I don’t hate AI. I don’t fully understand it, but I don’t hate it. I just haven’t used it yet. Okay, stop. I know someone out there will bend over backwards trying to prove I DO use it. “You use Google search, right?” “Yes,” I respond. “See, you DO USE AI.” You mean that bullshit paragraph at the top that looks like it was written by my drunk uncle? Sorry, I don’t use that. What I mean by NOT using AI is that I don’t use ChatGPT.(Or any other service that offers similar tools.) Have never been to the site, nor do I have the desire. Again, I don’t hate. I just like doing my own stuff. I’m not looking for hyper efficiency. I’ve never had it, so why do I need it now? I like flaws. I like emotional instability and unpredictability. I like being human, and I like normal intelligence.
Ninety-two percent of creatives already use artificial intelligence.
Once again, Uncle Danno finds himself in the 8% minority. But guess what? This is just where I like to be. As a photographer, I changed my focus every five years. No pun intended. Photojournalism, assisting, editorial, Kodak Professional, weddings, stock, portraits. The only thing I stayed with from the beginning was documentary photography, which I’m still doing today to a very slight and fractured degree. I like learning, sometimes more than others, and some subjects more than others, but human touch and imperfection are what make us interesting. Ever see a man or woman you find attractive, but when asked why you find them attractive, you can’t quite put your finger on it? There is no “classic beauty,” but there is a flaw that strikes your fancy, and before long, you have a restraining order. Or does this only happen to me? Kidding, but not kidding about the allure of the tragic flaw.
Another important point, my brain hasn’t completely turned to mush. What minimal brainpower I have, I like to use. I don’t need or want AI to do the heavy lifting so that I can add the final touches. That feels phony to me, something that is at the heart of everything wrong with the digital world. I do my own photography, editing, sequencing, book design, and all my own writing. I work with a human editor, someone I’ve known for several years, and someone far better at writing than I am, so in a way, it’s like using AI but slower and more flawed. And they require food, water, and time to sleep. An endangered species, perhaps. But when it comes to AI, I’m not surprised by the speed at which the tools have developed, which we should have all seen coming. No, the surprising part is the consumption part. How quickly the masses have proven to be slaves to the slop.
Look at YouTube. Four of ten new films are AI, and the views prove the mindless masses are sucking up the artificial slop like they do fast food and new iPhones.
Drugged up and dumbed down. Photographers are using AI for their editing, which is a slippery slope if I’ve ever seen one. You might be saving time, but you are losing something else. I can see it, but if you are already on the inside, you might not. At some point soon, I’ll be thinking, “Probably don’t need ya.”
Change is unstoppable. I count my blessings. I was born in 1969. Cause I like to party! (Imagine me shotgunning a tall boy!) No, I count my blessings because I grew up outside. My neighbor had an Atari game system, but his dad quit his job so he could stay home and play all day, so we never got to use it. Another neighbor got a computer, but his dad said we were dumb kids, so we couldn’t touch it. My family had Pong, but it gave me a headache and interrupted my sleep patterns, and it was in the basement, which was kinda creepy, and where we went to hide from tornadoes.
Maybe this comes down to me spending my life in a pursuit where failure is more common than success. The struggle. Standing at the plate, bottom of the ninth, two outs, winning run on third, and instead of lining a dinger over the centerfield wall, I whiff on three straight pitches out of the strike zone. That’s photography. So, the idea of continuing the struggle is okay with me. I’m sure AI will ease its way into my life before killing me, but I’d like to keep the progress as slow as possible. I don’t mind the struggle.
I don’t sit at home thinking of how I can automate my life so I can get more views, or subs, or people to read my stuff. The most important aspect of life, at least for me, is freedom. It’s not MORE. It’s FREEDOM. To do what I want, how I want, when I want. And sure, you could argue that AI would help streamline my life, so I could potentially have more of the freedom I crave, but there is something to be said about how you run the race. Let’s let Prefontaine explain it. “To give anything less than your best is to sacrifice the gift.” It doesn’t feel like using AI is our best effort, and from what I can tell, stealing the works of millions of people is still considered a bad thing. It’s not regarded as fair use. (Check the lawsuits.)
Perhaps the most important question is, do you say “Yes,” or “No?” Will AI change your answer? But the question you should be asking is, what’s the more powerful answer? You might think it is “Yes,” but you could be wrong. “No,” might be the ticket. If you make things, you know what I’m talking about. So much of a better life is about elimination. The older you get, the better you get at saying, “No.” Do I need a new mesh Speedo? Yes. Do I need a new camera? Yes, of course. Do I need to streamline my life via artificial means? That’s on you.
Comments 32
Same here. Never used AI. Whenever I have tried using it, it felt like committing a crime. Your words resonated with me, as usual. I like flaws too. And I own my faults and my qualities. I believe only when I can own my mistakes, only then I have the right to own my achivements. In this day and age of technology laden lives, few fleeting moments of being human are rare sights. I don’t want to ruin them welcoming AI in my life.
Author
I don’t fault people for using it, but it’s not something I’m interested in at the moment.
I’d rather have an out of focus, over exposed, wonky photograph, taken and edited by a human, than a perfect AI created visual monster.
Author
Anything that looks perfect, isn’t. And man, people are sucking up the slop.
AI is great for condensig an escalation email chain into a few bullet points. Anything creative is a hard – no thank you! And I can research web way better than this awful thing that now summaries internet.
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It’s creeping in everywhere, but man did I have an interesting conversation with an AI researcher.
Really… I’d love to know what they had to say.
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10% of the world will thrive. The other 90 will suffer, and those who aren’t using it now are the ones most likely to be in the 10%
Well, hot damn! Bucking trends has worked for me so far. Reckon I’m on to something. 😉
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Yes, who knew us contrarians might come out ahead.
The only thing I like about AI are the Elvis Movies I never got to see like The King and Kong, and those with Elvis and Bruce Lee or Marilyn Monroe … that’s plenty for me.
Author
Haven’t seen those yet.
Hey, man, it’s been awhile. Been spending less time online and such. And yeah, this AI thing? Hard pass. I constantly hear people say “I asked chatGPT…” and I’m over here wondering why they bother and also, to be blunt, the whole thing just pisses me off. I mean, we have at least a dozen films from Hollywood as reference to how things can go so terribly wrong. Then there’s the power usage but who cares about wrecking our home [planet] if the shiny AI can hypnotize us into a brainless stupor. Then there’s the whole streamlined surveillance feature. So yeah, I’ll say it, I hate AI and everything about it because while it could be used for good things, it won’t be. The human race in general simply has not shown that it has the emotional/intellectual capacity to do so. I guess I’m in the “get off my lawn!” era of my life but damn, is it too much to ask that I be left the f alone to do my work in peace!? 😀 Happy holidays to you and yours, Dan.
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Control. The makers want total control. Push too far and they will learn what it means to kick the hornet’s nest.
The blatant theft from creators, the “in the style of” prompts infuriate me. How can one have pride in one’s work, without the guilty knowledge of how much of the final product is the result of someone else’s style, work, way of seeing? We’ve all probably gone off on a tangent in our work, only to realize we’re not Gregory Crewdson, and are not willing to put in the work to become as good as him, or Annie Liebowitz, etc. Using AI is way worse than producing pale imitations (on purpose or through ignorance) of other photographers in an attempt to figure out your own direction.
The joy of photography, both in doing or viewing, is the element of chance and surprise, of the product being greater than the sum of its parts. Imagine what would have been lost from the world if Martin Parr, instead of heading out with a camera, had sat inside on a computer. (Plenty of people create original work using computers, but AI is not that) I just saw a little video of Parr in his later years, heading out to a crowded market with his walker, heavy camera, and flash, talking to people and making photos. He did the work, no excuses. What an example he set.
The environmental cost will be huge. I saw on the news last night that the energy required for asking AI a question was 10x that of a Google search. This is not sustainable, even here in British Columbia, where we have (at the moment) inexpensive hydroelectric power. Already people in areas of the US where there are AI data centres are experiencing much higher electrical costs. This is not sustainable.
Yes, I couldn’t agree more Lisa. After years of creating in one form or another, I have come to see that the process and the time dedicated to refine one’s process is where the gold is mined, so to speak. In other words, being a creative person, doing the work, learning to pick ourselves up after the inevitable failures, noticing the nuances of what works and what doesn’t and having the patience to stick with something… these and more are what make us good humans. We learn empathy for ourselves that extends to others. We develop our attention span and our ability to see. We learn that we CAN apply ourselves and maybe the results are not fame and fortune but they are better in that they help us see and live with meaning and purpose. All of these things contribute to us humans knowing at a fundamental level that if we work together, if we collaborate, it benefits us all. I’m zoomed way out here but seriously, a landscape photographer who is invested in their craft isn’t going to be so keen to destroy the very beauty that inspired picking up a camera in the first place.
Author
Well, we have at least two generations of “creators” who don’t think stealing from someone else is a bad thing. Heck, they brag about it. For YouTubers, there is no bar low enough. If AI will gain more views it will be integrated without thinking. They don’t even realize they are undermining their own existence. The data centers are a real problem, and it’s going to get very, very ugly if they keep putting them in against the locals.
Danielsan, and everyone’s thoughts here are all spot-on. I once wrote: “Human-Nature”
is an
oxymoron. -J.E.
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True dat.
There’s a song by Will Varley and the title closes the whole “AI creativity” discussion for me: “Machines will never learn to make mistakes like me.”
For me that’s the essence of my creativity and why I can’t see any machine adding any creative decisions worth a cent.
Robin
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That’s a good way of putting it.
Daniel, you should read/study “A new science of Heaven.” Not a breezy read to say the least. Temple doesn’t expound upon AI specifically – I suspect that it was off his radar during said writing process – but the book lays the case that electricity aka current aka the flow of electrons is the foundation of not only all things in existence, but also all forms of intelligence which would by nature include all things creative. Not an overly technical read, just a jam-packed, rollercoaster ride of science-backed data from many of the greatest free-thinkers of our times and past… these people didn’t so much think outside the box, they lived outside of it. Oh, and by the way, which digital algorithms are currently using to shoot with? 😉
Author
Yes, outside the box seems like you might get wet, but it’s still the place to be.
I’m old enough to remember when calculators were expensive, and people were arguing they shouldn’t be used in school because the kids wouldn’t learn how to solve the problems themselves. Of course the calculator is just a tool, if you don’t know what numbers and operations, in what order, to put into, and how to evaluate the answer to see if it was reasonable, it doesn’t matter if you have one or not. At the time I made the argument that they were teaching us how to use a slide rule (there was a giant one mounted above the blackboard) and wasn’t this a difference of degree rather than kind?
But you know, the more I think about it, the more they might have been onto something. Then the Palm Pilot came out, and the iPhone, and the ability of people to solve problems, not just math but any kind of problem, or do things for themselves, seems to have taken a sharp nose dive. I know people that have to put their address into the map and listen to the directions to get home, if they are anywhere but work or the supermarket.
And now AI and ChatGPT (what does the GPT stand for, anyways?) are inserting themselves into every aspect of human life. I recently got sent an estimate for some flooring work. It’s 3 pages long, an introduction and contact information, one page for the prep work done by one company, and another page for the actual flooring installation. When I opened it in Adobe Reader, a popup screen said this looks like a long complicated document, do you want an AI summary? It was not just no with extreme prejudice, there was swearing, and yet I’m sure there are people that say yes, and carry on with whatever delusions they got fed.
I get really annoyed when a program gets in the way of me doing something I know how to do, by assuming I need or want help. I get even more annoyed when they’ve made something so arcane it can’t be figured out by inspection, and then they make it impossible to find the text in the ‘help’ feature to figure it out.
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I guess I’ve never been one to look for shortcuts, and it feels like a lot of what AI is bringing to the masses is just that. There will be incredible uses, like health, but what the tech czars have proven, over and over, is that they are up to no good behind the scenes. That wack job from Palantir should not be in charge.
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“So much of a better life is about elimination.” Photographers know this, editors know this, sculptors know this, and anyone who has had to choose between two or more options one enough occasions hopefully knows this too.
AI makes me think of that parable about how the butterfly emerging from the cocoon needs the struggle to become strong. Maybe I have some elements of that wrong, but I’m sure anyone on this site, reading this comment, doesn’t need it to be exactly right to get it.
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Over a decade ago, the youth began to shy away from ever admitting struggle, or failure. AI is perfect for those folks.
Sorry, I’m a bit late to the show… On a side note: I wrote the below in google docs. I didn’t even copy-edit it, but had the autocorrection on.
AI is another tool. Like a knife, or a hammer. Or a computer. Would this blog be any different [better] if you used a typewriter? Would using a typewriter make you a better writer? It offers no CTRL+Z, every sheet of paper counts, no autocorrection, and it forces you into mastering your language skills. Or…let’s flip the question over: Would using a computer make you a worse writer?
I was born in 1971. Back then using calculators in schools was a serious crime. Only wearing a swastika or wishing to emigrate to America could’ve got you in worse trouble. Nowadays kids use tablets in schools. They can’t add or, God forbid, substruct using their heads. My dad was a musician. But he could fix anything. He could build anything. He could drive anything. Nowadays builders can’t build, car mechanics break your car, electricians tell me replacing a switch is dangerous stuff. People lost the ability to rely on themselves well before AI stepped in. AI is just another link in an endless chain of “bad things”. It’s another calculator. Hating/Not Hating AI is like falling into those sick arguments “digital vs analogue” Both sides spitting venom and hatred. I do not like digital. Not because it’s bad or sucks or whatever, but because it’s not aligned with my vision. Because I do not enjoy using it. I do not enjoy the process. Do I use digital? Yes. For work. Almost never for my personal projects. Do I use AI? Not for my personal projects, not for my blogs, not for my books. My personal creative space is reserved for me, and me only. No AI, no digital.
You, I think, know this concept–post processing is to improve a good photograph, not to save a bad one. This is what we should think of when we create.
I think the problem is not AI. I think it’s us–humans. I agree with those who say that the most powerful driving force in humans is Curiosity. If you are curious, you use all those tools to make you a better creative, to make you a better human. You invest time and effort to push yourself one step further, one inch higher. And yes I cringe at those who call themselves AI artists. It’s like dood Irish weather. It’s either Good or Irish. But is it wrong to use AI in your art? I don’t know. Is it wrong to use Photoshop? I guess it depends…
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Yes, I would never say it’s, wrong, or fault those who use it. As you said, it doesn’t align with my vision. My dad wasn’t very handy but had a great head for business. His father wasn’t handy either but had a way with words. But many of those around my father and grandfather were handy, and yes, they were impressive. When the blast hits, those are the folks you want as your wingman/wingwoman. Curious people live seven years longer than those who follow.
I’ve tried using ChatGPT for re-writing emails to companies (I’ve had a lot of building issues) which worked great, but never for anything photo or video related. And those emails were my input, with clear instructions.
I noticed though that I started to rely on ChatGPT for rewriting emails more often which I found scary, as it quite quickly dumbed me down. Haven’t used it in months now. I noticed how it affects your self confidence.
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Yes, it creeps in. Sneaks up on you. Had a very interesting conversation with an AI researcher.