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

[cherrystark]

So, you're stooping to insulting me??? Did you ever stop to assume that I was one of the people who have benefited from extra assistance? I can read. And I tried to put a lot of thought into my responses.

My biggest point was that it's just a tool, like any other tool even if you don't use it. Heck. I even know parents who are using AI to bring the stories their little kids tell them to life with AI. They've gotten way more excited about literature and art because they can see what's possible. Which goes back to my other point, the majority of the main issues people have with AI are simply people problems. We need to encourage learning and study from all angles

[ShidoDraws]

@cherrystark

Who are you to tell me how I should feel about generative AI just because you have a positive experience with it? Yeah, let me just go tell the suicidal person next to me that my life is sunshine and rainbows and so they shouldn't feel depressed anymore. Like, yo, common sense.

[ShidoDraws]

My biggest point was that it's just a tool, like any other tool even if you don't use it. Heck. I even know parents who are using AI to bring the stories their little kids tell them to life with AI. They've gotten way more excited about literature and art because they can see what's possible. Which goes back to my other point, the majority of the main issues people have with AI are simply people problems. We need to encourage learning and study from all angles

I know everything is a tool, your hand is a tool, your mouth is a tool and so is your brain a tool. The things we use every day are tools. But there is a thing that not all tools are for everyone, that is the point of my thread.

[Lensing]

It´s a consumer tool and the problematic point of Gen AI is exploitation.
It´s trained on creative property and copyrighted creations without paying
the original creators to feed it to consumers who want it for free and fast
and who don´t care about ehtics.
Some companies make the big bucks, the creators get nothing. The
same old game but faster, more perverted and unstoppable

[ShidoDraws]

Okay, let do a dive into how to understand what I am saying.

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.

When people leave social media, it doesn't mean they've ultimately stopped doing what they love. People just simply doesn't share it with anyone anymore because someone had to go in and put their dirty little hands on these "free work" for their capitalistic benefit.

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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.

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".

You do know that as we speak right now teachers are losing their jobs, right? AI is great for you but what about the kids who don't have parents? Or the kids that have parents but are neglected? Can AI help encourage them learn and engage with others?

Generative AI can help sometimes but not when everyone is using it to cut production cost, make AI dating apps and cheat on your college essays. This problem is bigger than you and me.

[kokichiluvr]

That’s not what I meant... and trust me, we’re on the same side. I don’t like that AI is taking jobs, art, writing, and everything it’s capable of doing today. It has already taken many translators’ jobs and hurt a lot of artists, and that’s bad. I’m a graphic designer, so I know firsthand what it does.
All I’m saying is that if you worry too much about it, you’ll never be able to calm down. If a random person on the internet uses AI, I wouldn’t stress about it, but when a millionaire company uses it just to save money, that’s what really bothers me. It’s stingy and unfair. If you can afford to pay an artist, OF COURSE you should pay them.
I also think AI should be used as a tool, not taken advantage of. It’s like industrial machines: back then they replaced human work and people were angry too, but in the end they made production faster. AI is the same, it makes things fast, but humans make them good.
What I was trying to say is that AI won’t stop evolving. It’ll keep learning to do more things and it will cause more changes. But if the printing press had never been invented, or if people back then had managed to get rid of it, we wouldn’t even have books in mass production today, and AI itself wouldn’t exist. It’s just another part of how humanity creates and moves forward, even if it feels scary right now.
I’ll always prefer human work over AI, no question. And honestly, I think there are much more dangerous sides to AI, like deepfakes, that we should be worrying about.

[kokichiluvr]

Yeah I get what you mean. Personally, it’s not really hurting me either, but I can see how it’s affecting younger generations, especially people just starting out in art or creative work. That part sucks.
And yeah, you’re right, professionals will end up using it more and more. Eventually there’ll be AI or robots made for really specific tasks, like you said. It’s kinda scary but also just how tech keeps moving forward.
I just think the important thing is that we don’t let companies abuse it, and that we still value human work for what it is.

[LunarScyphozoa]

It's just a tool

Ah, I see. You like AI so much because you relate to it.

[ButterflyEmpress]

People treat it as a get rich quick scheme. It's not about being creative, it's about making money by doing nothing. None of these "creators" actually gave a damn about making art until genAI became a thing.

Outside of that, genAI can and will be used to falsify or dismiss evidence, which I feel is the most terrifying.

[Lensing]

but I can see how it’s affecting younger generations, especially people just starting out in art or creative work.

I´m interested in people´s thoughts and experiences how that affects or will affect
younger generations. Will it make young people not even start writing, drawing,
making music?

I´m asking because I´m teaching kids how to draw with pencil and paper and I feel like
it´s really popular and they are also good at it. I feel like the amount of young kids who
are really good at drawing is way higher nowadays than it was when I was a kid but
that´s most likely because of available resources and youtube

[kokichiluvr]

I think it really depends on the country too. Most of the people I’ve seen worried about AI are from the US. In my country we don’t really care about it and we don’t feel threatened by it. But it could also be a social group thing. You might be surrounded by people who use AI and think drawing isn’t necessary anymore. If all your friends use AI then you’ll think everybody is like that. For me it isn’t. I draw and everyone around me doesn’t care about AI and just lives normally. Not only my friends but people around me too. So I think it’s both cultural and social. It would be cool to know where everyone is from to see if it’s cultural or not.
I think it could affect younger generations in terms of using ChatGPT for school and stuff like that. I didn’t have AI when I went to school and I did everything myself, but now kids can use it to make their homework if they want, and that might mean they won’t get used to writing essays or learning essential skills.
But at least here a lot of people still draw, and honestly I think nowadays more people draw than before because it’s more popular. And for me, creating your own art is so much more enjoyable than just using AI. I wouldn’t want to generate drawings of my characters because it wouldn’t give me the same satisfaction as making them myself. And if someone really loves writing and wants to write a book, or really loves drawing, they’re going to do it anyway.

[ShidoDraws]

You might be surrounded by people who use AI and think drawing isn’t necessary anymore. If all your friends use AI then you’ll think everybody is like that. For me it isn’t. I draw and everyone around me doesn’t care about AI and just lives normally. Not only my friends but people around me too. So I think it’s both cultural and social. It would be cool to know where everyone is from to see if it’s cultural or not.

I don't have any personal experience with friends choosing generative AI over human work. A lot of people use it as a tool for their creative process, and some won't even touch it with a ten-foot pole, me included. I understand what you're saying though, with the, this might be a hearing-what-you-want-to-hear type of situation. And even if this is exclusively a developed country kind of issue, it is an issue, nonetheless. People should talk about their issues and spread awareness of the damages AI causes on such a scale. This is the future and even if a country isn't affected by it doesn't mean it's not coming.

[wolflu66]

On the internet, I really hear many people drawing analogies between AI technology and 'any major new technology that has emerged since the Industrial Revolution,' believing there's nothing to worry about. But I think AI technology still has significant qualitative differences from all past inventions and new technologies.

For example, the invention of the camera did indeed put many realist painters in crisis, but it also gave birth to Impressionism and modern painting (among other reasons). The emergence of new technology might eliminate one or several types of occupations, but it also creates some new types of occupations. After all, no matter what, humans are still needed to operate machines.

But AI is different from the past in that it has a comprehensive impact, simultaneously affecting a vast number of industries. It eliminates many positions but creates fewer new ones, and these new positions often have much higher technical barriers than before. Not to mention that most of these new positions will likely be something AI can handle in the near future as well.

In the movie 'WALL-E,' all humans in the future just need to enjoy themselves all day without working. I'm not optimistic about this. I think the future will only see unemployment rates become so high that it becomes a social problem.
Of course, I hope I'm wrong. Life will find its way out. If it can't, then goes extinct. XD

[Lensing]

I´m from Germany and it does affect a lot of my real life friends from the
art scene. Some lost clients/their whole income, some use it, some are not affected by it

It affects my life to a very small percentage, but I pretty much work in a niché.
I play 1950s music in 4 bands. I´m just home from a packed tuesday show, people
went crazy, that´s a world where AI doesn´t exist. Then I teach and use pencil
and paper. The kids don´t know what AI is or don´t care because they want to
draw crazy shit. I´m working as a freelance illustrator and I´m currently doing
some flat colors for a book. The linework artist leaves a lot of big gaps in the outlines and
you really have to understand the detailed illustrations, for me it´s also like a
puzzle which leg belongs to which character, what part is the chair etc. it is
impossible for AI to flatten/color illustrations like that.

I think I´m pretty used to finding new income options, you have to be flexible as
a freelancer because the market and your situation changes all the time. That´s
one reason why I´m not scared of AI. And I also don´t think that this has anything to do
with young and old. Young freelancers have to be as flexible as me. Things already
changed drastically when I was young