Thoughts on What AI Stirs Up
Let’s get this clear right at the start. I don’t use AI – artificial intelligence, otherwise understood to us oldsters as computer generated art and literature.
Before you applaud, I have to confess why. I can’t figure out the technology. I admit to trying a couple AI art programs to create some images I couldn’t otherwise find on the internet, for free or for sale. And I can’t draw a stick figure myself to save my reincarnated Pagan soul.
And the software I tried was worse than I am as an artist.
I also don’t use it for my writing. For me, writing isn’t just about producing a readable, entertaining, or informative product. It’s therapy. It’s self-expression. It’s what I need to do to keep my hands out of the cookie jar, and have an excuse not to go jogging. I’d be worse than unhappy if I outsourced my creative juices.
So I hope that’s clear.
But here I want to say the vociferous objections littering Facebook lately remind me of newspaper publishers who decried the development of radio science. And the radio broadcasters who feared the rise of television. And more recently, the tv producers who protested Netflix and other streaming services before they figured out how profitable it could be for them.
AI is a rising technology. It will not kill off its predecessors as a whole. It may, however, teach them how to adapt more quickly, be more efficient, and make more money. Those do need to be carefully considered and designed to protect artists and writers against. I’ll address the ethics of AI scraping human-created art at a later time.
BTW, for those who counter that newspapers are dying, yes, they are but not because of AI. That’s because of ownership being snapped up by a few conglomerates who foster conspiracy theories instead of journalistic truth. Those mini-monopolies don’t hire or well pay investigative journalists. They require their companies to hire opinionists who can stir ratings out of controversy, and insist on all their local papers running the same biased, full-of-lies propaganda. None of that is the fault of AI.
Ironically I’ve been publicly slammed for acquiring an AI-generated image from my account at an online image market, and using it to illustrate a social media post uploaded to several groups. I’ll address the ethics of AI scraping human-created art at a later time.
I‘ve been stalked online by a childishly immature “adult” who littered my posts with vomit emojis -- which ahem, are themselves a type of AI. She accused me of using AI for an image I created in PicMonkey with their background textures and line drawing tools. I looked for AI capability in PicMonkey after that seriously disturbed person sent a private message attacking me, calling me names, and using the same AI vomit. Alas, I couldn’t find any such tool on PicMonkey.
Then she did the same to a cartoon I had posted which didn’t look like it was AI-generated to me. I intentionally try to detect AI in social media images, especially landscapes, but I’m not perfect at it yet. Nonetheless, by then she was just dangerously wrapped up in her attack rant and didn’t care for truth or reason, much less a civilized conversation. So she sent a nasty personal message.
Besides blocking her of course, and discovering a dozen or so FB accounts under her name – hmm, tell tale right there of not being the most ethical person – I laughed all day at how she must have thought she was hurting me. Lil’ babychile, artificial intelligence is more intelligent than you, and your pitiful attempts to “get me” just amused me.
Okay, so that’s out of my system.
In another writers’ group I’m in, someone posted a very good flash fiction piece on a human and an AI-bot in conversation over the topic of us losing our humanity, and AI being inauthentic fakes. Somehow it reminded me of Star Trek TNG’s artificial intelligence named Data whose seven season quest was to become more human.
Maybe we supposed-to-be humans could take up that quest, too.
©2024 Deah Curry
No AI was used in the writing of this blog post, but I did intentionally go looking for a good AI image to depict the troll I referenced on FB.
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