I’ve been reading a lot about AI lately, and it’s make me a little itchy.
There is no doubt that if you make a living out of your art – whether it’s writing, visual art, music – you would be mighty mighty nervous. On top of that, if you make a living out of conventional art, made for the masses in a way they don’t have to overthink it, then you should be concerned. Dall-e and chatGPT can already do it faster and better and won’t whine about artistic integrity.
So this is going to mean a few things for us creatives, especially the pros. Mainly:
Get better at what you do and make it truly yours. If the AI copies your style, then you’ve made it and it’s time to get better again. There are no limits to creativity.
According to TED GIOIA @The Free Press
- A hundred thousand songs are uploaded daily to streaming platforms.
- In the last year, 1.7 million books were self-published.
- Every minute, 2,500 videos are uploaded to YouTube.
- There are now 3 million podcasts—and 30 million podcast episodes were released last year.
Source: The Free Press
I am responsible for adding to three out of those categories.
And while many will bemoan this, especially the gatekeepers, I am thrilled to live in a time when I can make my wish of being a published fiction writer come true. I can write my book, edit it, get it looking nice and even get professional printed copies onto my bookshelf and into my street library.
I mean, why shouldn’t I?
I don’t see a gate unless it’s one I build for myself, because I’m still a tortured creative. So I really don’t need any other barriers after I’ve gone through a decade or more of working on a book.
Here’s what Colin Melody of the band, the Decemberists has to tell of his experience using chatGPT to write him a song.
And here is pretty much my thought on the issue, in MIT Technology Review.
Could ChatGPT do my job? By Melissa Heikkilä
“It’s not necessarily a bad thing if we can outsource some of the boring and repetitive parts of journalism to AI. In fact, it could free journalists up to do more creative and important work.”
Feature Photo AI art generated for Jason Allen
