Generative AI is a new tool you can use or avoid; but ignore it at your own peril.
There have been many books, movies, and TV series where rogue AI played or plays a part in the downfall of the human race. Sometimes they simply confound us (Hal in 2001: A Space Odyssey), sometimes they enslave us (The Matrix), and sometimes they destroy us (Terminator). Artificial Intelligence, designed to better our lives, instead ruins them.
Despite these examples, the race to develop increasingly capable AI has gained speed and focus. Now, instead of the purview of sci-fi, AI is here.
However, one of its primary functions isn’t the tool to make automation increase tenfold or work out some dilemma that has stumped the human race. Instead, the biggest advances have been Generative AI.
What is Generative AI?
Generative AI is a tool that comes in many forms to assist with the creation of words, images, and sound. These tools offer a means to input ideas for the output of a finished product.
The best-known, right now, is probably ChatGPT. This software allows you to input an idea of a few sentences with simple instructions to create content.
Allow me to demonstrate. I’ll give ChatGPT (v3.5) this prompt: Write a paragraph explaining Chat GPT. Please include the phrase “bad mamajama” in it.
Here’s what it gave me:
“ChatGPT is a powerful language model developed by OpenAI, specifically GPT-3.5 architecture, designed to understand and generate human-like text based on the input it receives. It leverages deep learning techniques to comprehend context, generate coherent responses, and assist users in various tasks. ChatGPT can be employed for a wide range of applications, including answering questions, providing information, generating creative content, and engaging in conversations on diverse topics. Its versatility and ability to adapt to different contexts make it a bad mamajama in the field of natural language processing, showcasing the advancements in AI technology.”
Two sentences turned into a paragraph. This is, on the one hand, pretty cool. On the other hand, however, it’s a bit scary. It took maybe 5 seconds to generate the above paragraph.
Yet, when you read the above, you’ll see why a Generative AI like Chat GPT still needs human editing in addition to input. That paragraph is pedantic, emotionless, toneless, and dull. Even adding a playful phrase like “bad mamajama” doesn’t make it interesting.
Granted, one of the hallmarks of AI, in all forms, is its ability to learn. This, however, is where more controversy about this tool comes into play.
I didn’t give my permission
One of the largest drawbacks of the World Wide Web is that things you put there might be there forever. What’s more, when was the last time you read, carefully and thoroughly, any terms and conditions you agreed to for the use of software or a website? Lots of what you put out there is in the public domain.
This is how Facebook, Twitter, and the like use algorithms to target you for selling stuff. For example, Facebook knows I’ve desired to get a kayak and a lightsaber for some time. Lo and behold, I get ads for kayaks and lightsabers rather a lot. Guess what AI is? An algorithm.
The various Generative AI software out in the world learns. It learns from your input, the input of others, and what’s out in the world today. That, however, raises a specific ethical question or two.
Does MidJourney – one of the image-producing Generative AI – have access to my art? Can it copy my style? Is it taking what I created and reproducing it without my permission? Is ChatGPT taking what I write without assistance and using it to create work for others?
Copyright can be tricky to begin with. Factor in software that can be fed an image and asked to recreate it with alternative parameters in a similar style. Is this plagiarism, theft, and/or a violation of copyright? That’s concerning.
Mostly, and I am going off my experience both working with some of this software and working with people who use it a whole lot more than I do, it’s most likely that the AI works like any art student. Picture that student walking through a museum and sketching classical works. AI learns style like that art student via imitation without plagiarizing.
This brings up another issue, however.
There will always be assholes
Like it or not, there are selfish, non-altruistic people out there who will do anything to make a buck. They will use and abuse any tool they can access to do it faster, cheaper, and with as little effort as possible.
One of the reasons behind the recent SAG strike was to address this. Using AI-generated “people” rather than real people could take away jobs. It can also be used to “recycle” an actor’s likeness, so you can pay them as little as humanly possible for a small amount of work but use them over and over via AI recreation.
Likewise, the WGA strike partially addressed the potential abuse of AI to replace writers on TV shows and movies. One asshole hack producer theoretically could take an idea, feed it to a Generative AI, and produce a mediocre script, without hiring writers.
Many authors are starting to use Generative AI to help them write. Some are using it in good ways, like tweaking dialogue, taking a half-baked concept and giving it full form, using AI to suggest chapter names, helping them with advertising, and the like. However, some are abusing it. They’re writing whole novels via AI.
You can now narrate any book via AI. Personally, as a voice artist, I have a problem with this. Especially when the various outlets aren’t necessarily differentiating AI narration from human narration. More inclusivity via AI narration is conceptually good, but it could easily overwhelm and overtake the work of human voice artists.
The long and short of it is, some assholes will abuse these new tools. The legal and regulatory world needs to move fast to keep up with this. That’s made harder by the almost daily advances in the tech and its capabilities.
Generative AI is a new tool you can use or not
Like it or not, AI is here to stay. Some are extremely innocuous and useful, such as Grammarly and ProWritingAid. Other AI is a helpful assistant like Alexa or Siri. Then you get to the more creative Generative AI like ChatGPT, MidJourney, Google Gemini, and so on.
You can ignore these new tools and avoid them. However, you do so at your own peril. They’re only going to be increasingly employed in more and more industries.
I know many creatives who are scared about how AI and Generative AI might start supplanting and replacing them. The truth is, as good as AI can be, it does not work without human input. What’s more, much of its output still requires human editing. Even as it grows and learns, as you can see from the prompt and response generated earlier, AI writing is obvious and lacks the senses that only humans can give it.
Yes, AI will cost some jobs. However, it will also create new jobs. It is not an evil entity like movies and books have often portrayed it to be. Instead, it’s a tool you can use in many ways. It’s the equivalent of handwritten manuscripts giving way to the typewriter giving way to the word processor giving way to current software for writing. Likewise, AI generative images are akin to digital images. When digital images first started to be used, lots of people denounced them as the end of art as we knew it. But they weren’t. Instead, they became a new form of art.
Like most things in life, you have a choice when it comes to approaching AI.
It’s the user, not the tool
Because there will be assholes abusing these tools, it can be beneficial to learn what they can do and how they can be employed for good.
I’ve used ChatGPT, Claude, and Copy.ai for content creation. This has included writing pages for a website, content for social media marketing, and translating a podcast transcript into the basis for the chapters of a book. Every time I use these tools, their creations require both my initial input and editing of their output. They also lack formatting.
Sure, I could have used what they gave me, as is, but that would have been unethical, and not in the tone we wanted to convey. That’s another issue with Generative AI. Like text messaging, it tends to lack tone, intent, direction, and so on. Like I wrote about, it lacks senses.
I believe that learning about these new tools and what they can do is a great way to help direct how they’ll be used. It also helps us see where abuses can and likely will occur.
As an ethical user of Generative AI tools, I can and will call out the unethical from a place of understanding.
Generative AI, and other current and upcoming AI tools, are just that. Tools. Like any tool, they can be used and abused. When a screwdriver is used as a murder weapon, is it the tool or the user at fault? It’s the user, not the tool.
I know this is disconcerting and scary. However, knowledge is power. Hence, I suggest exploring these tools for yourself to learn how they might aid you rather than disempower and make your creative work obsolete.
Thank you!
Thanks for reading. As I share my creative journey with you, I conclude with this: How are you inspired to be your own creator – whatever form that takes?
PS: If you would like to learn more about AI and creatives using it, check out the bi-weekly podcast I edit and produce – AI For Creatives on the Pink Kangaru Podcast Network.
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