This morning, I read a piece about AI. Honestly, I had been so out of the loop and so naïve about what was happening in the technological world of AI that when I realized that one of my videos, which was a collaboration with some very cool people I had associated with in the “doomosphere” for years, was AI, I felt like an out of touch Luddite.
This happened about 2 years ago.
I was so excited to put this mans words to video as Donald McCarthy writes poems with such depth, such grit and are so moving about the predicament humanity has created, well, it was a no brainer for me. The music creator , I thought, was using music created electronically, music created with digital audio workstations which the producer creates that layers virtual instruments, and then applies effects to produce complete tracks which ultimately rely on human musicians to make every artistic decision.
I didn’t understand AI music at the time.
Music that is rooted in data and algorithms. AI systems learn from vast datasets of existing music and apply various algorithms to generate new compositions, in essence ripping off human musicians who have spent lifetimes learning to play and entertain us with their blood, sweat and tears. Music that brings a plethora of emotions that have essentially been a coping mechanism to humanity since the earliest confirmed evidence of music played by humanity dating back roughly 43,000 years ago, based on bone and ivory flutes found in European caves by archaeologists.
In walks AI.
I worked so hard to learn how to be a video editor, to make my own creations using clips and the software where you really work it, in my case I use iMovie, Final Cut Pro, and am in the process of learning another program called DaVinci Resolve. I really enjoy the creative process, choosing the clips, blending the overlays, scoring the music. I have used an app for over 6 years called Epidemic Sound which purchases music from human musicians and allows creators like me to use it copyright free. It was a win win, the musicians have what is often an additional source of income, and creators like me can use it without “stealing”. The process of making one video takes me hours of work, but in those hours I have felt a sense of accomplishment in having the ability to tell a story using video and music.
Now I feel that it may be a dying art.
How can I compete with AI? Do I even want to?
There is a saying about flying that if “your ass isn’t in the seat someone else’s will be”. Is that the same with AI? If I don’t choose to use it there will be so many that will that my determination not to use it will be an exercise in futility?
For me it goes back to the artists. The real victims of AI. The people who are becoming irrelevant because of the instant gratification of AI. Oh, I understand it, and I am not going to judge anyone’s use of it, just as I can’t about flying because I have to fly if I am going to visit my 91 year old mother.
Is this even an analogy I should make?
Time marches on, an despite that feeling that I am like the person in the 1920’s who refused to give up my horse and buggy, I will still manually edit my videos and choose music and art created by humans. I already understand that it will lead to nowhere, as I see the faceless AI Slop channels all over YouTube getting tens of thousands of views, where my channel, which is a mix of a wide variety of talk, music and current events, is buried by an algorithm that stifles climate and environmental information, that consistently favors “creators” who follow a certain structure that I have not and never will.
I suppose what I am getting at in this essay is that humanity is on the precipice of AI inhumanity, and those of us who choose to remain in the past, meaning still creating with our own skills and using our own brains will be relegated to the junk heap of antiquity.
I am fine with that.
Sandy
