Dear Universe: Why am I scared of AI?
The dear universe series, where I ask the questions circling the drain of my mind
Dear Universe…
Why am I so scared of AI? With ChatGPT trends online, AI art bursting on the scene and the writers strike in the U.S, its easy to see why writers, artists, and other creatives are worried about “AI taking our jobs”. Its not an uncommon topic across social media and our mainstream news, it is even in our day to day conversations and job postings!
It is an understandable worry, many artists and creatives work freelance with in-house roles being the white whale that many of us are dreaming of. As AI improves, it can take away a lot of business for us freelancers as businesses will delegate to a machine that they can input a couple keywords into and poof like magic all their creative needs are met. For newer creatives like myself breaking into the field, it is now doubly hard because the entry jobs we relied on to boost our portfolios and give us that much needed work experience to drop the junior title on our bios, are now being handed over to a program that has thousands if not millions of datapoints to look through.
With all this in mind, it is not a surprise that it is a popular topic of conversation in pop culture and many creatives are vocalising their fear of AI stealing their jobs. What is surprising – at least to me – is that there is little talk about why AI is going after creative jobs? You would think that after years and decades of the public moaning and groaning about the corporate lifestyle and the dismal, depressing aspects of many office jobs, that AI would be the perfect tool to take away these soul-sucking roles and give people the opportunity to cultivate their passions, creativity, and freedom in roles that they truly enjoy.
There a couple reasons I can think of as to why this has happened, varying from the boring to the conspiratorial, but the key one for me is that creative work is still considered as secondary to anything and everything else.
The current manner that business is formed and priority of all the industries needed to run a successful business is in my opinion unbalanced, with the creative industry towards the bottom. It can feel so easy to forget that everything and I mean EVERYTHING that goes out into the world has to look a certain way and that means it needs to be seen by a creative person. Even Stephen Hawking’s theories are given a pretty cover designed by a hardworking artist who receives little to no notoriety for it.
Now this is not to say that AI doesn’t have its uses in the creative fields. As many of us work alone, it is a great tool to ignite creativity and bounce ideas off, and can also help in bringing a depth to work or add nuance to texts, but as the calculator did not replace the accountant, AI should not replace the artist. What is magical about art, poetry, literature, and music is the human connection that it creates and that is still needed in marketing and business.
You’re right universe, I shouldn’t let newness of AI scare me away from the opportunity in working in the creative field but embrace it as the tool it should be and hopefully, businesses will follow suit.
Cheerfully!
Elle Fofana