What are your thoughts on AI?
You're not I wrote quite a long post on how I think it will effect learning and research skills further down the thread. I guess with artistic skills people probably said the same about the invention of the camera and effects it might have. Will any AI model ever be able to to more hands on things like sewing? They probably will, people have beeninventing such "labour saving" devices for years, but many of us still like to make things ourselves, anything from cooking to painting to dressmaking, I don't think that will ever go away. I wonder if there will be some sort of creative backlash against it and whether the world become split into those that do and those that don't, a bit like cooking, there's ready meals for those who don't like or want to cook and those who love to do it and will seek out ingredients and new foods. There are already people who ask why I want to cook when I can go out to eat, or buy a ready meal, but I think there are some things that are pretty basic human drives, the hunting and gathering of food and eating and the creative need, I don't think that will ever go, but I think it may become harder. I don't see cave art as primative, or all about religion or teaching, I see it as something fundamental to human life, a mix of all those things and its that thing that AI, no matter how many data sets it's fed with will ever be able to replicate.
I think that the things you speak of above can be split into three.
One "class of things" = "imagination, inspiration and creativity" = which I think are buried in someone's soul from the outset, no matter what "inputs" or otherwise, are given. A creative soul will always be creative, no matter what.
Other "class of things" = "artistic processes, learning, skills" = which I think we can loose if we choose not to exercise them. This can occur through either laziness, or AI, or simply not having the time.....I don't think it is special to AI.....unless we let it be?
And the main thing...... = SATISFACTION.
I find that thinking, creating, doing, making, solving, musing and researching.........for myself.......wherever possible....much more satisfying than deferring to a single source - namely AI or via a computer interface - irrespective of whether it is free and/or easier to do 'it' with 'that.'
My brain needs exercise, just like my body needs exercise.
Does anyone have anything to respond with regarding this?
As above.
I said earlier that I found it disappointing, but I've realised now I'm talking about general uses of AI like talking and language. That I do think has a long way to go, especially when Silicon Valley assures us that general artificial intelligence is very close - I really don't see that at the moment. Anything where the AI has to generate things is just too varied.
However, I have just thought that more focused AI can actually be useful. I'm specifically thinking of image recognition, which has come a long way in the past couple of decades. I work on some projects where research attempts to apply image recognition to medical scans, aiding diagnosis by identifying possible abnormalities or diseases from scans. In these cases, I'm very optimistic about AI, because it is simply a very dedicated tool to assist you.
Yes, as an artist it does worry me. It worries a lot of other artists, too. I know, they've said so, at least on social media.
I posted on another thread here recently that humanoid robots can and do sell their drawings for tens and thousands.
I've indulged in my sad 'hobby' for over 40 years, and I am still lucky to be able to sell anything I do for much more than peanuts.
There are many aspects to AI but the one I have been thinking about is the impact on creativity. Yes, this may be regarding the end product having no soul as opposed to that made by human hands and imagination. But I think the impact goes further. Taking into account inspiration, artistic processes, creativity, learning, developing and employing a skill as well as the finished piece - what's the effect on the ACTUAL process of human creativity? So, there might be some "imagination" involved in instructing the AI to make something, but skills and actual creativity could, theoretically become redundant and evolve out of us. It might be that the notion of "creativity" and "imagination" change as we evolve from cave art, through to the modern day and beyond. I feel that would be a really sad progression of humanity.
There's something about being creative for its own sake, in its own right. And it's often the process and the learning and the satsfaction. How can one get this by employing AI?
Does anyone have anything to respond with regarding this? Specifically about the process not the end? Am I on my own in considering this?
To be more specific, I often use AI ahead of various situations that I'm about to go into in an attempt to prepare myself. For example, if I'm up for a job interview I'll ask AI to roleplay the entire conversation with me. Before I went to yoga class for the first time, I asked AI all about the etiquette (do I wear shoes? Do I bring my own mat? etc. etc. - obviously, AI doesn't know the ins and outs of your particular gym but it can help to an extent)
And another AI go-to for me is whenever I have to discuss something formally with my boss. I'm sat pretty close to him every day and most of our chat is just informal banter, which makes it hard for me to approach things like asking about company policies or requesting whatever else. So, I go to AI to ask for help with this and it isn't always great, but it does give me a few ideas that I can amend to make appropriate for my situation.
AI never does it all for me, but it just helps feed me ideas.
However, one thing I do like it for is helping me "sound human" - I sometimes use it to draft emails or even script a phone conversation if I need to ring somewhere to book an appointment or whatever. I actually get a little upset knowing that I'm asking a computer to help me interact with humans, but it is something I appreciate and it has helped me on occasions.
Thx for adding your thoughts here on AI. I hadn't thought about it in this way but it's some thing I could and probably should be using it for as RN I try to mix with humans but come across more alien in my attempts to be "normal".
That's helpful for me to know. Thank you. You have a measured view based on experience. Because I have no experience with it, I seek out "measured views" to help me understand what it is.....in reality.
I've found that if you talk to one of these generative AI models (e.g. ChatGPT) and go into a technical topic that you're pretty knowledgeable about, you'll soon realise just how wrong AI is - it can very easily hallucinate completely incorrect information and be very adamant that it is correct.
For example I was asking it about networking protocols and it was getting simple terms completely mixed up and giving me explanations that made zero logical sense.
However, one thing I do like it for is helping me "sound human" - I sometimes use it to draft emails or even script a phone conversation if I need to ring somewhere to book an appointment or whatever. I actually get a little upset knowing that I'm asking a computer to help me interact with humans, but it is something I appreciate and it has helped me on occasions.
It's also great for when you have to Google something super specific - you know you won't find a result if you actually type it into Google, but you can do a long-winded explanation to ChatGPT and it will output something relevant.
Overall, for personal use I do like it - but I don't trust it for anything other than helping me communicate with others, and even then I just use it as a bit of extra guidance. Essentially, I treat it like asking a friend for help - I keep in mind my friend could be completely wrong about something.
In terms of its wider context within the world - it is both awe-inspiring and slightly scary. But... meh, we'll see.
The trick here is to make your requirements modular so you just copy and past the sections you need. This saves loads of time and makes sure you don't need to remember the small stuff (UK date format, currency in punds etc).
As in software dev you will soon have your own library of these and you can craft the requests in no time.
This is often more complex than the task it is doing however
....spoken wisely by all "doers"..... if you are a "doer", it's almost always easier to "just do it" rather than explain what needs to be done AND how it must be done.
Yet everything an AI suggests I use is usually wrong, or doesn't understand what the bigger picture is.
I have found that the AI has to be treated as dumb and you need to detail your requirements explicitly and without assumptions - lay out exactly what it has to do and what the parameters are.
This is often more complex than the task it is doing however.
I'm honestly a little disappointed in it. It is being sold as a wonder solution which will solve all my problems, yet for what I need it do to it rarely helps me and just gets in my way.
I'm a software developer, so the way AI is marketed towards me is to help write programming code and make me more efficient. Yet everything an AI suggests I use is usually wrong, or doesn't understand what the bigger picture is. Another way I'm told it will help me is to use a chat interface to ask questions back and forth, yet almost every answer I get back produces examples which simply don't work, they just look like they work.
All in all, to me the dream vs reality is still very far apart, so I don't like the way I'm told it's going to improve my life when it seems to do the opposite.
Will research become a lost skill? Will critical thinking become even more rare than it seems to be now?
Outside of a smallish group of people - yes to both. We are already well down this path.
Will "real" information be kept in a circle of the select few?
This has always been the case for some information, but now it is easier when more can be controlled by fewer people.
These are rather general responses of course, but when you see the evolution of generation after generation and their lack of willingness to do the leg work for research when it can be serverd to them on a plate - it seems the masses will have lost their abilities to be adequately informed.
Thats part of what I mean Iain, if people are spoon fed information so easily, will they know how to do research? Will research become a lost skill? Will critical thinking become even more rare than it seems to be now? You and I are old enough to remember when if you wanted to know something more than what could be found in a normal household encyclopedia, then you had to go to a library and search for it, maybe a friendly librarian would point us towards the books we wanted, but we still had to sit there and concentrate, scribble notes and remember it. I just worry that people will forget how to do this and won't be encouraged to do it, whole bits of essays could be gleened from a couple of different AI programs, it's bad enough now, but will AI make it easier to fool and examiner? Will "real" information be kept in a circle of the select few?
Will the information we get be less factual and more biased as data sets for more specialist subjects are smaller and more open to bias?
This will all come down to who is in control of what is fed to the AI models.
It is easy to see how the Chinese models eclude details on "sensitive" issues like Tianamen Square or the enslavement of the Uyghurs. I can imagine Donnie Shitler being quite happy to make his tech bros scrub uncomfortable info from their systems.
I don't doubt any government here would do the same if they thought they could get away with it too.
Lets see how soon it takes before the US starts down the data scrubbing path - I give it 1 year and there will probably be a war started at the same time to divert any media attention.
I prefer to go to the source and do my own research if practical.
