Does generative AI have usefulness? Maybe.
Generative In Tech
In my technology job, LLM (Large Language Models) and generative AI are all the rage. “This will change the world forever.” Really? And will that change be for the better?
Initially, I experimented with generative AI1 at that tech job and a single post on this blog. These forays into LLM-land left a bad taste in my soul.
I’ve seen so many tech crazes come and go. I’m wondering if this is yet another one of those. It may seem exciting for people who work in certain fields, but I question its value every time people talk about it.
Generative in the Arts
Recently, I’ve been approached by several musicians about this offer or that. They claim to have an “easy way” to create a music video or even a song. When I ask if it involves AI, every one of them has to admit that it does.
I can imagine the attraction of making money by using generative AI based tools. But the “costs” outweigh the potential benefits for me.
In fact, I see significant danger from generative AI in the arts. LLM has already stolen so much content from real, human artists. And now, it threatens to be a fake maker of art, competing with people who create. Whether writing, graphic arts, music, or whatever, the human element is crucial to the art we make.
Mixed Up
Another trend I’ve noticed is artists who alternate between their own human-generated art and generative AI output. This makes me very uncomfortable. And my discomfort makes it tempting to discredit all of their output because the AI has tainted the human art forms.
So tell me: what do you think about mixing AI with art? Is that just fine with you? Or is art truly a human endeavor? Leave a comment below or reach out to me on social networks.
The images in this post are by Pixabay via Pexels.
- I’ve used some music plugins that claim to use AI on tracks or settings that I later replaced. But when I’ve investigated, these plugins are not generating “new” content from the data gathered. Nor do they require live connections to an online LLM database. ↩︎
Discover more from Stan Stewart - @muz4now
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
Generative AI makes me incredibly uncomfortable for all of the reasons you’ve mentioned. I’ve stopped following artists who use AI either for their music or their cover art, and I’ve unsubscribed from blogs and YouTube channels when I see their proprietors leaning into the technology.
Part of the reason for my suspicion of AI is that I’m an English professor and have been teaching composition for twenty-five years. I view writing as an expression of the self and have always told my students that figuring out exactly how to explain your thoughts helps you understand exactly what your thoughts are. When we cede any part of that process to AI, we lose an opportunity to truly reflect on our own thoughts and ideas and, in turn, begin to lose ourselves.
Great write up Stan. As you know, I simply follow the human contribution of playing instruments myself and singing. No matter how rough it can sound. It is fun finding new skills in seeking self improvement. I do use GarageBand drums from their library. But, did buy a Yamaha digital drum kit to practice on and play myself, in order to overcome needing the library choices. Technology is still going to champion AI. But if you ignore the programme downloads to use them with intent. Then you achieve the comforting feeling of ‘being totally clueless with using these tools’. That is very calming.
I am a vintage fan anyway. Vinyl, film in cameras, and can accept that cassettes, CDs, etc. are becoming, and have become, vintage too. A hard copy item to hold onto and use with love and attention. Will AI ever become to be considered vintage? That seems like a subject for The Twilight Zone or Black Mirror stories to chew over.
Cheers Stan.
I am a music teacher.About a year or so ago, I started to use AI to reword and restructure text that I had written. For example, this is really useful in finding positive, constructive wording for report card comments, or clarifying The wording of task sheets for students. This has generally been quite useful and a real time saver. Recently, though, I’ve been finding that the free apps and websites that I used previously, are yielding very frustrating results. In fact, more often than not, in the last month or so, I’ve found myself giving up on the AI and just rewarding text myself, as DIY turned out to be less work. I acknowledge that I am using free versions of this technology, and this may be why I’m seeing such useless results. It’s even possible that there’s been programming fed into the AI to discourage people like me from using free formats. In my case, rather than being encouraged to go spend money on this technology, I’m thinking I’d rather just avoid it altogether. I haven’t gotten to that point yet, so let’s see how it goes.