You know, when you read some friend’s comment on Facebook or something, you genuinely feel fed up with their attitude, and eventually, you say something. So this time, a friend of mine was complaining about how AI is going to steal artists’ jobs, and they should have waited before releasing it because, you know, artists need food. With many more words, I chimed in basically with, “Quit whining because, progress.” Now, despite the meaning of what I said, I feel upset, but it’s funny.
The question of AI vs. artists… To cut to the chase, I believe that, down the line, real artists will win from this. The ones who bleed for their art, to whom art is what it is – a form of self-expression, creativity, and perhaps a way to get attention and admiration – nothing wrong with either in my books. A way to get a message across, for certain.
For years, artists have been whining about having to “sell out” if they want to be paid for what they do because, basically, industries need a custom job for a custom purpose, and that’s what pays artists money. When these jobs will go directly to AI robots, by my guess, artists will have left what artists always wanted to do: Self-express.
AI will take jobs from factory artists, people who write jingles for TV commercials, background music, and prints for T-shirts, you know? That kind of industrial art. Those jobs will go directly to AI, if they haven’t already.
Art will continue to fascinate people, but it will have to be tightly tied to the artist himself or herself. We want to see the creation process firsthand, and that means social media. That also means that an artist doesn’t have to SELL the piece to profit from it. They only need to create it in front of an online audience.
I hate online discussions with people who think they’re smart. Smart people online have a fragile ego. I’m no different. I’m also too aware of how sensitive people are. I want to tell them “fuck you, and grow a pair, you big girl’s blouse,” and wind up getting riled up without putting my point across better. I won’t SAY “fuck you,” etc., but the fact I’m thinking about it at that moment makes me mess up my message, and it’ll suck. The point will get lost.
So my friend deleted the thread. Perhaps my point was made. Do you know how you get a notification that “so-and-so mentioned you in a comment,” but when you click the link, the thread is gone? FUUUUK. I hate it. I don’t know whether to celebrate a win or did they managed to crawl out of it thinking they won.
I did remind them that “you know, AI wasn’t created overnight, either, and you’re asking AI creators to NOT make money with a world-changing innovation because you want to keep getting paid for pretty tunes or pictures. I mean…” I didn’t use those words, of course, as they were pretty well formed; I used some other phrasing, but I can’t check because the thread is gone. But the point being… Painters moaned when photographs were invented. Factories replaced every hand-made job in existence. The difference here is that art was supposed to be a safe job – something only a human could ever do.
Wrong.
A maschine CAN create REAL ART.
It’s just AI art is now what I hated creating as an artist in my past life: Completely interpretable by the viewer of the piece, rather than the artists’ attempt to communicate a point. What I hate about creating art is that the viewer can interpret it in whatever shitty way they want. I can stand next to the piece screaming “that’s not what it means!” and they will just ignore it: “Artists are so dramatic.”
AI won’t give a shit. AI is not dramatic. It will take whatever criticism you give it and create a new version with your specifications – in a second.
So whatever. Industrial sell-out artists can no longer sell out.
Pity.