Hey! My name is Lia and I live in your walls!
But to be honest, that is my extent of humour today because I think that it’s really important we have a talk:
Generative AI
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SO FELLOW HUMANS! You may or may not have seen the new images being produced by AI and frankly, I’d make a joke that humanity’s doomed but… uh… yeah- George Orwell tried to warn us and oopsie daisy we didn’t listen.
In the past you could tell if an image was a fake piece of slop with no human input but now… it’s undeniable how far AI has progressed to the point there aren’t those noticeable flaws. We live in a digital age where you can probably never tell again if that picture of that friend group is even real or that art was human and WHY? For what purpose?!
WHAT VILLAIN PLOT EVEN IS THIS?
I, for one, didn’t think I was ever going to have to worry about some robot uprising taking my job because haha, I’m a kid- and life is great! I am a kid so I can relax and spend my youth not thinking about money! I’m a kid and… and I can just make pretty pictures and… Ah.
Yeah… kids shouldn’t be having to think like adults. And adults shouldn’t have to kill their creativity so they can live- especially when creativity has been a part of human existence since before business was even invented
In a world where employment is pretty rough and most of us are going through some sort of cost of living crisis, I definitely feel it’s becoming nigh impossible to fathom how many of our basic jobs are being taken. And if you’re here, then I assume that you’re an artist or somewhat interested in art and you might know the threat to creative jobs as a whole
I’m not even an adult yet and I’m worried about a job I may never have…
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AND YES! Creative industries have always been competitive. I remember when I was maybe five or so my parents asked me:
“what do you want to be when you’re older”
I told my parents “when I grow up I want to be a singer”. And so they told me I would “never be a singer because the job market was so rough” - and as a little kid, I didn’t quite understand that but I was certainly at least a little sad about it. Like c’mon guys I couldn’t even count to 10! Way to crush my dreams- And that was before AI was seen as a real threat.
When I was 13 I sat in a café with my parents and they asked me again:
“What do you want to be when you’re older”
And I told them: “Artist”
I said that with the voice of someone so so sure about my hopes and dreams. And they told me all of the ways I could never be an artist and that I should get into programming or something useful because I’m gonna be a ‘starving artist’ with a dusty, faded art degree and no job to show for it.
And again… this was before AI was a threat.
So yeah… I didn’t pick this industry because I assumed I was going to have an easy ride. But I knew I wanted to be an artist. A storyteller. And even now, a few years later, I’m still hopeful of becoming an artist
And now, In my teens being told I have potential- that brought me so much happiness. But the day after, I witnessed generative AI so convincing I’ve never had less hope.
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I watched a local panel recently about creative jobs; there was a concept artist on that panel that told us in the audience “AI is a tool that can never replace a human artist. If you’re worried about AI taking your job then you probably aren’t good enough to have it in the first place, for the industry is already so cutthroat, then you wouldn’t survive”
I have never been in the workplace, but for someone who soon will have to get a job I fully understand what he said. Art is a hard industry, but for corporations who employ artists, I don’t think they fully understand the humanity and skill behind art rather than seeing artists as commodity.
As I say, I haven’t been in the workplace so I’m just going off of what I’m hearing. But I’m worried that businesses don’t see art’s humanity and now that something is quicker and cheaper than an artist… I don’t want to grow up in a world where so many corners are cut we remove the human part entirely.
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I feel art is a commentary on the human experience. The whole debate about “is the art more important or is the artist”. I feel we’re losing the artist from the work in whole.
I’m just a kid. I don’t understand the world like adults do and maybe I never will. But even I can see that right now, generative AI is doing more harm than good. I don’t know if I should be worried, but I am.
This was really longwinded but if you read it, these have just been some things on my mind
- From Lia, Who’s worried about my generation, due to a generation of AI “art”
