Carl Justin G.

Arban

1st Year – BSED ENG

Activity 1: Research on the topics given and look for an issue, an update, or a breakthrough –
could be an article or a book or a video or a clippings in a journal or magazine (print or non print).
Read and study carefully then create or write your own position paper.

Position Paper

For this activity, I’ve chosen ‘Artificial Intelligence and Internet of Things/IoT’ as my topic, and I
decided to analyze and construct my own take/opinion with the article 'When AI can make art –
what does it mean for creativity?' by Laurie Clarke (Nov. 2022). The mentioned article – though
already obvious in content – specifically discusses the expansion of AI art generators and how its
prowess affectedly shaped the concept of creativity itself for both modern-day artists and
designers. For this reason, I - as an artist myself – was more than invested in scrutinizing this topic
further.

For starters, Artificial intelligence (AI) has been a ubiquitous subject matter for almost the entirety
of the last few months – or years – and to an extent, it still and WILL remain a topic discussed with
both favoring and opposing views. Throughout the course of years, AI has expanded in utility,
almost as if divided into sub-categories, and managed to excel in the fields of expression and
activity – such as those of art, writing, and designing.

In consequence, AI has gained recognition, as even fashion and entertainment magazines such
as Cosmopolitan featured their very first use of AI art generators in creating their magazine cover.
Moreover, in reason with AI’s capabilities to manifest thousands of images, it had then spread to
video platforms and the like, following the release of Google’s Imagen Video and Meta’s Make-A-
Video.

While AI serves as a tool for the betterment of human activities and interactions, its gradual
transformation subtly leaves a pernicious effect in degrading humanity itself in some of its aspects,
for instance, our abilities and skills that remain essential on what makes us entirely human in the
first place.

Likewise to what was already stated, AI has evolved immensely through time, almost exceedingly
in which greatly affects humanity’s concern for talent and skill in ironically detrimental ways. As an
artist – or at the very least, as a person who values talent in its entirety – I was way more than
distressed and threatened to know how AI slowly nullifies the processes of what it takes to be
creative. The main problem with Art generators, as far as I consider, is that they steal the creativity
and effort required to create art. One click of a button is all takes for a machine to manifest a
hyper-realistic artwork one would think took hours to make; the same goes for writing and creating
designs – all of which AI can simply do in one go.
Talent and creativity are both manifested in effort; yet AI somehow manages to negate these
considerations by simply augmenting its generation of images - and manifesting an artwork with
somewhat minimum to no effort needed; given how quick and efficient it is in doing so. Several AI
art generators - such as Open-AI and Stable Diffusion - have advanced in effectivity to a certain
extent whereas it can create seemingly elaborate 'masterpieces' with one prompt or command.
Although, of course, creating such complex prompts requires 'borrowing' from resources to use
them for references. In this case, AI art generators use billions of images from both artists and
designers – with often no consent or agreement whatsoever - to manifest a composition requested
in a prompt. This, in itself, is what personally aggravates me alongside other artists, as no justice
nor courtesy was ‘seemingly’ done for the creativity and effort exerted by artists in their works. It’s
also personally insulting how artists – especially those deserving of recognition – aren’t even
credited throughout the process of AI incorporating their art style towards a prompt.

The companies behind AI art generators hugely profit off of artists which makes it revolting for me.
Unrelated to the article, I personally witnessed local artists that I follow online having their art style
robbed or mimicked, which I find unlawful since AI generators are more likely to 'steal' than take
'consent' from their sources. Some advances have been made to mitigate this predicament, such
as building applications – for instance, an online tool named 'Have I been trained' to help artists
discover if their artworks were used to train AI art in manifesting prompts. However, these attempts
to protect the creative works of artists somewhat prove to be futile already, as AI art generators
have already stolen or borrowed the art style made by these artists. As indicated by someone’s
account in the article: “It’s like someone who already robbed you saying, ‘Do you want to opt out
of me robbing you?’”. However, If I were to be asked, I think hope is not lost for artists; if AI
generators can improve over time, so as applications such as the aforementioned in protecting
the rights of artists regarding their creative work.

Regardless of these made implications, Artificial Intelligence (AI) in its general sense, consists of
advantages that mankind utilizes - for instance, using AI writer to finish essays or generate ideas
to save time brainstorming or whatnot. On a larger scale, it can be set up to automate processes
and help society deal with predicaments with utmost proficiency and speed. Although, the
proposition comes to mind that – sometimes, AI provides more than it should. Likewise to a famous
saying, 'too much is enough' and that also applies to the expansion of AI and its capabilities.
Artificial intelligence mimics what humans can do, more often, it can even excel better on that
idea. It's quite ironic how humans decided to form artificial intelligence to help humanity prosper,
but on a side note, it destroys it by ultimately replacing us. I mean, what are the remaining purposes
or distinctions you humans even have except for being alive and having emotions.? I mean, AI - in
its earlier stages, is already able to rattle us by its profound capabilities - what is more to expect
in the next 100 years? Is humanity shunned and replaced by robots roaming around what used to
be the walking grounds of the hoi polloi?
Someone might agree this view is somewhat of a hyperbole (and subconsciously, I think so too)
but the mere idea puts a lot of tension in my existential dread... What is there to learn or express
more about art if AI can just manifest my ideas anyway? There are people literally taking art
classes for them to learn art, only to have a machine mock their progress by stealing/profiting off
of artists' works – and to me, it seems like a complete ‘dogshow’ for those of outstanding talent.
AI might not be as developed now, but just imagine what it can do in the future, in correlation with
other scientific discoveries or technologies. It remains... baffling, even on an end note.

In conclusion, the entirety of AI (writer, art generator, and the like) should be used with utmost
consideration and ethics; it should not – in my opinion – reach boundaries whereas it violates the
dignity and purpose of humans (especially in the aspect of talent and creativity). Though negative
views were made regarding the idea of AI, one would become refutable by merely drawing out its
shortcomings – in light of AI’s utility and advantage itself. For me, as of now – I don’t have a specific
idea of where the path of AI development leads – but I would be more than sure to witness it
myself.

References:

Clarke, L. (2022, November 12). When AI can make art – what does it mean for creativity? The
Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/nov/12/when-ai-can-make-art-what-
does-it-mean-for-creativity-dall-e-midjourney