Falling down the AI rabbit hole, now I'm confused and possibly becoming a robot?

 
So as a musician who used to work 4-6 nights a week, 51 weeks of the year (we used to beg for a weekend off but there was so much demand, it hardly ever happened),  I've seen technology take over my livelihood one bar closure at a time.
What used to be  6 night a week gigs, dwindled in many cases year after year, to Saturday nights only or a  DJ. In many cases a speaker streaming spotify.  Truly technology has been devastating to the music community. I'm lucky I can still carve out a wage singing and strumming solo, but the days of regular work for most live performing musicians (like it was in the heyday), are long gone.

Those who have been here on my blog  for the last decade plus may recall I was  adapting to the new music ecosystem when I was forced offstage, due to my being laid up after surgery.  Desperate to find a way to make some money sitting down, I dusted off my old artist hat and asked my musical following if anyone wanted a pet portrait (as I would need to find a bit of a job  while my body healed). 

This act of desperation is what turned me into Guitarious Girl. Even after I got back to the stage 6 weeks later I still wildly focused on painting, only now it was guitars. Eventually I began putting the works on T-shirts, mugs, towels, blankets and phone cases which was fun when I was touring to different towns and meeting loads of road crew and other bands who liked the idea of a music themed painting by a musician, on a shirt. 

The fact that I do the same now for pickleball is just part of the evolution as it makes sense to just use the skills I pick up along the way, in every new adventure I take on and pickleball is certainly my latest madness. 

The same with my books, I learned how to design and format my first book using the illustrations I had  contracted from  my wonderful illustrator. With that knowledge I was able to use my own art to write, design and format my 2nd and 3rd books (and I'm working on a fourth). 

So here I am adapting and dealing with the world as well as possible....but  suddenly this last year especially it seems as if AI is getting a  hold of us, hard. It's everywhere, I can barely make a computer query without some AI bot jumping in and getting in the way (and mostly getting it wrong).  My art programs have all included AI options and apps that they want us to use and they almost force it on us. I have to actively avoid using it and find ways to turn it off because it keeps suggesting itself. 

Magic this magic that..... fuck your magic you are a thief, AI. 

Lately especially all I see are ads for AI programs to do things that ARE my job. Currently you can artificially create a song, write a book, make artwork in about 45 seconds by simply typing in some sentences. There are people out there calling themselves AI artists, authors and songwriters. 
Never picked up an instrument or paintbrush, did no study or research they just typed...some....sentences.  

And with those sentences AI scrapes and steals intellectual property from the people who DID put in hours, months and decades of work, creating the pieces AI is training itself on. 

I can't even.

Until I did. One day I got so pissed off I took a free trial of one of those apps where you can insert a poem and type in a few descriptions of the music and out pops a song. I took a couple of extra seconds to adjust the lyrics a bit and voila.  I didn't download the song but I did film my phone as it was playing the mock up for me.  I guess you could say I scraped it. 

So there we have it, my toe dip into the dark side. (Yes I have a dark side and that's who accompanied me on this mission). 


Leaving it there at that, this  was going to be my only venture into AI I figured. 

But now I am confused.

On my morning scroll today I watched a few things that make me think resistance is going to be futile. 
(Please let me add in here that I wholeheartedly believe AI is magnificent when used correctly, which is the possibility picture you will see painted if you watch all of the following videos.)

So it starts here, I saw a post featuring an AI image and  some wild mis-information. Looking for clarity I wanted to know the real story the sparked the fake.
 I found the answer in the comments:

Basically a lady called out the original post as AI and she provided the real image and name which sent me off on a hunt to read this research article: Planet X / Nibiru: An analysis of Akkadian Seal VA/243 — Karel Donk


And that is how I got distracted by this guy ( check the fella in the top video, Ray Kurzweil  )

:  Exponential Growth in the Fractal Universe — Karel Donk  


The above video being 11 years old and knowing he had predicted tech so correctly, I wanted to see what he was saying about today's, future. So I looked him up and found his latest TED talk. If you'd like to see it too click this link, it's  from 3 months ago. 

(825) The Last 6 Decades of AI — and What Comes Next | Ray Kurzweil | TED - YouTube

So he has some pretty amazing predictions, I mean, nanobots? Enhanced humans? I've seen some stuff that says it's going to happen.  I can't deny that AI used well will be beneficial for society if everyone can actually win with it.  That actually means everyone though. I mean if it makes me lives forever super but if I can't be creative productively and must instead do something I don't enjoy (because people stealing with AI don't have to hire artists anymore), then what is the point of living longer?  (I could be overdramatizing here)

Overall and personally and outside of modern medicine and science, I'm just saying my concerns still address a basic happiness level that computers can't enjoy. I don't know why you would  use AI to do things that are joyful, like being creative. Especially since we know AI is trained on actual artists work,  it just vomits it back minus the soul. 



So to round it all up I will be vigilant about my intellectual property as always, but I am open to the idea that we will have to embrace this trend in one way or the other. It would be folly to think humans will be able to operate in a bustling civil society without all of us cooperating in some way, it's just a matter of how intrusive it becomes and what we will tolerate.

All the people will need to be able to win as well, everyone, not just the fancies (which could be the  challenge and the kick in the gut from reality). 

Here is another great TED talk for balance. 
AI Is Dangerous, but Not for the Reasons You Think | Sasha Luccioni | TED (youtube.com)



She brings a lot of important points for society and at least one of her concerns is the same as all  artists, authors, musicians and creatives,  so  she and her gang have enabled a resource for those who are interested, to help you search your IP property. 
Spawning AI 


Ok that's a lot of falling down the rabbit hole over one bad AI image I found on facebook. Wow. 

Rachael.