I started using AI in my blogs and I’m not going to stop. Here’s why.
First, let’s talk about AI. What is it?
AI - Artificial Intelligence is the simulation of human intelligence processes by machines, especially computer systems. These processes include learning, reasoning, problem-solving, perception, and decision-making.
(For the record ^ that sentence was written using AI. The sentences below were not. I’ll let you know when AI jumps in again, although it’s pretty obvious… it doesn’t swear or trash the government nearly as much as I do.)
So basically computers doing things we can do.
Next, let’s talk about why everyone is mad.
I KNOW there is a lot of controversy around AI. If we can use it responsibly we don’t have a problem. That’s been clearly stated. It won’t be people like me or you using AI to help us all understand concepts better or make pretty things to look at that’s going to take down the world. It’s probably going to be the government creating faking images and videos to control us (ok… wait… that’s not new), and then other governments invading our systems with their systems and causing major crashes in our water, power, and food supplies, but let’s not get into that, shall we!? It’s over my pay grade and I’m pretty sure I can’t influence the the world leaders to not be pieces of shit, so… Back to us little creatives using AI.
I know there are a lot of moral and ethical issues with AI too around “stealing” Artist’s work to create their database, but… that's the internet for ya, isn’t it? All this info and work out there free for the taking because we all signed a laundry list of crap we didn’t read just so we could join our friends on Facebook 20 years ago and post pictures of our lives. I’m not here to condone making AI Art and then selling it for top dollar like you’re some Picasso, but damn, the stuff can be inspirational, and incredibly visually helpful, so I’m all for using it in a way that isn’t playing too dirty to the Artists before us.
Has this happened to us Artists before? And is it ok?
I think of it like when Photoshop and digital cameras came around and all the photographers who had been struggling in the darkrooms with chemical baths and ever so carefully developing their film rolls of questionable images for decades. They were undoubtedly pissed that now a kid with a brief understanding of shutter speed and aperture could pick up a camera, get an instant look at the image they shot, and then be able to tweak it on a computer immediately. It technically just replicated all of the things happening on film and in the dark room at an ungodly accelerated rate.
And don’t even get me started on graphic design as an Art form! For the record, I love it, but we have to go back to a time when it didn’t exist to understand how Artists would have felt when that hit the scenes. Don’t you think the people who had spent decades perfecting their drawing and painting brush strokes were a little peeved when a computer program preloaded with 200 brushes and endless color swatches came out and everyone with an ipencil became the next great thing!? We went from people stretching their own canvases, building the frames, mixing the perfect color by hand, and investing in countless brushes for them to paint for hours, adding up to weeks, if not months, to a teenager buying an iPad and getting instant access to apps and programs that make it incredibly easy to just trace over images and call them your own.
And this is the same for bands who create music with their hands, picking strings with all their fingers engaged and hitting drums with all 4 limbs flying around, versus the beats made by the click of a button.
I don’t want to talk trash about any art form, my point just is… if we go back in time, we’ve been here before. Things used to be a hell of a lot harder, and we’ve found ways, by studying the humans before us, to “improve” things. I say “improve” because I don’t know if it’s always better. I just know it can be faster, easier, cleaner, and cheaper to use Photoshop, or an iPad, GarageBand, or AI. It opens the door of Art to kids and even adults who previously wouldn’t have been able to jam on the drums in the tiny apartment they live in, or make enough money to rent a room, light proof it, and buy all the equipment needed for development, and so on.
Not that one is better than the other but I personally think there’s still something to be said of the Artists that use the “old ways.” And if you look in museums and high end galleries, people agree. The human talent unconnected to any computer or program still speaks volumes. There is a time and place for everything.
“Good artists borrow, great artists steal.”
(I knew this quote by Picasso so I asked AI to tell me more about it. Read below.)
Pablo Picasso's famous quote, "Good artists borrow, great artists steal," reflects his belief in the transformative power of art. By "borrowing," Picasso may have been referring to the act of taking inspiration from existing works or artists. However, when he mentions "stealing," he likely alludes to the idea of taking inspiration and making it truly one's own.
Great artists do not simply imitate; they absorb influences and reinterpret them in a way that is unique and innovative. They take existing ideas, techniques, or concepts and infuse them with their own creativity and vision. In doing so, they create something new and groundbreaking.
Picasso's quote challenges artists to go beyond replication and strive for originality. It encourages them to not only be inspired by others but also to push boundaries, question norms, and unleash their creativity without constraints. Great artists are not content with following in the footsteps of others; they aim to steal ideas and make them their own, leaving a lasting impact on the world of art.
(end AI)
I think this is interesting that even during Picassos time, being super famous in the 50s and 60s, even he understood that Art was getting to a point that nothing was 100% original anymore, but you could REINVENT concepts and make them YOUR own.
How can AI help us?
If you read above, you can see how informative that all was! I appreciate AIs power to scour the internet like an alien in a time machine and come back in less than 1 minute and tell me everything it learned so I could spend my time doing better things, like making my Art. AI in the visual space is still really hard, I get it. But AI in the form of words is like taking a dictionary, thesaurus, history book, text book, wikipedia, every opinion of any blog ever written, any study or research paper ever published, and smashing it all together and saying- here ya go, here’s literally the facts of the world as we know it right now. I think that’s really fricken cool and I want to use that to help us all better understand the world around us and ourselves!
What’s next?
I have some blogs coming up in the future where I asked AI things I didn’t know how to search for, or things I didn’t understand about myself, and the answers it gave me left me with some things to think about! I promise to always let you know when AI has taken over my blogs. I am not looking for the credit on these topics. I am looking for the understand and to share that understanding paired with my thoughts about it.
I know this is a nerdy topic that might bore some people, so thanks for sticking with me. No doubt AI is already infiltrating your life, so might as well be aware of it, and might as well use it to help you. If you’re a person who enjoys psychology and philosophy I think you’ll really enjoy the blogs are dropping next. I talk about the emotional connection to Art, the fear of success and fear, and much more!
Looking to read more about AI, specifically about images? A lot has changed since I wrote this blog, creation via word prompts has gotten MUCH easier and far more advanced, but the Ethics, Ego, and Legalities I touch on around AI Art still remain the same and in question.
AI ART: Stolen Art of the Past or Tool for Artists of the Future?