AI vs. Creatives Pt. 1
At my job I'm required to stay on top of the trends in AI. I am, in fact, required to use it in my job.
This isn't a big problem for me because as a geek, I am fascinated by the capabilities of these tools. But for creative types AI is less fascinating and more rage inducing, If not terrifying.
Every single day AI gets better and better at generating, stories, images, video, code...
And it absolutely is already taking jobs.
Big companies are using AI to create background, music, images, 3D models, scripts... everything.
This blog is part one of a two part series. Today is about my take on the conflict between technology, and human creative workers. Next time I'm going to spill the beans on my personal conflict with AI.
Let's start by quickly recapping the very legitimate concerns with large language models as they exist today.
- The training data was stolen
- The output can be an obvious rip off
- The technology is replacing some human jobs
- AI trained on AI gets progressively worse
- Training and running these large language models consume massive amounts of resources and are terrible for the planet.
But there's no reason for most of those things to be true just for gen AI to exist. They are true because: capitalism. (Although the bad for the planet thing is a harder nut to crack)
But the point is: generative AI isn’t evil, but it’s implementation may be.
That won't always be the case. Let’s talk about what happens when we get GOOD models that are NOT implemented so poorly.
`cuz It's already happening. I have several very capable, smaller models running locally on my computer.
There are companies getting serious funding building models that are as capable as any but trained only on data that they had permission to use.
All things being equal... technology, once discovered, never goes back into the box. Generative AI, in some form, is here to stay.
Which is great for technology, but disruptive to jobs, and downright hurtful to those impacted. It's no surprise that the artists, musicians, and writers of the world are rightfully worried that the craft they spent decades getting good at... Is being replaced by an intern with a prompt.
That's a fair worry. The deal we all make with artists is simple. In order to live in a world with art, we value the time it takes to both make it, and to learn to do it well.
I care about these things and I still use AI personally and at work. But I won't use it in my creative projects. ... Wait that's not true... I won't use it to replace paid human effort. I use AI all the time to learn things, ask questions, etc.
I choose not to use AI in my project work because I like human made craft. And because I like the people that make it. I follow many of them on social media . I want them to make a living, and enjoy making art. I want them to keep making it.
Sadly, I believe I might be in the minority. I don't think most people care enough to spend hundreds or thousands vs nearly nothing. Capitalism sure won’t care.
So Good Tech. Bad Practices. Bad for certain jobs. In the future when the the model is based on “fair use” training - no one will hesitate. The crunch for creatives is likely inevitable.
A saying I've heard a lot is “You're not going to be replaced by AI, you're going to be replaced by the person who learns to master it.”
I hope that's true. I hope there's a path for creatives that doesn't end up with more layoffs.
But I also hope that AI doesn't completely take away the feeling of awe that I get when I suddenly realize that the experience I've been having was created by someone with amazing skill, and time, and patience.
Having said all of that...
I now find myself, despite my conviction, very tempted to use an AI generated asset instead of hiring it done. And this is what really worries me. I honestly don't want to use it, but I'm incapable of creating anything like it on my own... and having it done by humans would likely cost thousands.
I hope to hire out some art and music for my current game project, but I know that I can't afford to hire it all out.
Small creative folks like me... who can't do everything, and don't have a huge corporate budget... are often forced to choose between using an AI asset, or settling for a subpar product because we tried to do it ourselves.
It's not sustainable, something has to give.
I wish I had answers, but all I've got are more problems. Next time I'll tell you about the AI asset that has me angry. Angry because it's really good and I want to use it... and it would be crazy expensive to try to do traditionally. But I can't use it. Because I shouldn't.
I don't have any answers. Like I said, I'm facing my own ethical conundrum. But more on that next time...