Okay, this is a big one. A big statement, a big subject. My name is Julia and I hate AI. I hate it. I hate what it’s doing to the planet, I hate what it’s doing to humanity, and I HATE what it’s doing to art.
This is apparently a hot take, but I don’t think that if you don’t know how to do something that you should get AI to do it for you. I especially don’t think you should get any praise for doing so. Not for emails, not for arguments, not for ‘inspiration’ and definitely not for ‘creating’ art. You haven’t done anything. You have created nothing. ‘Oh actually writing prompts is actually reall’-NO. Those ‘prompts’ are actually ‘prompting’ the actual theft of every piece of art that AI has ‘trained’ on, for free, at the expense of real people who have spent real time developing real skill and and real talent. So that you can generate a picture of an animal that looks like a taco. That you will probably never look at again.
Are you proud of your taco animal?
We have a very distorted view of art to begin with. Growing up in Australia as a young musician I was always told ‘there’s no money in it’. When I graduated high school I panic-enrolled in a Bachelor of Education degree, majoring in English because that seemed like the sensible thing to do. To make money. To contribute to society. When I eventually dropped out to enroll in a Bachelor of Music it felt both very right and very wrong. What was I doing? You can’t make a living from music can you? Turns out you can, but even now when I meet new people and tell them I’m a musician and a teacher they very often ask ‘what else do you do?’ This, I suppose.
A common argument against free university for all is ‘I don’t want to pay for someone’s Arts degree’. Presumably because they’ve decided that an Arts degree is useless and doesn’t contribute to society. This post isn’t about the value of the Arts industry but I will just briefly point out the sheer amount of arts-based knowledge that goes into your daily life. The signage and ads you see whilst driving, the design of the car you are driving whilst seeing these ads and signage, the music or audio book you are listening to in said car, the clothes you are (presumably) wearing in said car.
All of these things were achieved by real people who learned (and this is the key word here, pay attention) how to do them. They developed a skill-set and poured hours of their lives into getting really good at those skills, and then they created something valuable using those skills. They earned their success, and you can’t spell learn without earn. I’m a teacher. I’m a big fan of learning. It comes with the job.
Sometimes learning something is hard. Sometimes, you have to work at something to achieve the desired result. Humans are actually really good at this, we’ve been doing it for literal centuries. Encountering a problem, learning how to solve it. It is satisfying. Developing the skills required, collaborating with others who might already have those skills, or have a different point of view, or who could learn something from you! Creating something wonderful with that shared knowledge. Coming away better from the experience. Growing. Learning.
And now we want to take learning away. We want to make things easier. More efficient. I’m really starting to hate that word. Why do we have to be so efficient? Why are we no longer okay with things taking time? The quest for instant-satisfaction is making us dumb. Shorter attention spans. Zero critical thinking. Less skills.
And now we come back to art. Art is one of mankind’s greatest achievements. We have been creating art since the first cave drawings tens of thousands of years ago. We have mastered light and colour and sound over and over again, in new ways, every century, every generation finding something new. Through trial and error, through collaboration, learning and pushing and experimenting and failing and trying again and again and again. Succeeding! Inspiring! Discovering! We have earned that mastery. Over time.
So my argument is that if you take time out of the equation, if you take away the trial and error and the failure and the collaboration and the learning, then you cannot master anything. If you ask AI to make a song, or a piece of art, or a story, or an animation for you, you are not a musician, you are not an artist, you are not an author, you are not an animator.
You are in fact, an imposter.
Because whatever is generated, regardless of why, has been trained on the thousands of hours put in by real artists, musicians and authors, without their permission, for free. They have committed to making art in a world that does not value that art, because they value it, and themselves, and the pursuit of getting better at something. Maybe being the best. And then some AI company gets to steal that? To profit from that? Are you kidding me?
‘I just wanted to make a cool card for my friend’s birthday, it’s not that deep.’
‘I just wanted to make a song about minions, for my kids.’
‘I just wanted to sell e-books online for a passive income and I didn’t want to put in any time or effort or consider earning that in any way shape or form.’
You just wanted to have the final product. You didn’t want to earn it. You didn’t want to learn how. You didn’t want to pay someone else who already has the skills to create that final product for you (because you don’t actually value their time or talent) and AI companies have taught you that you don’t need to! They’ll do it for you! You don’t need to learn anything (so boring) or develop any new skills (so time-consuming) or think for yourself at all!
I am becoming upset.
I’ve seen the argument that AI used in music is just a tool. Like a synthesizer, or a loop pedal, or a drum machine. My argument is that those things are actually tools you use to create your final product. Every step a creative choice. When you use AI to ‘create music’, you are the tool it is using to create its final product. Your prompt is the tool required to collate all its stolen data into a gross insult to every musician who first picked up an instrument.
I’ve also seen the argument that AI makes music more accessible. My argument is that music is accessible enough. There are plenty of tools and augmented instruments and teachers who are absolutely willing to make music as accessible as possible for those who struggle with more conventional learning methods. There are so many resources available, both paid and free. So if by accessible you mean ‘I never learned how to play the piano and I want to be able to make a piano song without putting in any effort whatsoever and I think I should be able to do that without guilt or shame’ then you are not fighting for accessibility. You are lazy. And entitled.
No piano for you.
I’ve been thinking a lot recently about ‘the glory of mankind’. Human achievement. The key word here being human. Why are we becoming so okay with handing over all our achievements for free to AI companies who will then charge us for the privilege of using garbage imitations of those achievements? Why do we want to make ourselves redundant? Why do we want to take tens of thousands of years of becoming the best at what we do and trade it for another data center? Words like craftsmanship and artistry will not exist. Arts degrees (already a threatened species) will be banished for the crime of not being profitable enough. Hundreds of thousands of jobs will disappear because humans will never be as efficient as AI. We will cease to value art because it will all be generated slop. And the glory of mankind will reside with whichever AI company manages to profit the most from generations of stolen achievement.
I create music. I’ve spent my entire life (from 3 onwards) developing the skills to create that music. I’m still learning. I’m still growing. I’m proud of my abilities and the music I create with them. The abilities that allow me to share those skills with other people. And now I have to contend with people listening to my music and accusing me of making it with AI? Or believing that I made it myself and telling me ‘I could make that with AI’. And I’m meant to embrace this future? Celebrate it?
I am becoming more upset.
So that’s it. I hate AI if that’s a hot take, so be it. I will never applaud your taco animal. I will never read your AI-generated story. I will never praise your ability to ‘prompt’. I will never agree that it’s just easier and quicker to do it (whatever it is) with AI. I will never think it’s ‘not-that-deep’ to casually use AI on a daily basis. I will never value an LLM’s progress over humanity. I will never value profit over process.
If you want to achieve something, learn how. Get good.
-J
