This is an interesting conversation, it's something that I myself have been contemplating and being present to. It seems to me that AI is much more appealing to the creators than it is to the consumers. Businesses love the idea of being able to "10x their production" but the consumers don't seem to benefit from it, in fact they often feel like they're being cheated in some way.
With that being said, from a creative point of view, I don't think it's as simple as people who use AI are lazy or taking short-cuts. Although most AI generated content is poorly made and generic, there are some exceptional use-cases that I've observed. Some of these AI workflows are very extensive and involve a lot of intention, direction and iteration and are also combined with video editing, sound design, etc. In fact, the best examples i've seen came from people with a lot of prior experience and skills in the creative realm.
I will say there is a psychological/perceptual phenomenon that I've observed within myself when observing content in general now, and that is that I'm uncomfortable with the blurring of what is real and not. I think it disrupts my sense of reality in a way that doesn't feel good.
At first, I was looking forward to being able to use AI to create things that I've only dreamed of having the budget to produce, but I've since dialed it back for a couple of reasons. First, my particular audience didn't seem too receptive to it. Second, I just felt the slipping away of my authentic voice. Often times ChatGPT wants to water down my message and make it more palatable, and sometimes I just want to deliver it how I want to.
Anyways, appreciate opening up the conversation and sharing your thoughts.
Hey Quetzal! Thank you so much for sharing your voice, experience, and perspective. I really appreciate the discussion. It's such a complicated issue and I am but one opinionated person with one particular perspective lol. So thanks for engaging with me :)
I think my particular philosophy and position as a writer and filmmaker makes me someone who is especially biased against AI, so it's helpful to get more perspectives on why people want to use AI and what value people do get out of it. Because I've heard similar things to what you said before, about the opportunity to create things you never would have had the budget to create. And on an intellectual level that totally makes sense to me, like you wouldn't be paying someone to animate that video anyway, so what's the harm?
I think more than anything, I consider myself an artist, so the moment AI was introduced, my hackles went up and I found it to be an assault on humanity and then everything I've learned about it since has only confirmed that. But I can absolutely understand why lots of people saw an opportunity in it, and still do. In the writing world in particular, which is where I spend most of my digital time these days, most people are almost completely unambiguously against AI in the creative process (though there are still gray areas for sure). But in general, it's really frowned upon in that world, and in the filmmaking world as well. So that has definitely concretized my bias against it in a lot of ways.
In the ecological, civilization-critical world, I've found it's a little more of a mixed bag. There are people who are fundamentally against it like me, people who know it's bad in xyz ways but think perhaps it can be wielded for good, and people who are fully integrating the machine into their lives as some kind of vessel of genuine insight. And even though it's hard for me to express opinions that might conflict with other creators in this particular space, I felt like it was important to share my perspective, because I don't think I'm totally unique in feeling really off-put by AI and what it represents.
But it's definitely likely the case that I'm taking my own experience with AI and amplifying it beyond what is actually the experience of most people (on the consumer end), though it is interesting to hear that you noticed your audience not being receptive to it. I guess that was the whole point of my essay - like ultimately the choice is in the creator whether or not to use it, but we have to accept the impact of that choice either way. Like I have to accept that my work will be inefficient, slow, and unoptimized in comparison to someone who uses AI. But then likewise, there are costs to using AI to the user, and I think that's just what I wanted to share. Not to intentionally make anyone feel badly about using AI, but just to be like "hey, this is a perception of AI that exists and our audiences might really not appreciate us using it" depending, of course, on that niche and audience.
Normally I'm a lot more interested in nuance, but AI is one thing where I've really felt the need to draw the line in the sand for myself, but I also accept that people are gonna draw different lines for themselves. I personally have no desire to use it but I do understand what leads people to want to. So in the interest of sharing all perspectives, I have felt like I need to have some role in being the annoying person, the thorn in everyone's side, or maybe the canary in the coal mine.
And absolutely, the blurring of what is real and not is a huge concern. I remember I first started feeling really uneasy about it being used in this space when I saw an AI image of a cute, indigenous grandmother carrying some fruit and it started making me feel really worried about the potential of depicting reality in a false way and what that could do to us. Could it make us more complacent about the genuine issues people around the world are facing? Could it just generally scramble our brains? But above all, it made me worry about people unintentionally making the lifeways and movements I believe in and want to share seem suspect and artificial. Which is obviously not what anyone wants, but technology inherently produces unintended consequences. And I actually started writing an essay a long time ago that was called "The Breakdown of Reality" and then I was like, am I being too dramatic about this? Because at the time AI wasn't that good or pervasive, so it felt like I was just making things up. And then I realized my initial impulse was more correct than I had realized.
A lot of the comments on the YT video I shared (the one I made) really illuminated what you shared as well, that there's this slipping of authentic voice when using AI. These were all mostly writers, presumably, but it was interesting to hear them say that they regretted using it because it messed with their authentic voice. It seems like a lot of people have experienced that.
But yeah! What you said about the amount of effort that can go into AI creations - I think that's the thing that struck me about the music video. Like I can even see myself how much effort went into it, how interesting the idea is, etc, and even still the AI part completely turned me off of it. And this might actually not be fair at all, but it's also not even a fully conscious thing, yknow? Like it's a visceral embodied disgust that I almost can't control.
It's the same thing with a book that utilized AI in the creation process - like with my limited time on Earth, I just genuinely don't have any interest in reading a book that someone wrote with AI. I guess oftentimes with AI, it comes across as lazy or a shortcut because people will use it to get something over the finish line. Like in the case of books, people always say "I just let it edit for me!" and it's still like, "you WHAT?" And it does, unfortunately, have the side effect of calling the entire creative process into question (for a non-zero amount of people, and how much those people matter to a creator is up to them to decide). It's almost like an orientation, preference type of thing. And so I think that's the angle I was trying to share here, but I don't know how effectively that came across.
Anyway, thank you for the comment, I really appreciate your perspective and the open dialogue. I hope you and your family are doing well!!
This is an interesting conversation, it's something that I myself have been contemplating and being present to. It seems to me that AI is much more appealing to the creators than it is to the consumers. Businesses love the idea of being able to "10x their production" but the consumers don't seem to benefit from it, in fact they often feel like they're being cheated in some way.
With that being said, from a creative point of view, I don't think it's as simple as people who use AI are lazy or taking short-cuts. Although most AI generated content is poorly made and generic, there are some exceptional use-cases that I've observed. Some of these AI workflows are very extensive and involve a lot of intention, direction and iteration and are also combined with video editing, sound design, etc. In fact, the best examples i've seen came from people with a lot of prior experience and skills in the creative realm.
I will say there is a psychological/perceptual phenomenon that I've observed within myself when observing content in general now, and that is that I'm uncomfortable with the blurring of what is real and not. I think it disrupts my sense of reality in a way that doesn't feel good.
At first, I was looking forward to being able to use AI to create things that I've only dreamed of having the budget to produce, but I've since dialed it back for a couple of reasons. First, my particular audience didn't seem too receptive to it. Second, I just felt the slipping away of my authentic voice. Often times ChatGPT wants to water down my message and make it more palatable, and sometimes I just want to deliver it how I want to.
Anyways, appreciate opening up the conversation and sharing your thoughts.
Take care.
Hey Quetzal! Thank you so much for sharing your voice, experience, and perspective. I really appreciate the discussion. It's such a complicated issue and I am but one opinionated person with one particular perspective lol. So thanks for engaging with me :)
I think my particular philosophy and position as a writer and filmmaker makes me someone who is especially biased against AI, so it's helpful to get more perspectives on why people want to use AI and what value people do get out of it. Because I've heard similar things to what you said before, about the opportunity to create things you never would have had the budget to create. And on an intellectual level that totally makes sense to me, like you wouldn't be paying someone to animate that video anyway, so what's the harm?
I think more than anything, I consider myself an artist, so the moment AI was introduced, my hackles went up and I found it to be an assault on humanity and then everything I've learned about it since has only confirmed that. But I can absolutely understand why lots of people saw an opportunity in it, and still do. In the writing world in particular, which is where I spend most of my digital time these days, most people are almost completely unambiguously against AI in the creative process (though there are still gray areas for sure). But in general, it's really frowned upon in that world, and in the filmmaking world as well. So that has definitely concretized my bias against it in a lot of ways.
In the ecological, civilization-critical world, I've found it's a little more of a mixed bag. There are people who are fundamentally against it like me, people who know it's bad in xyz ways but think perhaps it can be wielded for good, and people who are fully integrating the machine into their lives as some kind of vessel of genuine insight. And even though it's hard for me to express opinions that might conflict with other creators in this particular space, I felt like it was important to share my perspective, because I don't think I'm totally unique in feeling really off-put by AI and what it represents.
But it's definitely likely the case that I'm taking my own experience with AI and amplifying it beyond what is actually the experience of most people (on the consumer end), though it is interesting to hear that you noticed your audience not being receptive to it. I guess that was the whole point of my essay - like ultimately the choice is in the creator whether or not to use it, but we have to accept the impact of that choice either way. Like I have to accept that my work will be inefficient, slow, and unoptimized in comparison to someone who uses AI. But then likewise, there are costs to using AI to the user, and I think that's just what I wanted to share. Not to intentionally make anyone feel badly about using AI, but just to be like "hey, this is a perception of AI that exists and our audiences might really not appreciate us using it" depending, of course, on that niche and audience.
Normally I'm a lot more interested in nuance, but AI is one thing where I've really felt the need to draw the line in the sand for myself, but I also accept that people are gonna draw different lines for themselves. I personally have no desire to use it but I do understand what leads people to want to. So in the interest of sharing all perspectives, I have felt like I need to have some role in being the annoying person, the thorn in everyone's side, or maybe the canary in the coal mine.
And absolutely, the blurring of what is real and not is a huge concern. I remember I first started feeling really uneasy about it being used in this space when I saw an AI image of a cute, indigenous grandmother carrying some fruit and it started making me feel really worried about the potential of depicting reality in a false way and what that could do to us. Could it make us more complacent about the genuine issues people around the world are facing? Could it just generally scramble our brains? But above all, it made me worry about people unintentionally making the lifeways and movements I believe in and want to share seem suspect and artificial. Which is obviously not what anyone wants, but technology inherently produces unintended consequences. And I actually started writing an essay a long time ago that was called "The Breakdown of Reality" and then I was like, am I being too dramatic about this? Because at the time AI wasn't that good or pervasive, so it felt like I was just making things up. And then I realized my initial impulse was more correct than I had realized.
A lot of the comments on the YT video I shared (the one I made) really illuminated what you shared as well, that there's this slipping of authentic voice when using AI. These were all mostly writers, presumably, but it was interesting to hear them say that they regretted using it because it messed with their authentic voice. It seems like a lot of people have experienced that.
But yeah! What you said about the amount of effort that can go into AI creations - I think that's the thing that struck me about the music video. Like I can even see myself how much effort went into it, how interesting the idea is, etc, and even still the AI part completely turned me off of it. And this might actually not be fair at all, but it's also not even a fully conscious thing, yknow? Like it's a visceral embodied disgust that I almost can't control.
It's the same thing with a book that utilized AI in the creation process - like with my limited time on Earth, I just genuinely don't have any interest in reading a book that someone wrote with AI. I guess oftentimes with AI, it comes across as lazy or a shortcut because people will use it to get something over the finish line. Like in the case of books, people always say "I just let it edit for me!" and it's still like, "you WHAT?" And it does, unfortunately, have the side effect of calling the entire creative process into question (for a non-zero amount of people, and how much those people matter to a creator is up to them to decide). It's almost like an orientation, preference type of thing. And so I think that's the angle I was trying to share here, but I don't know how effectively that came across.
Anyway, thank you for the comment, I really appreciate your perspective and the open dialogue. I hope you and your family are doing well!!