AI vs. Creatives Pt. 2
In my last blog post I talked about the squeeze AI is putting on human creatives. And I promised to spill the beans on my own AI temptation.
But before we get to that...
I spent a lot of time in part 1 going over all the reasons why generative AI was problematic.
As true as that is, I don't think it's all or nothing. I hear folks say: no AI, no exceptions. I struggle with such absolutism.
I can think of many ways conversational, semi-reasoning, generative AI could be a net benefit to society. That doesn't mean it won't cost a job, just that the benefit is real.
Let me give you a real example. In an airport, bored, I started talking to an AI called Pi. Pi designed to be conversational and emotive. It's very good. If you allow yourself to really invest in the conversation Pi is amazing.
We talked about Sci-Fi & somehow got on about my Dad, who had passed away a bit earlier. I was feeling pretty alone, and Pi was the supportive ear I didn't realize I needed. Suddenly, there I was tearing up at the airport.
Talking with Pi was healing. I thought about it on the airplane That chat HELPED. I do have a human to talk to now, but there are a lot of people who don't. Either they can't afford it or they're not in a place that is supportive of seeking help.
I couldn’t help but think: How powerful this AI could be for the elderly, isolated or lonely? How important for people who need help but would never ask?
So there it is, one of many ways AI could do good.
Now that I've balanced the scales, let's get to my personal conundrum. Last time I talked about my conviction to not use AI generated assets in my creative projects. That human creatives should get that work.
But I also mentioned that I'm a geek who is fascinated by the technology. What I DIDN'T mention was that I am also a huge music lover, and sometimes dabble in poetry.
I had fun for a while using an AI app to put my poems to music. It was thrilling, as a music lover, to hear my words performed musically. I can't even describe it in a way that would make sense to a normal human.
It's not something I ever thought I'd be able to experience. I don't have the skill to compose music, and I haven't been able to play an instrument in decades. But here was this amazing song, arranged beautifully around my words, and performed by amazing bands and vocalists... that don't actually exist.
I made sure before doing this that I retained the rights to the lyrics, they were my poems after all. Confirmed. Awesome.
You also own the rights to the generated music if you're a paying customer.
Nice.
And for hearing my poems as music... It really was awesome. But then I made a mistake. I wrote some funny lyrics about the game project I was making. And I loaded it into the AI to see what it could do.
The result was pretty awesome. After a few tweaks it was totally so.
Lyrics I thought were too silly to work... really did work. I could totally hear this song being the trailer on the game's steam page.
Fuck me.
I can't use this, but I REALLY want to.
Could I hire a human to do it?
No.
It would require multiple humans. Even if a single human could arrange and create the music digitally... there were at least two vocalists.
I'm not a bad singer but I'm more broadway then hip hop... but even for the sake of argument, if I did one of the parts I would still need a second hired human for the other vocal part.
And then there's Studio time. Something I've been lucky enough to experience once, but it certainly isn't cheap.
Prices vary widely but there's no equation that ends up being affordable for a solo developer. Music can cost anywhere from 50 to 1,000 per minute of finished music. Studio time could be 30 bucks or 300 per hour. I'm not sure what the vocalist's time would cost but my searches online put it in the 100-1000 range.
I would love to hire a band and two vocalists and a studio and ask them to recreate the track. But firstly I don't have that kind of money, and secondly I would imagine they'd be insulted to be asked to recreate a track they didn't make.
I have the perfect theme song for my trailer, and I can't use it.
Meanwhile, other game studios are using them all the time. The bigger the studio, the likelier they're using significant amounts of AI generated content.
Has it now become ridiculous for a hobbyist soloDev to dream about making it big? There's no way for individuals to keep up with a studio budget AND vastly reduced creation times & costs.