Seminal Shore

Art is my raison d’être. I don’t mean I was born to create or have some predetermined directive instilled within me to do so; however, like with everything else in our causal universe I was always going to be an artist, and I choose to view it as an integral part of myself. Consequently this has made me increasingly concerned and frustrated with the advancement and usage of “AI”.

Do people not feel the joy of creation? The rewarding nature of laboring away? Why would you choose to hand off the best part of being human?

I don’t view the byproducts of “AI” to be art, but even if you do, why would you want to let a machine make it? Art is a human activity, and we are social animals. A machine spitting out images, text, videos, and sounds doesn’t connect anyone or anything; any intention or meaning has been abstracted away. How does one relate to these outputs? It cant tell us of other people or places, it cant imagine possible futures or hidden pasts, it has no capacity to think or create anything. I find its also impossible to relate to its outputs how I would to the natural world; it divorces everything from us. “AI” isn’t a machine that creates and connects, it severs and destroys; it’s products only imitations.

Ultimately there is nothing really intelligent about “AI”. Artificial intelligence is just a marketing term to excite consumers and entice investors; what it really is, machine learning, has been around for a long time. This latest buzz surrounding it is just another marketing campaign to repackage an old product. It certainly has the capacity to benefit life on earth, but we must be critical of its usage, why it’s being pushed on us, and by whom. If “AI” is just another tool of capitalism it poses a serious threat; I haven’t even mentioned the political, environmental, or ethical ramifications.

I don’t know what should be done or how things will progress, I’m by no means an expert. I can only hope “AI’s” novelty is wearing off, and people reject these human mimics.

Being human is our raison d’être, why hand it off to something else?