Is There Anyone NOT Talking about AI?
And does AI help or hinder creativity?
Okay, I admit it:
I spend a lot of time thinking and reading about AI. Part of my job as an academic librarian involves helping students find credible sources of information for their research papers and projects. For those who ask for help, we can tell them AI is a tool similar to any other tool: a hammer, a drill, the internet, Google, etc. But all tools can be misused, used irresponsibly, or used with malicious intentions. Students (and all of us) need to understand how to use AI and its limitations (and it does have them) and know how to verify its results. To be useful, good information must be true and valid.
It’s the students who don’t ask for help that concern me.
People ask me all the time if I use AI. I don’t, at least not intentionally, although almost all internet searches now give you the AI results first. I’ll also admit to using those answers more often than I should, but I usually verify them.
There’s more we can discuss on this subject, but what about people in the creative arts who use AI? Again, a lot depends on what you use it for: information, ideas, or creativity. In my case, writing is my main creative focus. I don’t use AI for idea generation or ways to structure my writing. I don’t even use a grammar check. (My wife, a professional proofreader, is my grammar check!) I’ve even gotten into the “ancient” habit of writing my first drafts with pen and paper. I realize not many people do that (Okay, so I’m weird and old), but I’m content with the process. It works for me.
But what about music, art, film, and other aspects of the arts?
I recently watched an excellent discussion with Jacob Allee, a teacher of logic, rhetoric, and the great books. Allee is also the head of Study the Great Books, a resource for classical Christian education. In this video, Allee talks with artist Joe Willey about a variety of subjects including AI. Even if you’re not a Christian, I encourage you to listen to their discussion. (The AI portion begins at around the 24:00 mark.)
When asked about using AI in the creative world, Willey said something amazing:
“I am not eager to give up a characteristic that is imbued in me by the Creator… The struggle of creation is intentional… The context is so important because we should not not struggle through this creative process. It changes us. It makes us think differently. Honestly, it makes us think, in a sense, like the Creator.”
We learn something when we create, even - especially - when we make mistakes. Even if AI interferes with only a small part of that creativity, we’ve given that portion up to something that not only isn’t us but isn’t even human.
But before we write, paint, compose, direct, choreograph, or engage in any creative area, we should also think about how we encounter art. Do we come to it openly, ready to receive what it gives us? Or do we look at art, any type of art, with the intention of seeing only ourselves or perhaps as a justification of our own aesthetic or political views? Does art challenge or even disturb you? We should ask ourselves why… or why not.
Willey offers some great advice about how to visit an art museum: Go through as much of it as you can quickly, noting one or two works you want to come back to and focus on (during the same visit). Go back and look at those works, then make sure you’re sitting down. Look closely at the colors, light and dark, the composition, the background. How does the painting/sculpture/etc. make you feel? What does the artist want you to notice? What choices did he or she make? Take notes.
Don’t just look, contemplate.
What did you learn that translates to your own creative work? Someone might say, “Well, that’s the same thing as using AI. You’ve let someone else do the work for you.” No, not at all. With Willey’s method, you are doing the work. You’re dwelling and reflecting on a piece of art the museum considers worthy of presenting. As you contemplate and ask questions of what you’ve observed, you’re getting ideas, making decisions about a multitude of aspects of your own art. You may end up utilizing several, some, or none of what you’ve absorbed. But those aspects now have become a part of you.
One thing we often don’t realize is that the person who created that work of art you’ve been studying probably did the same thing you just did: Looking, studying, contemplating, absorbing, maybe even imitating. Eventually some aspect will become part of your artistic identity. One of my writing teachers once told me, “I read stories and novels twice. Once for enjoyment and a second time to figure out how they did it.”
Again, all of these things become a part of you. The imitation phase is expected, even necessary, and you will eventually find your own voice/vision/etc. Yet even if you’re not a creator of art, you’ll better appreciate the works of those who are. And we need that. We need to delight in good works of art. We need to be built up, celebrating those works that lift us above the fallenness of our broken lives. We need that now more than ever.
So if you are a creator of art of any kind, create. Make mistakes. Learn. Even fail! But make yours a human effort.
Thanks for reading.
I know an artist that uses AI to create comic-like works. His name is David Hauptshein. You can find his work on the internet, The pictures are funny and strange. He says that AI is simply a tool to create these works. I, too, often read the AI answers first when I look something up on Google.
Very well-considered and balanced. I look at AI as a tool, like Google. To me, it is a very intelligent, but inexperienced intern and I have to be detailed in my instructions.
I use AI for a few things in my work on Forge City Noir, the most obvious being the art. While I would rather support a human artist, I'm a one-man operation and that option just isn't in the budget for me right now.
Another way I use AI is to flag historical inaccuracies. The crime fiction I write is set in a fictional city in northern Ontario, Canada and I want to make sure that I get the details right. I have several books about the Depression in Canada and the U.S. but some details of daily life just aren't covered and my "AI histoical consultant" helps me correct anachronisms. It's prompt instructs it to always cite a source and if one isn't available (I.e. if it inferred something) then it has to state that clearly as well as cite the sources for the inferences.
As much as the anti-AI crowd would love it, AI, like the Internet, is not going away, so we might as well learn how to use it responsibly.