Courtesy: Universal Pictures
This is not a rehashing of why AI cannot make art. But for those of you new to this corner of the world, consider this: AI has no human flaws, which when overcome, imbues art with a sense of soul. We humans love human-made art because it’s an expression of our flaws in form and feel. AI has a purpose, but art ain’t it.
What about other forms of AI-created content?
I ask because of the recently released A Very Long Carriage Ride. The new feature consists of two 100% AI-created pieces of content that are supposed to be a Disney-style animated film and a Claymation film. Hooroo Jackson, the lazy ass — I mean — “director” behind the feature says, “By fully embracing AI’s artistic potential, I’ve created a work that confronts traditional gatekeeping, democratizes storytelling, and embodies cinema’s new frontier.” Apparently, two euphemisms for stealing are the frontier of cinema.
Should we consume this.
Hell no.
First of all, it’s stealing. The developers behind content generators brilliantly call their service AI. But there is no artificial intelligence behind their coding. It’s just Google with better communication skills. Where does it get the content that you find on AI? It’s stolen. And not like hip-hop sampling or zine collage or even meme creation. Those are humans forms of expression that utilize other media. This yahoo named Hooroo pours other peoples’ creations into a machine which then spews out less interesting content.
Second, there’s no struggle. To use a classic example: Spielberg’s Jaws is a thrilling classic because the mechanical shark built for the film didn’t work. Spielberg’s struggle to work around that creates the atmosphere that makes the film special. This Carriage BS is some dude, probably in his parents’ basement, dumping copyrighted material into incredibly powerful computers that regurgitate something that partially mirrors human-created stories and films that we love. No struggle, no soul.
Third, the environmental cost is astronomical. Carnegie Mellon researchers found that generating a single image using a powerful AI takes the same amount of energy as charging your phone. And the most detailed images generate the same carbon as driving a gas-powered car 4.1 miles.
At the Lake Nona Impact Forum in February, the head of Microsoft Research, Dr. Peter Lee, said AI is capable of learning new languages humans can’t. For instance, it can talk to nature. Suddenly, we can speak with carbon molecules and find ways to pull them from our atmosphere.
That can change the world for the better. Half-assing rehashed classic films and literature will not. Let’s use AI for good. Not for creating cinematic deepfakes.
Cheers!
Brendan
