There’s a lot of fuss at the moment about AI and generated content. There’s no doubt that its worrying for many artists, illustrators and writers. So what’s to be done about it? Well, lets not forget that it’s not new, its just a trend that its happening now. Over 10 years ago we were all marvelling at the auto generated postmodern essay generator (https://www.elsewhere.org/pomo/) and remember morphing? Just AI…
So why now? Well, no reason really other than the cheapness of server space and speeds at which data can be collected and processed.
Where’s it going, well let’s not forget that most AI generated… anything is a bit crap in the “taste” department, it, by definition being an amalgam of many generic styles and strokes. If you ask for a christmas scene, it’s likely WILL be cute, sentimental and snowy. Most images of people WILL BE handsome and pretty. There’s not much original thought going on, except when it errors and generates too many fingers. But of course this is just GOOD for artists, it pushes them to be more original and the market for real art and real writing will be more elite and worth more. This relates very nicely to a point made by my favorite author Neil Stevenson (who pretty much figures out what’s gonna happen in the future) In The Diamond Age, the premise is that anything can be made using nanotechnology in your kitchen, just chuck some carbon into a slot and press a button and out comes a diamond, hamburger or kitchen table. This results in a cult/style/movement call the “New Victorians” who crave real things, and a REAL table, made from trees becomes an special, elite and expensive item. Much like the re-emergence of vinyl over CD’s now.
I think this will happen with art. Of course, it will become necessary to state when a piece is made by AI, or in the case of google who have just decided to downgrade all AI text as spam, (https://the-decoder.com/gpt-3-google-wants-to-treat-ai-content-like-spam/) and even though the discussion is complex and has many ethical and awkward technological pitfalls (mostly the fault of fucking programmers who just think cos they can, they must) it sure is tricky (https://nftnow.com/features/the-ai-generated-art-debate-is-here-and-its-very-messy/) it will likely not become the new norm, that a CEO will shout “Hey Siri, create a catchy annual report with animated graphics and an intro by Obama” just before he heads for the ski slopes.
I think the AI pics I tried earlier where I gave its prompt info about my film, came out great, but not as finished work, it gave me some ideas, but ultimately took a little time to come up with something, time I might have spent just thinking myself. Likewise, if in the future we just generate a script for a film and have AI make it, its likely going to be pretty generic, action love story with handsome people. Unless of course we ask it to make a Christmas movie in the style of Tarantino, shot by Tarkovsky as written by William Burroughs, music by the Sex Pistols, arranged by David Lynch… now that’s a film I’d like to see.
Anyway here’s 100 pictures of me as made by AI.
What a handsome devil.
