Some thoughts on AI and the Arts
Because I’m human, I make mistakes and I’m not ashamed of that. I change my mind on words and cross them out. I scramble my sentences and rearrange them for better narrative flow. I also choke on water and manage to spit it all over everything… as you can see happened here. That would be the downside of water-based inks… but that doesn’t happen much. And while choking may be a downside of being human, I’m still glad to be human.
Almost everyone seems to be bellyaching about AI these days. That’s a pity. Almost everyone isn’t nearly enough.
I confess I have been wanting to write more humor and levity (such as this), but this is what came out instead. While my intention with this blog is to provide a tranquil escape that focuses on creativity and analog tools, there comes a time when I must raise my torch and pitchfork, join in the clamor, and add to the roar of disapproval of certain threats such as AI. I feel that to preserve that peaceful creative existence, it must be defended.
(And—I acknowledge that I may be oversimplifying things, but I believe we often choke ourselves in weeds of philosophical over-complexity. Simple is my preferred style.)
First off, I have one hopeful issue I’d like to address: I firmly believe that the creative human can never be rendered obsolete by an AI bot. I am aware that some fret otherwise. But I say that as long as we have people who have a drive to create, we will have art and literature created (and consumed) by humans. For those who are passionate about creativity, it’s not just about having that finished product. It is the process, the joy of the act of creating that is essential for us. Machines don’t care whether they create or not. They feel nothing.
Furthermore, that which is created by a bot will always be lacking because of what the bot lacks: a soul. The bot will never attain a certain level of profundity without that element. The bot does not share our emotional or spiritual hungers or needs, and so there will be something regarding the bot’s product that will feel empty to the rest of us. Because their work will always fail to meet our needs, AI-produced “art” will be rendered obsolete rapidly.
Artificial entities can only beget artificial fare.
Of course, the state of things right now seems pretty ugly and chaotic. It basically boils down to: Look at all of the wonderful creations achieved by humanity over the centuries, the fruits of dedicated, passionate labor! Let’s take it all and feed it to a machine so it can chew it all and spit out new creations in a fraction of a second—creations that would take hours or even years for a human to complete. Why put forth effort when you could bask in complete inertia, why do anything that a machine could do for you?
I, for one, cannot subsist on digital spit—there is nothing nourishing about it in the least. When we allow digital entities to grow out of hand, we diminish ourselves.
Secondly, looking at the broader picture of AI and humanity (not just the artistic perspective of things), I feel the need to address something that worries me: humans fail to give themselves enough credit.
I have noticed that people tend to regard their phones and computers with too much respect, as if these devices are lofty pieces of wizardry that are destined to be beyond their comprehension to operate. I fiercely challenge that frame of mind. I, instead, regard the machines as buggy hunks of junk that will inevitably malfunction and are too stupid to understand what we want them to do—which is why they mystify us by doing absurd things. This mentality helps put the machine in its rightful place in the hierarchy—beneath us. Keep them there. Do not ever regard technology with awe… unless it’s in awe of its incompetence.
Don’t forget that we humans are the ones who are equipped with actual brains. The human being—body, mind, and soul—is far superior, far more complex and sophisticated than anything we can conjure, no matter how amazing our technology may seem at first glance. Don’t ever degrade yourself by abdicating yourself to a mere machine.
We cannot hand our lives over to AI. In doing that, we are burying our dignity, disposing of our talents, diminishing our sense of purpose. In short, it is suicide. So don’t embrace it. Don’t encourage it. Instead, rebel sweetly and cling to what you value.
Please excuse me while I go write something on paper.
