So I have this friend who’s way smarter than me—like going to Carnegie Mellon University for his masters in computer science smart. His big interest is artificial intelligence (AI) so he was pretty pumped this past fall. He called me up to tell me about this program that could spit out a genuinely original response to any prompt you would give it. He was ecstatic and I was merely impressed.
Then a few weeks passed by and he hit me up again about this program that would create entirely original artwork based on a prompt you would give it. Now this one kind of rocked the boat for me. Working with an artist with an extremely tight budget, I thought, “shoot, this is pretty much free album art!” And yet, I simultaneously felt uneasy about the whole thing.
The first time my concerns were validated was a little time afterward when a different friend posted his questions on his story. He was saying how he had this thing called “Chat GPT” write a rap song for him and it surprised him how good it was. But then he asked: is this technology going to help or hinder the entertainment industry?
Let’s face a couple facts here. First, this new AI technology that has been introduced to us is absolutely crazy. Like it or dislike it, you’ve got to give some respect for what’s being accomplished here. If you’ve been living under a rock and haven’t tried it for yourself, now's the time.
Second, if we theorize that this technology has a bright future ahead of itself, it will change our world. Eventually, who’s to say that AI won’t replace all our workers? Meaning our “non-skilled” workers, our educators, our executives, and everyone else. I realize that sounds very dystopian, but play along. If we reason fairly, what’s so bad about that? The result would be unemployment in the nineties percent range and no more capitalism, but quality of life would be so much higher. Since this isn’t about economics, I digress.
Third, this is not going away. A technology this powerful does not just get turned off; doing so would be in contrast to humanity’s instinct to discover and make life easier.
But what about art? If artists need to compete with AI in their work, will they actually succeed? How can they? Sure, AI is in its infancy right now, but who’s to say that it won’t eventually displace human artists just the same as the telegram did to the pony express? If AI can write objectively better songs than humans can, I’m doubtful that songwriters will have a strong selling proposition.
Here's the deal, though: I’m not sure “art” is even the right word to describe that which AI creates. Art is the imitation of the imagination through creativity, and neither the humans entering the prompts, nor the technology responding are sincerely following that process.
Additionally, one of the primary ways that art finds its value is through its scarcity. Because it is so difficult for a person to make a beautiful piece of art, that art stands out as unique and people gravitate toward it in its specialty. Think back to art class in elementary school. The majority of your classmates were mediocre, but there was one or two that stood out because of how positively different their work was. This sense of value stands in contrast to AI “creativity” because, yes AI creates original works, but it’s not rare.
Thankfully, there’s also an economic value placed on art ownership. The Rolling Stones wouldn’t make so much money from brand licensing if they weren’t able to copyright their graphic art and Taylor Swift wouldn’t be able to collect her due royalties if she wasn’t able to copyright her music. Generally speaking, if you don’t own the art, you can’t make money off the art, which is where the concern really lies. And just this month the U.S. Copyright Office stated, “that copyright protection depends on the amount of human creativity involved”. (Brittain)
So as for now, people can use AI to create art, but they can’t use it as their own. This is good news for the real creatives out there. Nonetheless I think it’s important to ask ourselves: how much do I care about the origin of a creative work over how it makes me feel? Art that makes you feel something is to be admired, yes, but not at the expense of its authenticity.
I mean, at the end of the day art’s value comes from the people who appreciate it.