(ARCHIVE) Technological Advances

Original art by me

(Originally published on April 24, 2023)

I finished reading Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk recently(finally lol) and found that I wanted to make this post about this book too. Hope you guys give it a read too, the main character's personality(character traits) and view of the world are really profoundly written out.

There was one thought in one of her monologues which connected to some personal experiences i've had that I wanted to talk about today.

"There's also a stony precipice nearby, but anyone who thinks it's a natural feature would be mistaken, for it's the remains of an old quarry, which used to take bites out of the Plateau . . . They say there are plans to start it up again, at which point we shall vanish from the face of the Earth, devoured by Machines" (48).

The main character thinks this while she takes a walk of her village, which is located on a plateau/valley near the Czech-Polish borders. The last sentence she says as she talks about the quarry in the Plateau really resonated with me, as I think it connects to some current/recent events/controversies concerning technology, more specifically Artificial Intelligence.

ChatGPT✍︎

Well, the first thing that comes up to mind when I think about current events and AI is ChatGPT. I'm pretty sure everyone knows about what it is by now(ahem ahem I didn't know what chatGPT was until like a month ago but ANYWAY-), but here's an article I read about it that helped me understand the basic premise.

Honestly, I've never used ChatGPT, so I have no idea what specific kinds of things it can or can't do... but I do know that the creation and use of ChatGPT has brought a lot of issues such as plagiarism and unethical use of the tool to the surface. Even in my school, teachers have started to talk about ChatGPT and proper ways to use it; the "rules" differ for every teacher, but most of the time, students can use ChatGPT to generate ideas for projects and get general outlines or plans to homework assignments. We are not allowed to use ChatGPT to write assessments, write creative writing assignments, do our homework for us, etc..

...Which I think is completely reasonable and valid. I mean, how different is using ChatGPT from getting help from someone else to do all those tasks? We as students are always told about the gravity of issues such as plagiarism and collusion, and I think that using ChatGPT without sourcing it and when it is not supposed to be used is almost exactly the same as those academic honesty issues. It's just common sense that you shouldn't use another source to complete assignments and stuff for you. The assignments and assessments were assigned to enhance YOUR skillsets in the subject the task is assigned about, not to enhance ChatGPT or any other person/source's skillsets.

But I also do understand how tempting the idea of a chatbot that can help with any annoying assignments can be. Of course I can, I'm a student too. There are definitely times where I feel too overwhelmed to do homework and there are times where I'm just plain lazy and wish there was another person to do all my work for me. There's a certain growth opportunity there. As one continues to experience those "walls" and still gets over it and does the work they need to do, they develop a stronger, more solid work ethic. Meanwhile, if one keeps using other uncredited sources to "help" them get over the pile of assignments they have, they'll continue to do that, because it's so much easier.

I think the main reason why schools and other organizations are concerned about ChatGPT lies in its capabilities to generate thousands, maybe millions of different results to one prompt. It's extremely difficult to "catch out" ChatGPT users, because ChatGPT gets its sources(that it uses to form the results) from the internet, where there is simply TOO MANY different writing styles, thoughts and ideas.

As time goes by, ChatGPT and other AI chatbot tools are going to develop more and more to write even more convincingly, and more and more people are going to start using these tools in places such as tests/assessments, bar exams and job applications. And it's going to get harder and harder for people to know whether a piece of writing is legitimate or not. I'm honestly kind of scared of what kinds of regulations companies, schools, universities and more will have to place to control whether an applicant/student uses external sources or not.

AI "Artists"

Ok, things are getting real now. I don't know how long this blog is going to be because I'm REALLY passionate about this subject.

Again, I'm hoping that most of you guys know what I'm talking about when I talk about AI Art, but here's an article that sums up what AI generated art is and what questions come with it.

First of all, let me just say it right now:

I HATE AI ART.

Yes, I know that "hate" is a strong word or whatever but I simply cannot bring myself to use the petty word "dislike" to talk about this subject. As an artist, I'm genuinely disgusted by AI generated art. The simple question of whether AI artists could someday "surpass human artists" is PREPOSTEROUS in my opinion.

Some of you might not see why I'm so irate about this topic, so I'll briefly explain.

Basically, our current AI models don't have the capacity to create fully self-generated, self-"thought out" artworks. AI "artists" are trained through feeding hundreds of millions of different artworks by HUMAN ARTISTS and letting the AI absorb all the material to create a duplicate by combining the different parts of the image the AI has "learned" from. Then the "artist" are fed with different keywords and phrases that connect with the artworks, so that it can generate similar artworks that match the keywords when an individual searches the keywords up. The problem surfaces when AI "artist" companies try to find places to get the "learning material" from.

To reach the current level of art and creativity humans produce, AI "artists" need thousands, millions, almost billions of source material to "learn from". And of course, buying millions of artworks from different artists around the world to feed to the AI would take WAAAAAY too much money for the AI companies. Which is why a majority of these companies turn to the internet to get their sources.

Many AI companies simply disregard HUMAN artists' consent, copyright and more to basically steal art from them and feed it to their AI. So many artists have had their own unique artstyle STOLEN by AI companies WITHOUT PERMISSION and WITHOUT EVEN INFORMING THEM of what is happening. Here's a video by SamDoesArts that explains the situation even further.

So yeah, imagine how furious artists get when these companies start mass producing "art" with stolen artworks and then say that its oriGInAL and CreATivE and A neW sTEp fOr AI tEchNoLoGy. Like, EXCUSE ME??? ABSOLUTELY NOT??????

And to go one step further, taking COPYRIGHTED art from artists without their consent ISN'T ILLEGAL SOMEHOW.

Many young artists, such as myself, are becoming really discouraged after seeing how pathetically the law and society is able to deal with this ethical issue. Yes young 6 year old Jeremy, I understand you don't have money but still want a nice, fully rendered picture of yourself, but you have to understand that this is WORK and this is how some people pay their bills. So many people are in support of AI generated, saying that artists are being "sensitive" and that it's "not that big of a deal", but it is. It is a big deal. I'm really passionate about art, and the thought of living a life without it is unbearable to me, but if AI companies and "artists" continue to take advantage of artists and exploit our creativity, I honestly am thinking about just quitting and turning to a new career path. It's agonizing that one's creative expression can be used to simply provide a lucrative business opportunity for major companies.

I'm scared to post on my art Instagram account these days because I'm afraid that one day, an AI "artist" will come across my art and I'll have to watch my own creations become snatched away from me, unable to take action because if I do speak about it, I'll just be framed as a "sensitive crybaby artist". I don't make art for the credit to be stolen from me and used for a purpose I didn't consent to, I create art because I enjoy doing so and it brings me joy.

Final Thoughts

"Humans are adaptive creatures" is a phrase I've heard so many times as issues with technology keep on growing. I understand what people mean when they say this, but honestly I just feel sort of hopeless.". . . at which point we shall vanish from the face of the Earth, devoured by Machines" is certainly a way to describe my current perspective towards technology (48). It may be hypocritical to be actively criticizing the use of Artificial Intelligence even as I use it so much in daily life, but I truly believe that if laws and regulations aren't set up QUICKLY regarding work, jobs and ethics regarding both AI and humans, there will soon be a time where our technology will take our place in all aspects of life.

Wow, ok, that was really dark and depressing. UHHHHm hehhe-

I know I just dumped so much emotion onto you guys, and I'm sorry for that, I really need to learn how to calm down when talking about AI. Fun Fact: my dad works at an AI company. We always have long debates on ethics with AI, and he completely supports most of my standpoints about AI Art and ChatGPT. I think it's important to have these frequent discussions, because it helps regulate my emotions and think about the different perspectives there could be in different arguments concerning this topic.

Let me know in the comments below what you guys think about AI art and ChatGPT! Feel free to write whatever you want, I won't come charging to find you if your opinion contradicts with mine (or will I? hehehhe).

See you next post!:))

--> To anyone reading this, hello, this is Na Yoon (a year later after this was posted). These few reading blogs were actually part of a reading blog project we had in my school's english class, hence the difference in my writing style in the introductory post and the blog posts. Please still free to interact with these posts too! :)