This is going to be a long post, so I won’t be offended if people don’t read it, but I want to talk about my feelings towards Generative AI.
I consider myself to be a very creative person. When I’m bored, I like to come up with concepts for the video games that I play because it’s an enjoyable way for me to spend my time. I spent the majority of my life wanting to be and learning how to be a game developer, and even though that didn’t pan out, I still think like one whenever I engage with the medium. Most of my followers are familiar with the numerous content ideas and feedback/bug reports that I’ve made for Black Ops 7.
There are other creative practices that I’m interested in too:
• I’ve dabbled in drawing and graphic design before, but I wouldn’t say that I’m good at either; at least, I’m not good at creating good artwork quickly. I’m competent at making something that looks appealing, but it takes me a very long time to do it. I know that I could improve if I were to invest time into it though.
• I have a massive amount of respect for musicians because their minds work in a completely different way than mine. I don’t even know where to start when it comes to creating music, and it’s so fascinating to me that other people are so proficient at it.
• I’ve done a fair amount of coding in my lifetime, but I don’t enjoy it. It’s something that’s very rewarding when done correctly but very frustrating when done incorrectly, and the frustration always outweighed the satisfaction.
I say all of this to say that despite my shortcomings in these skills, I’ve never once felt the need to use Generative AI. If there’s something that I want to do, then I either learn how to do it myself or get someone more experienced to help me.
There are several reasons why Generative AI is harmful:
• Society has become too reliant on it. People are genuinely losing their critical thinking skills because they have these programs do all of their research and solve all of their problems for them.
• It devalues artistic integrity and steals intellectual property. Artwork created by Generative AI isn’t real artwork.
• The data centers that are used to house servers for Generative AI consume an excess of resources (i.e. water and electricity), damage the environment, and increase the cost of living in the surrounding areas.
• AI can generate whatever the user wants. It’s not difficult to create realistic pornography of people without their knowledge or consent, including that of children.
I’ve been told that I come across as morally superior when talking about it, and like… yeah, kinda. I don’t think that using Generative AI means that someone is a bad person, but I do think that it means they’re less intelligent depending on how they engage with it. Generative AI isn’t apart of my daily life whatsoever because I’m fully capable of thinking and creating for myself.
I’ve also been called performative. This implies that I’m only expressing these opinions to look good to other people, and that’s certainly not true. I don’t give a fuck whether or not people agree with me. If someone wants to say that I’m hypocritical because I pay for Twitter or play Call of Duty games that feature a handful of AI-generated artwork, then go for it. I’m not going to stop anyone from thinking whatever they want about me because my ego isn’t fragile enough to care.
I’ve had earnest conversation today about Generative AI in programming, and while I still disagree that it should be used, I can at least concede that it’s a positive application of the technology. However, this singular positive aspect of it doesn’t outweigh all of the negatives. Generative AI as a whole shouldn’t be defended or supported. If a bad movie has a couple of really good scenes in it, then it’s still a bad movie. I’m not going to watch something that’s 90% garbage just so that I can see the 10% of it that’s enjoyable.
Overall, Generative AI is too dangerous and shouldn’t be allowed to exist.