As a musician, a writer (both of non fiction and, I hope some day, fiction) and a designer in the corporate world, it's safe to say that generative AI could someday, in theory, replace me.
I write this toward the end of 2024. The world of 'AI' has been thrust upon us over the last 12 months, and brings with it hope and fear with equal measure. I'm writing this because I don't have to look far to see creatives criticizing AI for everything from bland regurgitated rubbish to wholesale theft of all that's human.
But I'm not seeing lots of people talking about how they use it.
AI has to be trained. I fully accept that, and for the purpose of this short thought piece, I am gleefully ignoring it. Partly because I'm not entirely sure on the tech. I am sure that some people have found traces of their work in AI generated art or writing. I have no idea if this is truly AI stealing from them, and them in particular. It may be. Or it may be borrowing form a common ancestor. There's definitely truth in 'there's nothing new under the sun'. For a more in depth look at that, Austin Kleon's fantastic little series, starting with 'Steal like an Artist' places us all in the greenhouse with a pile of rocks.
But even if AI is learning from other creators, there is a huge difference between asking AI to create a drawing in the style of John Howe (one of the illustrators of Lord of the rings), whose work is still in print, and asking AI to create an image in the style of a medieval manuscript depicting a dragon and a mermaid. Or a photo of a puffin on a rock. Or a mountain range.
So instead of considering how AI has been taught to break the law, I will focus on how AI can be useful. After all, a camera can allow anyone to capture the image of the Mona Lisa and reprint it at home. But the image in no way detracts from the majesty and worth of the original.
Listening to the letters of Tolkien over the last few weeks, it has become very clear it was incredibly difficult for him to produce the Lord of the Rings affordably. Breaking new ground with something so huge, the publishers were taking a risk on the publication. And because of the colossal cost of paper and printing in a post war world, there simply was no budget for an artist.
So it was that Tolkien took it upon himself to draw the pictures. His son helped with the maps. And here's the thing. There are drawings he made that we will never see because, as he acknowledges, his body cannot convey the picture in his minds eye. So he abandoned them. But what if he could have described what he saw in his minds eye? What if we could have had Tolkien, directing AI, and seen the vivid worlds he imagined?
And aside from drawing, what if, instead of spending years editing and typing up the manuscripts, he had been able to task AI to find words, phrases and errors? He believed that the stories needed to be gone over and over again. What if he could have used AI for speech to text, to pore over the stories and speak them aloud like the mythmaker he was? Would he have changed things, with more time? Perhaps.
And perhaps, we may have had a little more Tolkien.
It's this 'helping hand' that most interest me. This website has been built with the help of AI. You see, I'm a decent designer. But I'm not a coder. Not really. So in starting to code with Bootstrap (a framework I used for this site), I come to a conundrum. I can learn the craft to become a coder (which I have no desire to be), I can employ someone else or I can pay tech to do it for me (Wix, or another website creator).
But AI has opened up a fourth door. I can learn the basics and 'ask AI' to help tighten up my code.
And so I did. I'm quite happy with the result.
So it is with some of my written work. I think there's space for AI to help with research, with help following 'rules' or boiler plates. I don't think I'll ever ask AI to write it for me. But I will certainly ask it to look over my work and suggest where I've been too wordy or not clear enough.
This leaves me with a gift I cannot praise highly enough. The gift of time. Time to create what I'm really passionate about. More time to tell stories, to create music, to look out the window and imagine worlds, rather than look at a pile of code knowing something is wrong, but not what. This feels like a good thing.
I got to thinking. I didn't grow up coding. Perhaps if my parents had left me alone with an old Atari and a keyboard, I'd be coding away. But I wasn't. I was, however, lucky enough to have a decent education and some very good role models. I work hard, and I can communicate passably. Most of what I 'can do' basically comes down to learning the rules.
The rules of writing, the rules of social interaction, the rules of 'how it is done'. So for those who weren't as lucky as me…why shouldn't they be able to lean AI to help level the playing field? Is it lazy to have been brought up differently and not had the same opportunities?
If someone has a great idea, writing skills nor the connections to those with those skills to convey it, should that really be the reason we don’t get to see the next great invention, style or commentary on the world?
Can we use AI to help level the playing field a little bit? I think we can.
So what if we take it a little further? I am happy that at time of writing I have full use of my limbs and senses. I can draw and I can create music; I can write and I can tell a story. And therefore my ideas get to be communicated. But what if I couldn't do all that? Does it make my ideas any less valid?
I don't think so.
How many artists, authors or musicians are we missing out on because their limbs can't make the connection to paper in the same way we can?
If I am able to use a tool such as photoshop to create a masterpiece of art, why should the input device matter? Why is modern art prized, yet AI assisted art spurned, when both take equally long to render in some cases?
Most importantly, why should I deny opportunities to other humans just because I'm a little scared a human augmented with the experience AI will do a quicker job than me? Maybe that's a good thing?
I see AI as a great enabler. I see it as something that helps to democratize communication, and allow anyone to professionally and competently sell something – including themselves.
I see AI as a field leveller, removing the barrier of ability to those who long to create music, write stories or tell jokes.
I see AI as an impartial helper. Something (someone?) who sits beside you, that you can show your secret scribblings to and that helps make them better, until after much polishing, you get something that reflects what you wanted to say.
It's OK to be scared of the future, and it's OK to be uncertain about technology. Writing was seen as the death of knowledge if people no longer have to remember things by heart. Instead, it allowed people to hold vast knowledge and retain in their heads only the bit they needed right then and there. The printing press was seen as the death of the written word. Yet it allowed our world to read. The camera, the internet, modern desktop publishing programs. They all presented very valid reasons to be afraid.
And yet with these inventions, I have made my way in the world, using each and every one to open up opportunities that would not have been available to me even 50 years ago.
Embrace the change.
While coding website, I used AI to help me navigate the Bootstrap codebase and check PHP when it didn't seem to work. I didn't start with 'do this for me', but instead created an imperfect somethingM and asked for help correcting it. The chevrons on the accordions of the design page were a particular nightmare. After moving from Copilot to Chat GPT, I was able to find the solution.
I used Photoshop in the creation of most of the images on the site. I've used 'subject select' and automatically generated backrgounds (and generated extenstion of some photos that were slightly out). For example - that's not the real headstock of my bass on the all about that bass page.
I also used Copilot to draft the comic strip version of me on the design page. I then used Chat GPT to refine the image and make the (much skinnier!) version of me right handed.
Finally, for some of my writing I used Goblin Tools to 'formalise' what I was trying to say. I haven't used it for most of the site. Maybe I should. It has an 'unwaffle' feature that I can't help but feel would have been useful in this essay.