Thread

1. keiferski · 1790255905 · focus · HN ↗

   In the world of arts/media, I think AI basically only has a future as a hidden thing. Openly admitting that you used AI to make something will be used against you, in order to dismiss your work. For a lot of people/things, it already is - see Hank Green, or the daily comments about "I don't want to read what you didn't write."

   Expect a massive marketing reversal in 6-12 months, when every "AI-powered" company removes the keyword from their home page.

   1. tengbretson · 1790256722 · focus · HN ↗

      That used to be true of autotune too. It was either tastefully hidden, or obvious and trashy. Then projects like 808s and Heartbreak and Tha Carter III put it front and center and it's been a legitimate tool ever since.

      I didn't know if generative ai has a strong enough signature to go through the same evolution, but I wouldn't be shocked if it did.

      1. sublinear · 1790263431 · focus · HN ↗

         Autotune, and quantization in general, is a legitimate artistic choice though. It's like using a ruler. It's not strictly required either.

         AI is literally the exact opposite of that. We had been building software with ruler-like precision even when it was unnecessary and got in the way. That's the only reason we ever wanted AI to begin with.

         One mistake people keep making is the assumption that arbitrary and probabilistic imprecision ("wisdom of the crowd") is automatically equivalent to artistic or experienced/curated choice. It's absolutely not. Another mistake is that approximations are always enough to satisfy all problems, or at least "real world" problems. That's obviously not true either. That's flat out ignorance.

         1. mingus88 · 1790269904 · focus · HN ↗

            Check out some off Connor O’Malley’s YouTube videos lately. He’s a collaborator with Tim Robinson and has an absurdist take with heavy AI used

            What I’m saying is he made an explicit artistic choice to use AI and it’s an integral part of the work. You can’t tell a creative person they aren’t allowed to do something.

            AI is going to be used, and already is used, by creative people for legitimate uses that only enhance the statements they are making.

            The fact that lazy people are using it as a shortcut for a lazy audience is not an indictment of AI

            1. sublinear · 1790271506 · focus · HN ↗

               Yeah, I'm not saying there's no artistic value in using AI.

               I'm saying that less intentional use has less artistic merit. AI hasn't made an impact on the toil involved in the creative process. It's instead another brush.

               It all boils down to the fact that humans are not outsourcing anything to AI. If anything, it just raises the bar and makes humans have to work harder. Decision fatigue was already a problem long before this era of AI, and AI can make it worse.

               That's exactly what happened to music with beat quantization and autotune. People just zoomed in, nerded out, got snobbier, stopped seeing the forest for the trees, and ultimately produced very boring music from exhaustion. Not only that, but a ton of nuance was lost. We took so much agency away from the performance and made it all march in line and in time. It's up to the audience where the breaking point is.

               1. qsera · 1790323355 · focus · HN ↗

                  > It's instead another brush.

                  Exactly. AI generates imitations of the past. So does a paint brush at its fundamental.

            2. lubujackson · 1790303663 · focus · HN ↗

               > You can’t tell a creative person they aren’t allowed to do something.

               That sums it up for me. This "new thing appears, become hot, gets overplayed, people hate it" cycle happens over and over, but that is trendy norms. Meanwhile, creative use will continue to go up and to the right as people learn how to better wield AI to express themselves.

               The future won't be "AI in art is bad" but "AI as a tool of artists is powerful, AI as an artist is nonsensical".

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