Let's talk about AI
The 3 things that encompass my feelings about AI in design space
Hey friends
Hope y’all are doing well. Had a housewarming party at my place last night, so writing this issue a little groggy
AI is tarnishing the online design space
I made a video/podcast thing that I posted on the Patreon earlier this week outlining some of my raw thoughts on AI
It got mixed reviews as expected but overall a general sense that most designers/creatives agree with my main sentiment.
The 3 things that encompass my feelings about AI in the creative space are this
It’s advancing at an alarming rate
The blind adoption of many designer/creative influencers is annoying
Tech bros who say things like “Just learn how to prompt” or this “evened the playing field” have ruined my social feeds
I have many other thoughts on the entire space and there are some caveats about AI that I enjoy like Chatgpt. However, those abound 3 are the main things I’ve been marinating on.
Super fast advancement
I have never seen any tech thing advance this quickly and get widely adopted this quickly.
When I did a podcast with Chris Do a while back he mentioned “AI will be the most disruptive technology since the internet”.
Not to say I didn’t believe him exactly but I definitely thought that was a while down the road, that episode was only like 8 months ago I think and there is so much that has happened since then.
Elon and all these other billionaires even proposed that we stop its advancement for now. If the most powerful people who never care about your interests usually are worried, then that should be some kind of sign right???
I just feel like this stuff is going too fast and the common person doesn’t entirely understand what they’re getting themselves into.
I’m confident in my skills as a creative to last through this AI stuff, but I am a bit discouraged about the future of our craft.
Seeing people blow up from being “Ai artists” and able to produce a level of output not obtainable to a young, eager, learning designer, is sad to see.
I want the future to be challenged creatively, inspired, and experience the beautiful feeling of getting better at a craft day after day.
Idk it’s just all so unknown and I see new crazy shit every day that blows my mind. Like the Kanye AI song or all those AI-generated “NFT artists” making bank.
At least AI art kind of proves NFTs were never about supporting art or the artist but about commerce and making money.
Design influencer AI propaganda
The next main thing that has been bothering me is the wide adoption of AI by these online “design thought leaders”
Don’t get me wrong I understand the feeling to want to hop on trends and hijack topics for growth but making video after video talking positively about AI the whole time is pretty lame
Elliot summed up similar thoughts in his video here too
It just bothers me if your entire audience is aspiring designers that some of these creators are basically saying
“This is the future, no need to become a designer
It’s all from a place of privilege too, that they can still make money as an educator or content creator despite the detrimental effects AI will have on the greater design community.
And yes, I have some of that privilege too, however I am trying to champion a sustainable future for us, not speed up its demise.
That’s literally some accelerationist shit.
I’m no angel either, I’ve made a video about mid-journey before, but hey I’m human and my opinions on this whole space are going to be constantly evolving.
I’ll try to be transparent about the whole situation though.
Tech Bros
This is main annoying part about this whole AI space. Having to see these dudes who have never been creative, talk about art/design as a formula now.
“Just learn how to prompt”
That has to be the worst take ever. I got into this field to be a designer and an artist to an extent but never a “prompter”
I don’t want to live in a world where everything has to be “optimized”
I want the human error, expression and individuality.
Design and Art don’t have to be broken down into another formula or algorithm you can exploit and “hack”
I sometimes feel like art is the last bastion of a career that hasn’t been entirely ruined by the tech Silicon Valley explosion but now they want a piece of that pie too.
All the shit I see in my feed too is wild, I hate click on so much Ai stuff that my entire for you page is nonsense like this
I have no idea what’s going to happen either and I want to be clear that these are just some of my random thoughts. I am not this “doom” filled about this all the time and I know all my talented fellow designers and creatives will be alright.
I believe there will always be room for creative human expression in this world, we may just have to adapt a bit.
Lemme know what you think tho👀
Stuff to Check Out
IG Post of the week below ( Twitter isn’t letting me embed anymore:/ )
Closing Thoughts
“We gon' be alright” - Kendrick Lamar
Much Love, Glue.
Weekly Wrap Up
The True Freedom of Being a Freelancer
Patreon video about this AI Stuff
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Ai creates just images, Designers create Ideas.
We are positioned above this merely mass picture/illustration production.
We create complex visual systems, concepts, way of thinking and most important thing we have a personality that applies to all that.
I am at the moment working on a project in which we designers require to use Ai generated art for a Book, and we are dealing with various "Ai artists".
Some of them are skilled designers approaching the Ai realm but others are just "prompters".
I can assure that the "prompters" are not gonna be included among the artists of the book.
At the end of the day what we look for it's always the mind behind certain art, we wanna collaborate with minds not calculators.
I also think that this mass production and fast image consuming are just a part of the entire Art/Design spectrum. The job of us designers will be more respected and we will be more like Art directors, I also believe that physical aspect of Art will be more valued (painting, sculpture).
As I said, we are people and we want to enjoy this ride of life with others that makes us laugh, smile and think.
my personal bias opinion is that the main people participating in AI creation maybe feed into because they them selves are not creative and can not come up with something authentic and original.