A personal thought about generative AI and its effects on my creative process

[ShidoDraws]

I've watched several videos from different YouTubers spreading awareness of the damages AI generated content is doing to social media and how it's affecting people in real life.

As a user who has been on social media for over a decade now, I have to admit it is really scary to see things change really quickly. Back in 2014, 2016ish I followed a couple of very skilled artists who makes art as a profession/hobby, I look at their art for inspiration once in a while. Just the other day I remembered I haven't checked these artist's works in years since a lot had been going on in my life these past three years. So, I checked, and they haven't uploaded their work since 2022 or 2023. Some of my favorite artists had stopped uploading completely, which is a good thing because of data scraping but it saddens me that things like this discourages real artists to upload their work and share it for the world to see and admire.

I also want to express that as an artist on social media, it's difficult to find the references I need now. There were multiple times where I looked up something and realized that most of the results are AI generated slop of literal people and real things. Artists can't just rely on imagination alone to make good art, and I'm afraid that pro-AI users won't ever realize that. In turn, this will cause major changes to the future generation of beginner artists.

There are other videos I watched where people speak out about how thousands of fanfictions are scraped and put into AI training date-set websites. Joking about how one of the most important thing generative AI likes to spew out is tons of m-dashes. Of course—that's not completely true—but it did give me something to giggle about.

Another note I'd like the add is that I feel like search engines are less reliable than they were ever before. There were specific things I used to look up that would give me results from real people and credible sources. Comparing that to nowadays, when I'm looking up specific things it feels like a chore to search for informative things that doesn't feel generated. I say this because there are more websites than before that have different names but are all formatted the same way. Even down to some of the wordings.

I fear that this is only the beginning, it is clear that we are heading into a dangerous future because the "progress" is not stopping any time soon. Even if there are more generated slop, it had only slowed down the progress. However, I will still post my art because I still love making it and some of my followers still look forward to my work.

The point is, I just wanted to express my thoughts about this topic. It's a conversation I see people have and feel that I didn't have much to add since a lot of it had already been said. Seeing some of my favorite artist leave social media just made me wonder if things will ever get better. Probably, probably not. And if not, how will things be like for the average person? Only time will tell, I suppose.

[Ordinaryaverageguy]

Machines & artificial intelligence were promised to take away our drudgery & thankless jobs & free us all to become more free and creative. We would all have time to write & create art. What we're being given instead, is machines & AI replacing the writers & the artists, while also taking a lot of our jobs, & none of us are becoming free.

[wolflu66]

Nowadays, whenever I draw and need to search for references on DA or Pinterest, I'm always overwhelmed by the massive amount of AI-generated images on the pages. It's becoming increasingly troublesome to find real photographs or works by human artists.

This phenomenon is quite terrible, especially for beginner artists. They likely can't distinguish whether those AI images are correct or not. If they use poor-quality images for learning and reference, it might lead them down the wrong path.

[kyupol]

But before ai, I remember the art teacher tell us not to use anime and cartoon drawings to learn how to draw. Always use photographs, draw from life, or of course... The school textbook with realistic drawings as reference.

[wolflu66]

Additionally, I'm quite concerned about the massive amount of AI-generated low-quality short videos on YouTube and TikTok.
YouTube has really been flooded with a huge amount of low-quality short videos in recent years, and the AI-generated videos that have emerged in the past two years are even more unbearable to me. These fragmented, nonsensical, and difficult-to-distinguish-real-from-fake videos are gradually replacing seriously-produced long-form content and becoming mainstream.

In the past, I always reminded myself that the younger generation will always be better than the previous one. Just because you don't like something doesn't mean it's wrong. If you hate what the younger generation is into and think each generation is worse than the last, it means you're getting old and can't keep up with the times. And for a long time, this was indeed the case.
However, now I'm starting to doubt this viewpoint.

Having some junk food occasionally is fine, but people should never treat junk food as their regular meals. You can't say that opposing 'treating junk food as regular meals' is because I'm old and can't keep up with the times, right?

[wolflu66]

I think it depends on what level your drawing skills are at. For beginners, learning directly from real photographs might actually not be very effective.
They can't understand the structure of objects and extract or deconstruct them from real photos. It would be better to let them learn from masters' works and understand how the masters approached it.

[vapidink]

If you're doing an image search on google, type in -ai to filter most of the junk. Apparently adding a curse word to your search also helps for some reason, lol. I think DuckDuckGo also filters AI results automatically. For pose references, try some accounts like The Pose Archives and Adorkastock.

But you're right that AI is degrading the art community online in so many ways. Lately, I've been thinking about all of the writers who are choosing the cheap and lazy way to get covers and other graphics. Their excuses range but they're never enough to justify the theft, damage to the environment, and hypocrisy of stealing the work of other artists.

I've been posting my work online for a long while and I remember how people would go about getting a decent cover before AI and even before Canva. Back when Wattpad still had forums, people would set up "shops" where they would make covers for a couple of comments or votes, so all you had to do was give their story a look. There were also shops for artwork. There still are on the site itself!

Personally, I know plenty of people who got into drawing and graphic design because they had to learn to make their own covers. Some of them ended up making that their job. It makes me wonder how many people will no longer develop those skills because it's just easier to type up a prompt and steal from artists.

It's really sad to think how many people are giving up on their creativity because of AI. I've seen some stories that were clearly made with AI and then they also have an AI cover and I just have to wonder, what's the point? Why bother to even generate something you've not put any work into? Whatever AI generates is never going to have any value because there is no point to it, there is no thought or emotion in the things it spits out.

So, yeah, I have a lot of thoughts on AI but I try not to think about it because it's sad, lol.

[ShidoDraws]

Yeah, I do also wonder what people are trying to achieve with complete generated works from cover to story, even downright to the title and synopsis. Like, there's no way you can convince me someone who puts no effort into the creative process could think of a title that sounds like a legit story title.

The creativity is so lifeless to the point that I feel like I could just feel it off of the pages that I'm reading. Of course, there are stories that does leave me scratching my head wondering if the story is just terrible or if it's an AI slop.

I've actually joked with someone that in a thousand or so years from now, humans will be looking back at the 21st century wondering, "who is this AI?" Like, you know someone powerful is going to cover this stuff up. Or perhaps AI will cover this stuff up. Whoever is in power, I guess.

[cherrystark]

Okay. I have said this before, and I will keep saying it. It's just a tool. It's not some evil ogre that will physically stop you from ever drawing a picture or writing your fan fiction again. You don't lose anything from other people using it. It doesn't open some backdoor to your word files that will steal it exactly and paste them into another author's work. I am not trying to convince anyone to use it, but as long as you're operating within your platform's guidelines, I don't see a reason to discourage others from using it.

The analogy I use for AI is glasses for your brain. We could all use a little help here or there, but just because one person doesn't really need the assistance, it doesn't mean the person who actually needs the extra assistance should be without it. A person may have imagination for days but struggle to translate it into a way that's easily understood by others; AI bridges that gap. That's why people call it an accessibility aid. You can take art classes and creative writing classes for years and not be able to produce anything the art world would deem "good". Just because a person used AI elements in their piece or used an LLM to write with, did not suddenly invalidate the hours they may have spent working on it.

[ShidoDraws]

I can't tell if you've read my thread or not because you're not really making a good case for yourself right now. Anyway, to respond to your response, I do not agree with what you said about using AI to "bridge that gap." Like, what gap are we bridging? Creativity? Being able to translate your own thoughts and opinion onto a medium is what makes someone creative. You don't need to pretend to be Shakespeare in order to write, you don't need to pretend to be Da Vinci in order to draw. These activities exist because we as a human species want to pass on experiences.

If you have time to generate a single image for four hours a day, then you have time to learn how to draw for four hours a day. That is a lot of free time that I would argue could be used more effectively to learn such skills. Using AI does not deepen your connection with real people and it discourages younger generations to actually learn. We've already seen the raise of people trying to sound knowledgeable when really, they were heavily misinformed by AI left and right.

If you want to use AI, I won't stop you but just know that if I were you, I'd pick up a book I really like and study the heck out of it instead of relying on something that doesn't even make sense.

[rayrichardsauthor]

(post withdrawn by author, will be automatically deleted in 24 hours unless flagged)

[cherrystark]

I do not agree with what you said about using AI to "bridge that gap." Like, what gap are we bridging? Creativity? Being able to translate your own thoughts and opinion onto a medium is what makes someone creative.

Really? Really? Do you think that everyone is able to express creativity the same way? Or are only the people who are mentally and physically able to express their creativity worthy of using the term. It's bridging the gap the same way literally every accessibility tool every designed does.

You don't need to pretend to be Shakespeare in order to write, you don't need to pretend to be Da Vinci in order to draw. These activities exist because we as a human species want to pass on experiences.

Never claimed that. But have you ever sat in a feedback session and been told that your scene needs more description? No one tells how what to describe in the scene or how to describe it correctly. All you know is that you need to add more description. So you keep rewriting and keep workshopping. Everyone has opinions but you can't get a clearer idea on how to add more description to the scene. So what are you supposed to do? The only things you can think to add are random colors but those don't matter to the story since you've already written everything in the your head.

What does AI do? You can enter in your scene (with the instructions you're looking for) and it'll give you a visual example of what ALL those people were trying to tell you but it never clicked in your brain. With your physical example in hand, you can now manually go through and rewrite in a way that works. That's how it bridges the gap.

If you have time to generate a single image for four hours a day, then you have time to learn how to draw for four hours a day. That is a lot of free time that I would argue could be used more effectively to learn such skills.

What if your talents are in photo editing? Or what if you have limited hand dexterity? What if you don't have the time, budget, or transportation to buy art supplies and attend a physical art class? Art teachers can be really mean and if you're trying to work full time, raise your family, or run your writing business - it's not an effective use of time.

Using AI does not deepen your connection with real people and it discourages younger generations to actually learn. We've already seen the raise of people trying to sound knowledgeable when really, they were heavily misinformed by AI left and right.

Isn't that a people problem rather than a technology problem?

If you want to use AI, I won't stop you but just know that if I were you, I'd pick up a book I really like and study the heck out of it instead of relying on something that doesn't even make sense.

Or do both, so the technology isn't so scary and confusing.

[ShidoDraws]

Oh my, I hope you're okay. My thread is not to offend anyone but just to spark a different conversation about what the future may look like. I understand your points and still disagree with you on most but as I've said before i won't stop you from using AI. I understand that it can be a tool for disabilities and so don't let this thread stop you from doing what you love.

[ShidoDraws]

Speaking of lack of creativity. You probably should work on your reading comprehension. I feel like that would be a good first step to understanding where you are creatively and work towards moving forward instead of being stagnant.

[Lensing]

Gen AI doesn´t scare me jobwise. I got pretty good at adapting to a changing market.
I was born in the 70s, I played my first concert 1983, I have seen all the drastic changes
in the music business in my 40 active years as a musician. And I adapt to a changing
market as an illustrator too. I have a good tactic and I´m flexible + I´m good with people.

AI does scare me in general but it´s unstoppable, but that´s a different discussion.

[kokichiluvr]

I think people care too much about AI, you’re giving too much attention to something that won’t affect you in your daily life. You can still draw, write, nothing will be taken from you. And if other people use it, then just let them, they’re not hurting anyone by doing that, and you can't stop them from doing it. What’s going to happen is that AI will keep advancing whether you like it or not. It’s not gonna stop, and the best you can do is just focus on your own stuff.
I think AI is very similar to the invention of the printing press by Gutenberg, that people complained because it devalued handwritten manuscripts, just like today some people feel threatened by AI. But it’s just technological progress, and that’s how society keeps evolving. We just happen to be living in a time where technology is changing really fast, and there will probably be many more new things coming in the future. Maybe years from now people will see AI as normal and think we were being too dramatic about it. And there are still people who create manuscripts to this day, so it really isn’t the end of the world. Just live and let people live. As long as you’re happy with your own creations, then it’s alright.

[ShidoDraws]

Generative AI isn't hurting me personally, just an inconvenience to get around. The people it's hurting is the younger generations.

Of course, I do believe it to be likely that professionals will incorporate it into their work more and more frequently as time moves on. Eventually that would have made advancement on generative AI causing specific AI models to be made for specific tasks, like a robot that can physically knit or a robot that can actually serve you at a fast food restaurant.

That is the kind of future we are probably looking at right now. Can't wait for my Detroit Become Human robot to stab me in the chest 28 times.

[Lensing]

Life has always been a struggle for creative people at any time in history.

I had different struggles when I was young. I´m a musician, I had a record label
and studied audion engineering. When I grew up there were paid record deals,
record sales (vinyl). Then the cd came, nobody bought vinyl anymore.
People started burning cds, then people downloaded music, now people stream
music. Record sales are at zero. You make a big minus when you put out a record.
Record label gone, my recording studio gone, no job in a recording studio.
Spotify gets it all.

I still think it´s still way better to for an artist to live in 2025 than it ever was.
And even with AI, capitalism and customers not giving a shit, it´s still better
than it ever was and I´m happy to be an artist in 2025 and not in 1955, 1975 or
2005.

[migxmeg]

Too dramatic? You mean for hobby artists. The problem with this is that there is less paying work for professional artists. If you spent the time and effort to get to a place where you can support yourself with your art it's extremely distressing to have that threatened. People have bills to pay - it's insensitive to tell them to chill.

[Lensing]

Several big fields of illustration, writing etc. are 100% down. Many self employed friends of mine have lost all of their
clients in the last year. Logo design, illustrators, a lot of writers. I do illustrations in many fields too and the small
customers just don´t order anything anymore, many of the big customers use AI too. Some clients ask for sketches,
don´t pay and then use my sketches with AI, no kidding.