Debunking BS "Adapt to AI NOW" claims

The whole AI fear process stands on the shoulders of the most particular giant : authority bias. Artists are hearing opinions from those they admire : “you have 2 years to adapt to AI.”

Upon hearing this, one starts to panic, wonder if they’ll have made it out of the rat race in two years. Or will they have to adapt ?

“If I’m gonna have to use AI, I don’t even want to be an artist. I’ll just give up then.”

Such a voice murmurs over and over in the minds of countless worthy humans. Even if we keep going, it nibbles at our energy and hope. This voice is one of our greatest enemies: it brings us closer to artistic apathy, meaninglessness, and a sense that this life, this earth, is something lower, where you can only get boring jobs that mean nothing to you.

Breaking news : the people yammering “you have 2 years to adapt to AI” have no idea what they’re talking about. I’m an AI Researcher and an Artist. Here I’ll debunk the most common claims in hopes that you are convinced to KEEP MAKING ART.

You will never have to learn AI. Read on and feel the evil voice that eats your confidence, shatter and fade.

(Reading some Nietzsche these days, so I structured this post in the same way that he does his books.)

There is a hand-wavy tendency to assume that AI will replace anything that doesn’t require physical labor. Let’s stop dreaming here. I visited a startup an incubator where more than 250 startups reach profitability. They told me everyone who invested in AI, has seen no payoff. They get FOMO, sink tens of thousands in, and don’t get anything in return.

Let’s be realistic. Some jobs will go completely. Most won’t.

Apocalyptic fears of so-called Artificial Super Intelligence are driven by Hollywood movies and desperate CEOs trying to hype up a failing product. They are far from the reality of AI as an edge research field that has already gone through cycles of hype-and-failure twice in the past 70 years (I don’t know when the next “AI winter” is coming, but it is coming).

I already made the point that AI isn’t all that powerful. But here’s more : Tech billionaires and oligarchs control AI. Their power comes from the wealth differential between them and the common people. They have nothing to gain in removing money from existence. No need for money ? No desperate people working 3 jobs to scrape by.

AI makes you expert-level at a whole range of formerly tough fields; you now have more power than ever. Or do you ? Let’s take the internet as an example. You gain the power to advertise yourself online. No intermediaries. You’re now more powerful than ever. Except the elite know everything about you now. And they’ve got you dumbed down and doomscrolling.
It’s the same with AI. Go ahead, automate half your activities. Rely on it more and more. Never go in depth into any technical subject. Congratulations. Your entire existence is now dependent on the whims of a silicon valley company. Feel the power yet ? Not me.

In throwing all past/historical skills away because “they are in datasets, AI can do them”, you’re throwing out a thousand babies with a single liter of bathwater. Today’s arrogant intellectual artists have forgotten tradition. You need a PhD in sociology to even begin to understand a single piece. Don’t make the same mistake. The proper response to tech isn’t to give up all tradition and discipline. Stand on the shoulders of giants (tradition and discipline), and watch the others try and climb up the countless AI ghosts, over and over.

Now we’re getting to the crux of it. “AI automates the doing, all you have to do now is refine your taste/soul so you know what to ask the AI”. This, ladies and gentlemen, is nothing but a SHOWER THOUGHT. It should have went out that person’s ear, and down the shower drain. The first part of this sentence is plain wrong (see above). The second part completely ignores the very fact that DOING is 90 percent of what grows someone’s soul. You don’t become a great artist by thinking about Art. Enough said.

The silicon chip does repetitive, efficient stuff. Carbon organisms do the emotions and search for meaning. Everyone wins. Could be. Except carbon organisms aren’t just minds floating around, feeling and searching for meaning. We’re bodies, that are meant to search for meaning, but also to do things. The grueling, boring stuff is inseparable from the sense of meaning. Boredom fosters creation.

I’ve written about this before:

So let’s finish with one thing you may have noticed…

As AI comes to be a thing, everyone who knows about it and has no interest in selling you hype, is screaming “STOP USING IT”.

Hardly anyone in my AI lab writes code with AI, and those who do are not motivated to remain in AI research. Everyone knows the price they pay for it: a life of disconnection, jumping at high speeds from one project to the other, without achieving any depth in (or love of) any of them. A perfect capitalist’s life.

Why listen to those who don’t know the nature of AI, give you advice on it ?

Till next time,

ArtPostAI.