AI in Creative Spaces

Almost 2 years ago, I reposted this quote to my Facebook page:

“I want AI to do my laundry and dishes so that I can do art and writing, not for AI to do my art and writing so that I can do my laundry and dishes.” -Joanna Maciejewska

I still firmly believe this but with AI’s influence growing this feels like a distant hope for a dark and looming future.

I grew up with technology. I love technology. I think in many ways it has improved our lives, while also being resentful of the ways it has fundamentally changed our culture. (I will always be mad that I went from having DSL as a kid and only having a home phone to everyone having cellphones by the time I was in high school. I grew up expected to be available 24/7 to any and all and I HATE IT.)

I also know, even people in my own generation, are lacking in technological skills and deeper technological understanding. I wouldn’t consider myself a techie by any stretch. I’ve grown up PC gaming, yes I’ve built a few computers and yes I can copy SOMEONE ELSES code into a game file for modding. I know what a GPU is and a CPU and the basic functions of ram in a computer. I can tell you about power supplies and what a motherboards function is. But my knowledge is what I would consider surface level. I know enough to dig to find the answers when I’m met with a problem. But not enough to have a deep understanding of the inner works of what makes a computer work. My understanding of coding is laughable. But I know what it is. I know what it looks like.

Yet still, I have a deeper understanding than so many others. Maybe even you. Which is horrifying to me. If you don’t even understand the basics of how a computer works or functions, how on earth can you understand the repercussions of AI?

So few people understand how insulting it really is that a huge company like Nvidia is turning its back on the gaming community that built it’s brand. (This could be it’s own conversation.) How the fact that ram is now wildly overpriced and building your own PC which used to be considered an affordable option is becoming out of reach. 16 year old me paying piece by piece for my first PC off of a Pizza Hut part-time income couldn’t afford to build a computer at these rates. If I never built my own PC, I’d never have learned as much as I have about computers. I would be just as blind to all of this too.

I have co-workers that are maybe 20 years older than me smiling and laughing at all their cool AI trend photos they’ve created. I see reposted sora videos flooding my feeds and so many people believing them to be true. So few people understanding the dangers of deepfakes and how important it is to protect your creative intellectual property, including your own face and voice. Scammers and grifters have always existed within humanity. They are already using celebrities faces and voices to create videos for their own ads. When you answer your phone to a hacker/scammer, or post a video with your voice online, a scammer can use that to make it sound like you’re being held hostage while they call your grandma and get her to believe it’s really you so she will send the scammers her entire life savings, to save a digitally created version of you that isn’t even real. (If you or someone you love needs to learn more about the risk of tech scamming, look up Scammer Payback on Youtube. They will 100% help you or those you love understand how tricky these scams can be.)

It’s here, it’s happening, and I look around to how many AI enthusiasts there are and I want to scream. There is a dark underbelly to this technological advancement and so many are blind to it.

And with all of this, I still find myself tempted. I have been working on my book for 6 years. I am not well off, I can’t afford to hire an editor, or pay a graphic designer to create my book cover. I make enough to pay my bills and just barely keep my head above water. I have debt and no savings. I’m one bad accident away from homelessness like so many others.

**Note: I fundamentally despise people who use AI to write for them. Especially creative works. Keep that AI slop off of the shelves and stop flooding the market with it. I still wholeheartedly believe that AI can never recreate human connection that comes from one human artistically expressing their human experience to another. It can try, it may fool some, but it will never beat a human creator.

I want to pay an artist what they’re worth, while also not having the means to do so. I don’t have a following where exposure would be enough for a digital artist to want to help me. But I could oh so easily use an AI engine to create a book cover for me, or line edit this book for me. But I don’t want to.

If I give in and choose to use AI it will feel tainted to me. There is a part of me that feels guilty for using a digital map creator to get the basic shape of my world onto paper. It wasn’t AI but it still feels wrong somehow. Disingenuous. Inauthentic.

Yet I still found myself asking chatgpt “How many full moons would it take for plant life to be sustainable?” (The answer is well over 400,000 by the way.) Because while I probably could have dug and discovered that answer through my own research and hard work, it was easier just to ask. (I wonder if ask Jeeves could have answered that.)

I suppose my understanding of how dark the underbelly of AI is, has made me a bit of an AI purist. Yet I still find myself tempted to use it.

I can see how AI has made things more accessible. I see authors using AI to create cover art for their books. I understand the temptation. But I also know so many artists are losing out on work because they simply cannot compete.

AI can create an image in a matter of minutes and make adjustments quickly, for “free.”

An artist would take hours to do the same thing, and at a price.

All of this feels disturbingly like the Tragedy of The Commons and the literature surrounding it.

From Aristotle’s Politics he writes:
“That which is common to the greatest number has the least care bestowed upon it. Every one thinks chiefly of his own, hardly at all of the common interest; and only when he is himself concerned as an individual.”

People think only about how AI can benefit them at an individual level, while ignoring how it negatively impacts the whole of our society, our artists and creators.

Then in Garrett Hardin’s article; “The Tragedy of the Commons,” in 1968 he writes:
“Therein is the tragedy. Each man is locked into a system that compels him to increase his herd without limit – in a world that is limited. Ruin is the destination toward which all men rush, each pursuing his own best interest in a society that believes in the freedom of the commons. Freedom in a commons brings ruin to all.”

I know that in my own best interest, to save money, time, stress, I should just use AI. But if I chose that route, I would be contributing to the impending ruin of the arts. But here lies the issue and bandwagon fallacy so many fall into, if everyone else is doing it, why shouldn’t I? I can’t be considered the bad guy if everyone else is doing it too. Right?

Not to speak from a moral high ground, but these are the things in our world that drive me mad. That so few people actually care to go against the grain and stick to what they hold to be morally right. So few are actually willing to struggle against the masses, against convenience.

I consider myself morally rigid in many ways. I chose to create this blog instead of selling out. Before creating this blog, I considered writing erotica and smut to earn an income in writing. I don’t mean to shame authors who do make a living writing those things, but I am not passionate about erotica or smut. It is not where my creative heart lives. Mine is in fantasy, dark themes with mystery and heartbreak. Harsh realities with sorrow and joy. Not in romance fueled by sex. So when I considered sharing my writing I chose not to go down the path of erotica and I decided against even writing for Wattpad because I wanted my own creative freedom. I know that means hard work and the risk that no one will ever find my work. I know that means the path to making money from writing will not be easy. But at least I could live with myself knowing I wrote what I was passionate about, in my own way, without giving in to the inauthenticity of following the trends.

I know I’m a hopeless dreamer in a realists world. I know this blog may never gain a following and that my book may never gain the following I dream of. But I also know that if I follow the path that feels right for me, without selling out or chasing coin, that I can at least “fail” knowing I stayed true to my morals. Because then I can fail without regrets.

For my book I will not use AI. If push comes to shove, I will simply create my own book cover and figure it out. I’ve already decided I will do my own line editing and if the book does well then maybe I’ll pay someone to fix the errors after it gets a new edition.

But I also wish that my book didn’t have to compete with the AI slop. I wish it didn’t have to compete with the people who disrespect writing as an art by letting AI write for them.

For those of you who mostly consume instead of create. I hope you make it a point to pay attention to the artists screaming for your attention over the sea of AI generated garbage that floods our screens. I hope that if you have the privilege, you employ artists and craftsman as much as you can.

-K.M.