Author’s Note (PLEASE READ FIRST): This is an opinion piece! It will likely offend some people. If you are a user of AI, I need you to go into this with an open mind, or it’s probably going to piss you off. At this point, I don’t care. If you need to have a private discussion with me, then do that. It’s my opinion. Take it or leave it.
With all the discourse continuing over the use of AI in creative endeavors, I thought I’d take a moment to write my thoughts on the matter. You can respectfully disagree with me on these points. They are just opinions after all, but they are mine, so here we go.
I don’t like AI. I’ll come right out and say it. I try not to get too involved in discourse over on socials, because in the long run, it doesn’t do anyone any good. We can sit there and argue about it all day long, but if you have a solid opinion on the matter, I’m not going to change your mind. I get it. I’m stubborn as hell too.
But on this, I’m not wrong.
Helpful? Sure.
AI tools like spellcheck, grammar check, and analysis tools are good things. They help us catch things we might otherwise miss, and in the real world, AI is taking us leaps and bounds in fields that make people’s lives better. But I’m not talking about medical advancements and analytics here. I’m talking about creating.
If, like me, you can’t afford an editor for all your work, you rely on editing tools to help you refine your stories and make them more readable. But you don’t let them write the thing for you. I couldn’t fairly call myself a writer if I weren’t… actually writing the thing I’d set out to write.
While I will admit that AI can be useful, it can not and should not be your foundational tool when creating. And I mean creating anything. Art, writing, music, movies, theater, anything.
Here’s why.
I joke about people coming up with technologies to pull the thoughts from my head and make them books, but I wouldn’t actually ever use that tech if it existed. A computer is not going to be able to say the things I would, the way I would say them. It can’t. Computers, and by extension Generative AI, lack the human component. They lack emotion, empathy, love, fear, doubt, heartbreak, anger, and all the other emotions that people channel into their writing and other creations. The human element is not replicable by machines. It just isn’t. It can’t be.
One of my favorite things about writing is that you can feel when a writer pours their heart into something. It comes through in the words they choose to use, the imagery they portray, and the things it makes you feel in return. If someone comments on my work with, ‘I know you poured yourself into this,’ or ‘I felt this when I read it,’ or ‘this spoke to me,’ then I know that I gave my everything to it. I know that I let my emotions run and let the feel of the words and the story I was trying to tell come through. It means something to someone, including myself. But if I were to just let something else do that for me, then it’s not mine. I can’t enjoy the foundational work of creating the thing if I didn’t create the thing.
Here’s the other problem, and the one that everyone wants to ignore.
Generative AI is theft, at its base level. Maybe not all the time, but a majority of it. AI algorithms have to create from something. They can’t just make shit up on the fly or grab something from the ether because we tell it to. It has to come from somewhere.
And guess where that is? Others’ work.
People that have spent the time, and energy, and sometimes blood, sweat, and tears pouring their life into something. AI just scrapes through websites and galleries and picks up images or excerpts and throws them into the bank. It then takes all these things and spits out something we want, or close enough.
Artists don’t get paid when an AI steals their copyrighted work. And that’s what it is. Copyright laws are magnanimous and something I can’t claim to be an expert in, but I do know this. As soon as someone takes pen to paper or brush to canvas, or pen to glass, etc., it’s copyrighted. It is their work. No one else has a claim to it unless given one.
And no one is doing us any favors here. Sure, you can go through legal channels to get something copyrighted, but it’s a long process. It costs money, which many can’t afford, and that’s if there is even a process for this in your country. But that’s why you have some protections. Once you put something out there, under your name, unless you’ve directly stolen it, that’s it. It’s copyrighted. FOR YOU!
If you don’t give your permission, then people can’t, or shouldn’t, use it. Yes, this happens. But artists everywhere are being stolen from and let go over AI being cheaper, faster, and any other bullshit excuse that executives or desperate people can come up with. And what’s worse, on a large scale, it’s people who CAN AFFORD TO HIRE ARTISTS! When companies like Disney or Adobe, or, hell, even as recently as this weekend, Wizards of the Coast do something like this, people think it’s okay. Why not? They are doing it.
Why not? Because it’s wrong.
As an indie author, I would be devastated to learn that something I poured my heart into, something I’m hoping to scrape a little money together from, was taken without my permission. I know this also happens (we won’t get into book pirating sites because holy crap that’s an entire other frustration), but it shouldn’t. If you need an artist, then pay one. There are places and people willing to do it for cheap. If you need something written, pay for it. Again, tons of people are willing. Or hell, learn something new. People have demonstrated that with a few FREE tools, you can make covers. You can learn a few skills to make what you need and not have to use tech that steals from someone else.
They say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. But this isn’t that. This is theft in the most direct sense of the word. If you don’t have consent from the creative, then don’t use their work. If you use AI-generated images, you are perpetuating the problem. That AI is stealing from someone. It could be someone you know. Hell, it could be your favorite creative. So the next time you need an image and can’t find one, maybe consider finding another alternative. Maybe don’t reach for the easy solution. It makes it harder on everyone trying to make it in this hell of a capitalist world we live in.
I want to say one thing about something I’ve also seen recently that pissed me off. NOT EVERYTHING THAT LOOKS LIKE AI IS. There is an art style that is prevalent and has been for decades that is very similar to what AI is spitting out. Don’t witch hunt. There are some usually clear signs of AI generation when you really look at a piece, and no one is safe right now from people who are out for vengeance. Just because it ‘looks’ like it’s AI doesn’t mean it is. And just because someone doesn’t know they got ripped off doesn’t mean people should burn them. If they make a mistake, then give them a chance to correct it. People shouldn’t be blamed for someone else’s lie. That’s all I’ll say on it.
I will not ever knowingly use AI in my work. If it happens and I wasn’t aware, then I’ll own that and correct it. I know too many people in this industry trying to get by and relying on their work to make that happen, myself included. I weep for the souls who won’t make it and give up because they don’t see the point anymore. They give up because people don’t understand why using AI is so bad, and nothing seems to click to make them understand.
Over my time as a writer, I’ve had to learn new skills. I’ve had to learn how to make covers because I can’t afford them. And yes, I license my images, or I get them from free license sites, and I use free software to manipulate those images or my own. I’ve had to learn because I will not steal from someone else. I will not contribute to the reason that art dies and the fundamental understanding of what makes art is lost.
Art is about beauty, self-expression, and the emotions that we feel when we interact with it. If we let AI take that from us, then we’ve lost the point of art. I’ll leave you here with two quotes that I not only love, but I feel like capture some of the essence I’ve set out to say.
“Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life.” -Pablo Picasso
“A writer is a person who cares what words mean, what they say, how they say it. Writers know words are their way towards truth and freedom, and so they use them with care, with thought, with fear, with delight.” Ursula K. LeGuin
Without art, we are nothing. Art comes from people, from the soul. Not from a computer that stole the blueprint.
Food for thought.
