In the distant past, all art was one-of-a-kind. Even a reproduction of a work – text, art, or both – was a singular production.
For thousands of years, books, scrolls, maps, and other art were created solely by hand. This is part of what made certain works and educational opportunities available to only a select few. But that changed in 1436.
That was the year Gutenberg invented the printing press. In less than a hundred years, texts went from creation via painstaking, hand-written scribal work to mass production.
Still, individuals could only create printed work by hand. But then, in 1867, the typewriter was invented. Now individuals could write texts without having to use pen and ink.
Just over a hundred years later, the electronic word processor was invented. Now you could print the same thing multiple times – after typing it only once (without carbon paper or other messy options).
Twenty years later, word processing became software on personal computers. Which also added a new wrinkle to the art world with digital art. By the 1990s, the tools to create art digitally became widely available.
Computer technology for word processing and digital art were new tools just 30 years ago. You probably don’t think twice about these now. That wasn’t true then.
New tools always lead to uncertainty
When digital art became mainstream, there was an uproar in the art community. What would this widely available tool do to the creation of art? How would it impact the other mediums out there? Would jobs be lost? Skills rendered obsolete?
This is not an uncommon occurrence when new tools are introduced. And it’s certainly not limited to the world of art and creativity.
Cars becoming more and more common led to uncertainty. So did airplanes. Self-checkout at stores gets lots of both positive and negative attention. Online shopping has been praised and disparaged. Once products of the wealthy and status symbols, mobile phones have evolved into pocket computers exponentially more powerful than desktop units created just 30 years ago – and often replace landlines.
Every single new tool introduced to the world brings with it uncertainty. Digital art led to a ton of concerns about copyright and permissions and fake versus real imagery. That’s without getting into any detail.
As we move through the 2020s – now we’re looking down the barrel of the latest smoking gun and new tools. Artificial Intelligence (AI).
AI has been a product and regular star of horror movies, books, and other media. The machines and their artificial intelligence go on to enslave or destroy their creators – or some other nasty impact occurs.
Now, nearly every day, there’s something related to AI and new tools using it in the news. And that’s leading to all sorts of fear, concern, and uncertainty.
Generative AI tools like ChatGPT, Claude, MidJourney, and the like are new tools you can use to write things and create images.
These tools allow you to give them prompts, which they then turn into blogs, stories, images, and the like. They are among many new tools that are expanding how art is created.
So far, however, they’re not perfect. And they never will be, frankly. They require human input and are not sentient. They can’t feel, how they think has many limitations, and the work they produce still needs to be edited.
I’ve used ChatGPT to write things for work. Nothing it’s produced could be used as-is. That’s because it lacks certain nuances and tone similar to the rest of what we produce as a business. And to be blunt, in my experience, it tends to be pedantic.
Generative AI is not the only AI out there. Given that AI is based on algorithms, it’s a lot more commonplace than many realize. Google is part AI. Amazon’s Alexa, Apple’s Siri, and Microsoft’s Cortana are all AI.
Each of these AI are new tools we can use to do some pretty cool stuff. And like any other tool, they can also be abused to do some pretty awful stuff, too.
The AI tools themselves are not evil or inherently bad. Like any other tool, it comes down to how it’s being used.
A screwdriver is a great tool to tighten and loosen screws. But does the screwdriver itself become evil if it’s used to stab someone in the heart? Likewise. A baseball bat is a great tool for hitting balls. But does it become evil when it’s used to bludgeon someone to death?
Spoiler alert – it’s not the tool – it’s the user.
Ignore, Adopt, Adapt, or Abuse?
These are the questions you have available when it comes to new tools. Hardware or software, it doesn’t really matter.
Take self-checkout in stores. You can ignore them, adopt them, and/or adapt to them. Abuse is not likely from the user – unless you use them to shoplift. More likely, it’s store owners who might abuse them – by employing fewer people or replacing good workers.
AI and generative AI are the same. You can ignore these new tools, adopt them for your use, adapt to them being out there – or abuse them by plagiarizing the work of other artists.
One of the biggest concerns about generative AI is copyright and plagiarism. Will people abuse this new tool for profit and screw over writers and other artists? Will they replace genuine artists with profit-obsessed hacks?
The answer is yes. Sadly, people will do all sorts of dishonorable, nasty, shady, and unsavory things to make a buck. Someone always abuses given new tools because they feel entitled, empowered, or they are one of the few actual bad people with ill intent in the world.
New tools are not evil, bad, or otherwise negative. You – presented with the new tools – decide to adopt, adapt, ignore, or abuse them. This is true for everyone.
Do your own homework and research into new tools before you decide to simply reject them, or take the word of others about how bad and/or dangerous they are. Remember – opinions are like assholes – everyone has one, and some excrete more toxic shit than others.
Thanks for reading. As I share my creative journey with you, I conclude with this – how are you inspired to be your own creator – whatever form that takes?
Please take a moment to check out the collection of my published works, which can be found here.
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