The Devaluing Of Patience, Skills and Collaboration
I’m 48, the internet was barely a thing when I was a teenager/early adult and even in just a few decades it is mindblowing to think of the things that younger generations, or even people my age don’t understand or even know how to do because they don’t have to anymore.
The largest “pros” people keep trumpeting about AI art/creativity is that it will save time, make art “more accessible” aka easier, and that it will “get rid of the gatekeepers” (excuse me while I collapse on the floor laughing at the concept of artists gatekeeping).
Let’s take those “pros” and fast forward a bit to the future by looking at the past. Some common concerns I hear about those “evil Millennials and GenZ” generations is that they’re soooo entitled, they don’t want to work hard, they have no clue on how to do simple things like count back change, use cash to pay for gas (had a massage client tell me this. Her daughter, just learning how to drive, needed gas and was freaking out because she left her debit card at home. The daughter had cash and the mom said “Well just go in and pay for it.” The daughter said “You can do that?”. And the mom was shocked her daughter didn’t know. I asked “Well, has she ever seen you do that or did your ever show her how to do that or did you always pay at the pump?” The mom looked stunned for a second and stated, “Wow, you’re right..I never did show her that. So yeah, holy crap. I just assumed she knew.” )
How many things that we used to do have just disappeared from common knowledge and practice now? There are the obvious ones like dialing phones, hell, making phone calls since more and more people just text, sending actual mail not email, even driving is becoming a thing more and more people don’t do. They just Uber everywhere. Going to a library and checking out a book, researching using books, not the internet, handwriting is disappearing. And that’s just in the last twenty or so years.
Now…what happens if/when AI creativity becomes the norm. Why should people even bother to learn how to draw, learn composition, learn to paint, to play an instrument, to become an actor, to sing. With 3d printing making actual houses and sculptures, will we still have people that sculpt?
Imagine this conversation with your future kid who is showing creative interest, “What? You want to learn how to paint? I don’t know of anyone who can teach you, everyone just goes to Midjourney and types in prompts, go do that instead.”
You may think this is farfetched, but is it?
When creativity can be achieved in a few minutes or hours, why bother spending years how to do it? And if that’s the case, why teach it? Why do it? Why even encourage your kid to indulge their creativity at all?
Creating art keeps you mentally healthier…the ACTUAL PROCESS does…which AI shortcuts tremendously, and yes, I can hear the comments now. “People can still draw, still sculpt. AI doesn’t stop you from doing that if you want!! “ Sure, and we can all still write letters and essays by hand and mail cards back and forth and make phone calls, but how many of this actually still do? Humans are lazy by nature, give them an easier way to do something and they will. Do you honestly think within 5 years of AI creativity becoming more and more top notch on it’s results people will still prefer to draw over going into a site and turning out something amazing with little or not effort? We already know there are very negative effects when it comes to large amounts of screen time, how technology is making us less social (I have mixed feelings on that one) but one thing that we do know is that we’re doing less and less ourselves and relying more and more on tech to do everything for us. One of the best parts of creativity is collaboration, interacting with fellow artists to learn techniques, taking the time to process improvements and skills and exploring new concepts. With getting amazing images in mere hours with no level of real skill needed, all that disappears.
Is this a future we really want?
