MARCH 29 — I can’t go online anymore without the internet either showing me gruesome AI-generated or doctored images, and someone linking multiple AI apps that will “change your life”.
One man boasted about using AI to illustrate and write a terrible children’s book, which he then proceeded to sell on Amazon.
Is this our future? People jealous of those who learned to, you know, draw, paint, take photos are now getting to skip decades of learning their craft to get AI to do things by crafting prompts.
There are even professional prompt generators who sell their services because they apparently know the right combination of words to get a specific result in whatever AI tool they’re using.
Specific words strung together? I guess we can’t fault people for getting excited about what looks like the modern version of magic minus witchy hats and cauldrons.
Still, it demonstrates the disdain and lack of understanding or craftsmanship and why the best things take training and experience.
The way AI learns to do art is by copying and reverse engineering images to try and deliver similar results.
For the purpose of experimentation I tried using AI to write my profile as well as draft this week’s column.
The results were rather disappointing.
My profile read as though it was written with zero care to accuracy, like it was slapped together by an overeager PR intern and funnily enough it even plagiarised profiles I had written.
It was truly odd reading the written output of a machine that had basically “stolen” my work.
What the AI copy didn’t have was my snark and fondness for crafted metaphors.
I have been told that I have a way of making people feel things and the only thing I felt reading what chatGPT had made for me was disdain.
Some organisations have used AI to replace actual staff and I rather doubt it would work as well here, at least until it understood local sensitivities and nuances.
It’s such a waste to be honest. AI could have been used to improve quality of life and make it so workers everywhere could get more done in a shorter time, and be home for dinner.
Instead the doyens of capitalism are chomping at the bit, while shareholders are exultant at the thought of higher share prices because there are few things that get stocks rising as quickly as the announcement of reduced headcount.
Like cryptos, NFTs and the metaverse, I think we should soon see the inevitable rise and fall of the AI trend.
AI should be about making lives better — wouldn’t it be amazing if we get AI to clear minefields, extract minerals, clean out sewers and save lives by ensuring no one has to do dangerous jobs?
Instead capitalist ghouls are gleeful about replacing artists, writers and programmers, thinking a non-sentient piece of code can do work that needs not just skill and experience, but often a flash of brilliance.
Machines are only as smart as their makers. As humans are flawed, so will machines be.
I have faith in the long run that common sense will prevail and those who were pushed out of the job market by AI, will find other ways to implement skills.
Unlike machines, humans have a capacity for resilience and creativity and an ability for uniqueness that machines can only copy.
Genius created machines, but machines are not capable of ingenuity.
Let us not surrender to the machine overlords but instead learn to harness them. Yet we cannot keep enduring a world where those unable to learn technology are left in the cold.
Tech must be for us, not against us and we must fight against those who have used it to create a new divide — between those who are tech savvy and those who are not.
* This is the personal opinion of the columnist.