AI IS RUINING GENUINE CREATIVITY

AI, which, despite many misconceptions, technically stands for Augmented Intelligence (not Artificial Intelligence, which would require sentience), started to grow in popularity during the pandemic. At first, it was fairly harmless. AI combs the internet for relevant keywords to complete a task and because it was juvenile, these tasks didn’t always turn out as planned.

However, as the years have gone by AI has gotten more and more efficient at stealing others’ work.

AI has grown to be a system that can write your emails for you, draw you a picture, and even attend meetings in your stead. To many individuals and businesses, this might seem like a powerful and welcome tool, but for others, it is a weapon of destruction to our very livelihoods.

Artists, writers, photographers and designers are skilled people who have taken years,sometimes decades, to hone in their specific skills in order to make a living off of their passion. Now some of these professionals are losing their clients and being invalidated because of AI.

“With recent (months-long) strikes with writers and voice actors,” said Jonathan Perez, a second-year photography student at MHCC, “one of the primary problems besides compensation was that people (production companies, etc.) were using AI instead of their actual work.

“They were wanting to use AI instead of the actual workers without asking for permission and it affected their livelihood. They were already getting paid so little, so they went on strike,” Perez said. Cohydra, an artist posting on Instagram, has also run into new problems.

“I was tagged into a post by someone telling me that someone traced my art,” he said. “I went to take a look, and it wasn’t something I’d ever drawn. It was my exact art style, but I didn’t make it.

“That person used AI to steal my art. It was insane,” he said.

The same practice has angered a digital artist based in Europe who shared their frustrations with me recently.

“I think the worst part [about people using AI to steal art] is that they try to pass it off as their own,” the artist said. “They open commissions and charge the same amount that people who actually worked to get their talent does. And it’s more detailed and ‘perfect’ and so people think its better than ours. It’s unfair.”

Many artists, myself included, have seen our sales and income drop due to AI not only stealing the styles of their art, but their clients, too.

AI is suddenly so popular now and is seen as the “superior” tool in many different ways. Yet all in all, the AI era is an era that many creators will remember as the death of genuine creativity.