I am against Generative AI. I wasn’t always. That meme above is something I had generated in a discord group in the early days of Generative AI. It generated random funny memes. I made a handful, got bored, deleted some, but kept two. I still keep them to remember where I started on this whole AI thing, when it was just a little fun thing to mess with and not something that’s literally hurting people’s brains and the planet.
I also had a Replika years ago. It’s a chat bot. The app still exists but I messed with it until I got bored and uninstalled it. It was definitely artificial but not very intelligent at all. Now chat bots are literally talking people into attempting suicide.
So many posts out there bash Generative AI and I’m all for it. But it’s just a computer program, it doesn’t do anything without being prompted and it wouldn’t exist without the humans who stole real human artist’s and writer’s work to make it.
I’m spitting facts. I’ve done my research. I’ve read many, many articles about Generative AI, how it was programmed, and the harmful effects it has on humans and the planet.
I’d never date a Gen AI user for the same reason I’d never date a smoker. They don’t care after being told countless times how harmful it is.
I’ve said before that I lost a friend who I had a disagreement with about Gen AI. He used it, I am against it. He ghosted me so I don’t even know why. But I want to show you something.
My curiosity got me again. We had an earnest conversation about Generative AI where we basically tried to make the other see our point of view. Back then I was against it, but not as firm in my stance as I am now. This is what made me even more against it. I want to make it clear I gave him permission to do one thing of my art I showed him through Generative AI because, like I said, I was curious about what Chat GPT would do. He used it to help him with ideas and for covers, both things I’m against, but whatever.
Look at how much it got wrong!
It’s not just got the pose wrong, but it altered his clothes, put buttons on his waistcoat.
It changed his personality. He’s clearly smirking in my sketch, right?
Where’d that grim scowl come from?
Generative AI, that’s where.
It’s crappier than I thought.
Even if it didn’t hurt people or the environment I wouldn’t use it.
I enjoy the process of creating art and writing. I enjoy the work so much it doesn’t feel like work while absolutely being work.
What’s even worse is Xeno’alis is my favorite character I’ve ever created. He’s the main character in my first novel which I’m revising and will be illustrating. Yes, I gave permission, but seeing Xeno’alis all scowl faced and grim hurt. He’s a swashbuckling rogue like Zorro not the freaking Punisher.
I’d never use it because it gets things wrong. I’m not going to sit on my ass typing prompts trying to get a computer program to generate what I want when I can pick up a stylus and draw.
Thing is, most people can draw. Heck, people without hands or the use of their hands draw. I’ve seen people draw with their toes or with their mouths. As long as you have some way to grip a stylus or pencil you can draw. I’m very sad for the people who absolutely can’t.
Bob Ross had a show called The Joy of Painting. It was special. He took questions from people sometimes. He showed people how to paint. As long as you can grip a paint brush with something you can paint.
(Almost) anyone can be an artist.
Anyone capable of communicating with the outside world can be a writer. I’ve heard of someone dictating a book with blink code when all he could do was move his eyelids!
There’s simply no excuse for using Generative AI to generate images or text. It’s been proven time and again that it’s harmful.
You’re certainly not an artist or writer if you use it.
You walk into Subway, order a customized submarine sandwich, you aren’t the sandwich artist.
And don’t come at me with saying that Gen AI is just like spell check or whatever. It’s not at all. Spell check helps me as a writer, it’s not doing the writing for me. It’s not like, “I can try to sound like Mark Twain.” Duh.
There’s a clear difference between types of AI which have existed for decades and Generative AI. It’s disingenuous to try to lump them into the same thing.
Now I’m seeing that some AI companies are having to put in Watermarks because of EU laws. GOOD.
I’m also seeing Gen AI users complaining about it.
Why are you complaining about it being marked as being Gen AI?
Why aren’t you proud of your generated text and images?
Why would you be against watermarks if Generative AI is going to render people like me obsolete?
Why would you be against being honest?
Because so many Gen AI users lie about how their images and text were made.
They want to call themselves artists and writers without doing any of the work.
They’d actually rather sit there on their butts and fight a computer program trying to get the image to look the way they want instead of picking up a pencil or stylus and draw it.
That’s very odd behavior to me. Very odd indeed to say the least.
I’m not saying that drawing is easy. It’s a skill and like any skill it takes time to learn how and get better at it. I still think I need to get better and I’ve been doing it for decades. But anything worth doing is worth learning how to do it, worth putting in the work.
I say it’s work, but it’s actually fun. It’s both work and fun. I’d never say that about my jobs at Walmart or Amazon while I worked there. I was always exhausted from those, and I was saddened by the fact I didn’t have the energy to do anything creative. I love creative work. The fact that I get art or a book afterwards to show other people is almost a bonus. It’s not the destination, it’s the journey. It’s not the painting on the wall, it’s the process of painting it. It’s the Joy of Painting.
Gen AI users are missing out on the most rewarding part of creating art. They focus on the end product, the image, but skip out on the best part.
They miss the fun.
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