I keep reading articles about how Artificial Intelligence (AI) projects like OpenAi, DALL-E, Chat GPT are not going to replace creatives and other creators. But back about 4 years ago I was telling people exactly that: AI will be sophisticated enough in 10 years to take my job. And it might already be happening.
Put aside all of the articles detailing CHAT GPT failures–like lawyers using it for case law and realizing after submitting the document that it is referencing court cases that never happened. With the increasing amount of AI, that won’t matter much. Our media sphere will be so flooded with AI generated stories and images it will be hard to tell the difference.
Now that OpenAI is generating movies that are almost passable to the uninitiated, either it’s time to get hopeful for a bright future of AI assisted content or it’s time to start panicking about these computers coming around to take our jobs.
And that’s what happens: when new technology comes along it rarely makes human lives easier before it takes away jobs from those performing those tasks.
Just look at the folk tale of John Henry and his competition against the Steam Drill. Henry was a steel driving man, known for hammering metal screws that are later set with dynamite. When a fancy new steam powered drill came along, Henry went toe to toe with it–beating the machine at the cost of his own life. At least, that’s how the story goes. But even as a tall tale, there is some basis in reality. While John Henry didn’t drop dead on the spot, he died shortly after of silica lung from working on that job for decades.
Anyways, Henry dies and the machine needs, at most, a tune up.
Do you see what I’m getting at?
Artists are already battling AI to stay ahead of the curve, even attempting to imitate AI art or match its output, but it’s a losing war. It's an impossible task. And what’s worse is the AI isn’t even creating this stuff on its own. Rather, it takes it from what’s available on the internet without attribution. Not only is the machine killing Henry, but it's skinning him and wearing his face.
There was a time when “factory made” meant excellent workmanship until it became more commonplace. I think the opposite will happen with AI. There will be a point where people will start to seek out AI generated content based on its potential for personalizing an experience specifically for that user
Imagine a movie or a video game completely created to curate to your specific tastes? It would be hard to refuse.
But humans need connection, even if our shared experiences are going away in the form of more insular entertainment options. Still,why should we fret about that? AI will be capable of creating content tailored to groups of friends, or even entire organizations.
I’ve even been turning toward AI for some things–mostly to see how it's evolving and what it’s capable of. If I need a new race for a tabletop campaign, I find myself asking ChatGPT to come up with one for me–and the results are often impressive. I might have to tweak a few things here and there, but even that seems to be going away.
I don’t think creatives will go away completely. But I think AI is going to go the way of the calculator. At first we’ll be told not to rely on AI, but its ubiquitousness will make it a tool that will be hard to ignore going forward.
And I don’t think we can stop it.