25 Comments

Thanks for writing this, Greg!

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Thank YOU for reading it

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Thoughtful and balanced. The shirt analogy worked for me, though now I'm wondering if Giuseppe is still around. I'd like to know what a properly fitting shirt feels like. Apparently my books are among those being used to 'teach' AI, and I can't decide if I dislike that or if it's like, adorable that it's trying so hard. I imagine a sort of giant virtual mashing machine where my books are tossed in at the same time as Yuval N Harari's and Malcom Gladwell's making for a more depressed analytical detective who discovers they will need to practice detection for 10,000 hours before they're any good. Of course all those books have gone into the hopper that is the mashing machine of my own brain...It's messier probably, but I bet I could still beat AI at my own game.

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Washing machines are also a good analogy because they make colors fade and blend together. The perfect computational average of you and Harari and Gladwell probably stinks!

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Not to be the sole contrarian here but 😬 As a writer I think about this a lot. As a lover of movies I think about this a lot. As the partner of a graphic designer I think about this a lot. AI doesn’t scare me per se, because you’re right that the technology isn’t sophisticated enough to be better at art than a human, and it probably never will be. It doesn’t scare me, but it does piss me off. The people using AI don’t *care* that it isn’t good. Can it churn out something quickly? Yes. Can it make something for me that’s cheaper than hiring a real person? Yes. Those two factors will outweigh quality every single time, environmental impact and ethics be damned.

I personally don’t want to live in a world where we normalize using AI to make art. Right now one can say it’s a useful tool to have in your arsenal, or do help complete more mundane/busy work like writing copy or a cover letter, but we’re already at a point where people want to (and are attempting to) write entire novels and make entire films using AI. AI itself doesn’t scare me, but that *prospect* does. And the biggest issue for me is that AI doesn’t exist without artists, and yet artists are the ones who get the shaft every time AI is used to create something. Laws aren’t keeping up with the way AI takes from artists without compensation, credit, or permission. I’m not optimistic about the prospect of AI helping independent artists, when it actively steals from them.

“The vast majority of entertainment workers are overworked, underpaid, and feel taken advantage of by a broken industry.”

To this point, I guess I’m not sure why losing these jobs to AI is a better solution than to hold people accountable for these conditions? At the end of the day, people need these jobs. The market is threadbare as it is. As far as these jobs not really being of artistic merit, I mean… McDonald’s workers aren’t making Michelin-star level food, but they should still be able to work and the conditions in which they work should still be humane and pay them well. Same goes for any job in entertainment or media, etc. Acquiescing to AI feels like giving up on the idea that we can do better and that we deserve better.

Maybe I am just an “AI bad!!!” shouter, but like… I’m also okay with that. For the record, this and the article you linked to have given me a lot to think about and have been among the more thoughtful pieces I’ve seen written about AI, even if I do respectfully disagree.

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I appreciate your perspective! Thanks for sharing. I don’t think you and I disagree on all that much—we just come to slightly different conclusions.

“And the biggest issue for me is that AI doesn’t exist without artists, and yet artists are the ones who get the shaft every time AI is used to create something.”

I agree! But the key point I think we often skip over is that it’s BAD PEOPLE who use this kind of technology to shaft artists, not the technology itself. So the root issue is really the economic structure of artistic workplaces, which AI *could* disrupt. A possible comparison I didn’t have space for in the post is Photoshop, which many animation artists refused to use on moral grounds at first, but ended up being a tool that makes their lives and work much easier.

I think it’s important for the unions to protect workers from AI consolidation. (And they will to some extent! It’s why they exist!) But job loss is really a symptom of the larger problems artists face in the studio system and capitalism at large.

Basically, my conclusion is that commerce will always try to screw art, so we artists shouldn’t be so immediately dismissive of a tool that might help us fight back. The short term job loss is scary and shitty, but at least in my little corner of entertainment, there are several things that seem like greater existential threats (i.e. endless mergers, overseas production, etc). Yet all of that circles back around to working for a bad company that doesn’t care about its workers or the quality of its product.

Final thing:

“we’re already at a point where people want to (and are attempting to) write entire novels and make entire films using AI.”

Making something good is really, really hard, tools be damned. Anyone leaping at the chance to write an AI novel will produce a load of shit. Anyone buying that book should expect it to be shit. I certainly don’t view that work as honest competition with my work. The fact that it will all still happen is somewhat demoralizing, but there’s not much I can do about it and I don’t feel threatened by yet another layer of shit on the internet. Much easier to ignore them and let the idiots be idiots.

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I guess for me both things can be true—AI is dangerous and the people/companies who use it to replace artists are bad. Maybe an extreme analogy, but it’s like saying “guns don’t kill people, people kill people.” Like, sure, but it’s a hell of a lot harder to kill when you don’t have a gun.

I think a lot of the worry comes from the fact that for many, the job loss won’t be so short term. Entertainment industry jobs are already harder to come by than I’ve ever seen, i have several friends who have been out of work ranging from months to at least a year. I don’t see how embracing AI helps them.

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Yeah, I really get it. I am an unemployed screenwriter! If the industry was in a better place, I probably wouldn’t have started a Substack to begin with. Oddly, maybe that’s why AI doesn’t scare me — I’ve already been treated like shit and live paycheck to paycheck for most of my career, and the same with many/most entertainment workers I know. That was all true when AI was just a Haley Joel Osment movie.

The difference in our perspectives here seems to be that I think AI is more of a hammer than a gun. A hammer is a tool that can be used for evil means, but a gun is made to destroy. So to continue the analogy, downsizing and overseas production might be closer to guns imo — destruction without purpose. However, the discussion around Hollywood labor is largely focused on AI, at the expense of addressing those more pressing (again imo) concerns. It’s a convenient bait and switch for these big companies that don’t actually know how to make money with AI, but can use it as a wedge while they eliminate jobs for other reasons.

Lastly, I think that no matter how much anyone protests this technology will continue to exist, so while I admire the idealism of my fellow creatives, I just don’t think it’s a very productive fight to say “hey companies, you can’t use this ever!” — especially because we have no idea what production looks like in 5, 10, 20 years.

I really appreciate your thoughtful engagement here! One of the reasons I wrote this was to bounce these ideas against people who disagree. So thank you!

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For sure! I definitely want to engage in good faith, so I hope I haven’t come off like I’m on the attack! I’m not naive enough to think AI is going away anytime soon, so I might change my mind in the next 5-10 years (or I might double down! I can be very stubborn!) but for now I’m not comfortable with using AI myself or engaging with content that uses AI-generated components, at least not until some of the ethical issues (namely the environmental impact and intellectual property theft) can be dealt with. You’ve given me a lot to think about though, appreciate it!

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Not on the attack at all! Very civil :-)

I also hope that IP training materials and environmental impact are addressed quickly and thoroughly!

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Super thoughtful take. I even read the whole thing!

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Thanks! I appreciate your stamina.

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Dude. This is basically it. What can we do that AI can’t. And I’m with you: a lot.

I work with a voiceover producer who is very much AI savvy. Just for illustration, he had me record a line, and then played it back to me as if: a 68 year old black woman, a six year old white kid, etc. But the interpretation and inflection, the performance was mine. Scary as hell. But also, as of yet, AI can’t replicate my soul, values, the first time I had sushi, which all goes into my performance. I’m also optimistic about live performance. AI can never replicate that (though I have my suspicions about Chris Pine)

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The Chris Pine line made me laugh out loud.

I’m optimistic about live performance too! (Especially since the big studios and streamers are abdicating their entertainment responsibilities.) Y’all MUST get to New York and see Oh Mary if you haven’t.

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Jen saw it and LOVED it. I’ll have to wait for the tour.

In like 1990 or so I was at a party and a film major (to be fair to him, Indie Film was just becoming a thing. Sex Lies and Videotape exploded everything) was arguing that theatre was dead. A low budget movie became a national phenomenon. What play could compete with that? My only retort was that people have been performing live for 5,00 years. The first recorded plays are over 3,00 years old. Somehow. We’re still doing it.

30 years later Indy Film is all but dead (in the traditional distribution sense), and it’s basically just “Universes”.

Theatre is obviously not a billion dollar industry. And the economics supporting it may eventually collapse. But post apocalypse. The survivors will use Theatre to tell the stories, because AI never truly can

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Please excuse me leaving 0’s off. I wrote this without my readers

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Thank you so much for adding some much needed context and nuance to this ongoing conversation. Loved this thoughtful piece!*

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*Comment generated by ChatGPT

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See? No artistic value added here whatsoever!

Jkjkjk

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I am in agreement with you on these points!! You have the right ideas that lead to great leadership!! Keep moving on and keep changing things!!! I’m proud of you!!👍🏻

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Thanks Carol!

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Longest and best one yet. AI could NOT write this. That's for damn sure. Thanks for the good food for thought!

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Thank you Liz! 🙏

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I agree with all of this. Speaking from the technology side: Getting tech to do the things you want is HARD, time-consuming, and expensive. Maybe AI is getting there faster than the technologies that preceded it, but anyone who thinks that AI can fully "replace" a human right now deserves the shoddy output they'll get. Right now and for at least the foreseeable future, I see it as just another tool in the toolbox -- understand its capabilities and limitations and it can help a human do things bigger, better, or more efficiently.

Also - please tell us more about this experimental film of yours!

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"Maybe AI is getting there faster than the technologies that preceded it" <-- This is the great promise and the great fear I think, but yeah still seems far away from reality. That article Ted Gioia has some good stuff about what the next year or two might look like, including "The bots will actually get dumber, despite trillions of dollars in investment. This huge spending actually accelerates the degradation."

I might release the film via Chortle actually! Still trying to decide whether it's good enough to see the light of day haha.

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