that, it would never be a Bob Armstrong original and these pictures are digital, not textured.

Conclusion

The Luddites smashed the machines that they believed would take their jobs, and the machines did, but this resulted in economies of scale and new jobs created, but this is frightening. If you see your core skills and livelihood threatened you need to do something to protect yourself. I don’t see this as a threat to me, but I am not an artist, and I see this as a tool I can use but if I were to buy a pointing it will never be generated by a machine.

This my Night Cafe Profile: