AI is a Tempting Trickster
Just My Personal Opinion …
Lately, the spectre of AI-generated text, art, movies and voice-overs has been growing ever more frightening.
I can quite understand the anger creative types are feeling. Their livelihoods may be threatened. Their right to artistic freedom may be threatened.
Some AI companies have been using people’s creative output to “train” their programs. Some of these companies have been doing so without permission, and without compensating the authors. In my opinion, this is intolerable.
Check out this article on the subject:
As a creative person myself, I fully support that anger against AI, but I understand the siren call of AI to create cool images.
Take creating images for one’s articles and stories: If one has the ability to draw or paint, like , or , or Dr. Seema Patel (PhD), for example, it is a breeze to create a beautiful, relevant image.
Writer/photographers like , , , , , , just to mention a few, have no trouble getting great photos to illustrate their articles.
But, if one has no artistic or photographic ability and feels dissatisfied with the free images on Pixabay and Unsplash and the like, one can use one of many AI programs to create a wonderful fantasy image. And while that is a great tool, one needs to be concerned about whether the program used to create that image used copyrighted work without permission.
To me, regardless of how the program was “trained” to create the image, a lot of these AI-created images lack authenticity, just like the annoying AI-voiced documentaries that have begun to show up lately.
Medium frowns on AI-generated text, which I am very glad of, and there are tons of free AI text detection apps that allow one to search a given piece to ensure it is “real”. Sadly, there are also apps that allow the user to “humanise” their AI-generated text to avoid detection by the AI detector apps.
How depressing that people are unwilling to sit down and actually write their own original text. Equally depressing that they resort to AI to fully generate images to try to enhance their text. In both cases the programs used may well be using copyrighted material.
I appreciate original photos and great drawings and paintings, and will take even a so-so original over some “perfect” AI thing.
As for AI-created text? Do not even think about submitting to any publication I edit; it just will not fly.
As Paul Simon said in a line from his song 50 Ways to Leave Your Lover:
“Make a new plan, Stan.”
