Before the advent of the word processor, you had to rely on yourself and others to proofread your work.
Typos had to be sought out – and fixing them took white-out and repositioning the paper to retype your work. There was no backspace or delete for that.
When computers became more readily available, we got spellcheckers. That lovely tool in most (all, I think) word processing software that seeks out errors of spelling and typos. Still imperfect – spellcheck won’t see when you typed “the” but meant to type “they”, for example.
Artificial intelligence (AI) has been a staple of science fiction for a long time. It’s frequently represented as terrifying and a threat to our humanity and way of life – see Wargames, The Matrix, 2001: A Space Odyssey, and others.
As computer processing has improved over the past 50 years or so, we’ve begun to truly develop AI.
Most people don’t recognize the common and regular AI in their lives. Amazon’s Alexa, Google’s voice assistant, Apple’s Siri, and Microsoft’s Cortana are all AI. They grow and learn with use.
But AI needs human input, still. And frankly will for a long time to come.
When all is said and done, AI are just tools of and for the trade. New tools that are still finding their feet, so to speak.
Before I get into how AI are just tools of and for various trades – allow me to clarify a couple of things.
AI and Generative AI
Most of the AI tools we’ve been playing with for the past decade or so are utterly dependent on human input. They’re limited by what you and I give them to work with.
Alexa, Siri, and so on, answer questions you put to them. Do they also passively keep tabs on what you’re doing? Perhaps. But AI algorithms are also doing that on social media.
Ever notice how, if you’ve been researching something on the same browser you use for Facebook or other social media, you get ads related to it? AI is a part of that.
Other AI includes things like Grammarly – which is akin to a spellchecker on steroids. It moves beyond just finding typos and misspellings in your work – but will note if you used a “the” where you meant to put a “they”. It very much relies on human input to function, because – to put it bluntly – it’s not always right or recognizing context.
Generative AI is the next step of AI evolution in many ways. This is where ChatGPT, Midjourney, and other programs for AI writing and art come in.
These take less input to generate more. They go beyond what Alexa or Siri offer and can extrapolate more information – and share it cohesively.
Some generative AI can take words to form images and vice versa. And the more input they receive, the more they grow and gain capabilities.
Even with their increased ability to outright create – they are still mere tools of and for the trade.
I remember there was a bit of an uproar when computer digital art began to gain popularity. There was a lot of fear that this would take away the power of artists to create. If you could do art digitally, would painters and photographers remain necessary?
Clearly, the answer was yes. Digital art has become just another tool artists can use to create.
Though Generative AI can write books and create original and semi-original art, it still requires human input. They can’t just create of their own accord – someone uses them as a tool of creation.
What’s more – they need human guidance and assistance.
I received an email that boasted being created by AI. And it was obvious – because it had some glaring contextual issues and didn’t fully represent what it intended to. It was clear to me that nobody bothered to check it.
They abused the tool they had by relying too much on it to convey the message.
This is an issue that all AI, Generative or otherwise, has. It’s still just a tool. And like all tools – human use and input is necessary.
There’s no doubt that Generative AI can change the landscape of digital art and writing. An author can use generative AI to write a book in hours that might have otherwise taken weeks or months. Digital artists can abuse AI to use someone else’s work as a starting point for their own.
A large part of the 2023 writer’s strike is focused on keeping Generative AI usage limited so that studios and streaming services don’t throw away and bypass genuine, human writers for increasingly capable AI. A similar strike might be coming from actors and directors with like concerns, too.
It’s not the tool but its use and abuse that’s most concerning.
How you use the tools is what matters
Yes, there will be people who’ll abuse new tools when they come about. That’s unavoidable.
But that also doesn’t mean that we should be afraid of the new tools. They might serve you in ways that can improve and expand your creative process exponentially.
The printing press was a new tool long, long ago. And with it, books became more prominent and available. Access to information and imaginative stories grew far and wide.
You never know where a new tool will take you. It might be wonderful – or terrible. Probably it will be both. That’s because human beings are fallible and can choose dishonesty. You’ll get bad actors who will abuse new tools for their gain without giving a damn about what impact that might have on others.
This is why it’s not the tools themselves, but how they’re used. Generative AI can do some pretty amazing things for creatives and creative work. Admittedly, they can also do some pretty horrific things to creatives and creative work. But the tools themselves are benign.
New tools for creatives can open previously unimaginable pathways for creative work. How that comes to be will vary. But the tools of and for the trade evolve because evolution is a part of everything – including creative arts.
What tools of and for the trade do you employ? 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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