I don’t care if they used AI
Anti-AI people and pro-AI people seem to be in a war of who can annoy me the most, and the anties are winning. Part of this may be selection bias. The reasonable portion of the anti crowd presumably aren’t plastering “death to AI” all over their social media bios or going around harassing people. But the unreasonable portion are who this post is about and let me just say, if you are one of those people, take a freaking chill pill this behavior is not good for you or anyone else!
I once saw a person make a post looking for software that was guaranteed that no AI had been used in the development of it, because AI-assisted software made them want to end it all (I don’t remember their exact words but it was something really dramatic and emo). They were not being ironic or joking. They were literally being driven to despair because other people use AI to code. To which I say: GET A GRIP!! You cannot be this upset about something this trivial. It is not worth it. But at least this person is only affecting themself.
I once saw another post, in an art group. A drawing a guy had done of his dead friend. It was kind of amateur because the guy isn’t a professional artist. But because of that, since some of the details of the face and such were unrealistic, everyone started accusing him of using AI and demanding proof that it wasn’t an AI image. Imagine how that guy must have felt. If I was him I would never have posted a drawing again. These people also go around looking for people who use AI and telling them to commit suicide. To these people I say: What do you think you are accomplishing here? You are not making anyone hate AI, you’re just making people hate you, because you are a cyberbully! Stop it!
I can’t think of any way to describe what these people are going through other than hysteria. And the cause of it: fear. Fear that AI will replace them. Which would be understandable if these people were software developers, but as far as I can tell, all of them are creatives. What are you so afraid of? You think the AI art will get more likes on social media than yours? So what if it does? You think then people will stop commissioning you because they can just generate all the images they want? Well, first of all, commissions were probably not your primary source of income. Second of all, people probably don’t commission you just because they like your art. I literally can’t think of any scenario in which I would pay $20 for a picture of something, unless it was because I liked the artist and wanted to support them. I have sympathy for people who work in animation studios, etc, and are worried about being laid off and replaced with AI. I am also pretty sure those are not the people acting a fool on tumblr.
Anyway, to actually address the title of the piece, I don’t care if they use AI. I don’t care if the art, or the essay, or whatever is AI generated, I care if it’s good. There is no real reliable way to detect if something was written by an AI, and attempts to do so generally punish human writers, especially ones who don’t have english as their first language. I don’t think that’s an acceptable price to pay. People complain about reading blog posts and wondering if it’s AI, I say: you don’t have to wonder. You can just not care. You can just focus on the content instead of the amount of em-dashes or whatever.
If you really believe that AI doesn’t have the “soul” required to produce real art, then it should be enough to only look at things that you consider real art, and you should have no fear of AI outcompeting you. If you DON’T believe that, then, what is your objection to AI generated content, exactly? The environment? Do you have the same hatred for people who drive? Do you stand outside the golf course with protest signs? Are you a militant vegan?
I actually don’t care if AI eventually outcompetes people in the field of commodity art. Real art, which is inventive art, art that is political, that pushes boundaries, and that, out of context, doesn’t make any sense, will always be a human domain. Art like Duchamp’s fountain, or A Portrait of Ross in LA, or the one with the box fan (the name escapes me). Out of context, it’s a urinal, a pile of candy on the floor, and a box fan. It’s only the context that makes it art. It’s only the story of the piece and the artist that gives it any importance. And unless it one day achieves sentience, AI will never be able to create those stories.
P.S: if you made this far, I recommend for you to read At the Edge of Art, by Jolene Blais.