https://youtu.be/NYGdO5E_5oY

https://youtu.be/g9Z0pqsCUhY

https://youtu.be/yCBEumeXY4A

https://youtu.be/PdfFRlabohg

https://youtu.be/XjTENlTTWk8

Here are my thoughts...

In the course of my thirty-eight years of life, never have I ever been so unnerved by something and yet simultaneously entranced by it. I need this in my life to an extent that I cannot adequately convey but I'm also aware that this technology will, at some indeterminate point in the future, possibly eat my job or at least parts of it. There may be some people who prefer a human artist's work on principle or for aesthetic reasons but there will be many more, maybe even a majority, who will prefer the infinitely faster, cheaper AI options.

I believe there will be a grace period where Dalle, Imagen, and other such technologies serve more as tools and aids than direct competition. Being an aphantasiac, the idea of iterating dozens of options instantly, it's literally a dream come true. I have no mind's eye and I can't visualize my ideas which can sometimes make my creative process nightmarishly difficult. The idea of being able to just type something like "white cheetah gryphon standing on a crystal rock under a starry twilight sky" or "machine viscera" or "rainbow volumetric smoke swirling around a faintly glowing fluorite crystal" and immediately get dozens of iterations... I could probably sit here for an hour trying to adequately articulate how desperately I need that in my life and still fall short. Though, it's worth pointing out that these AI don't always hit the mark, lol. https://twitter.com/Chitwan_Saharia.....81129820512256

It tried. Bless its heart.

But eventually, that grace period may wane and we might see a point where digital artists become obsolete. The answer to this is probably, to put it bluntly, adapt or die. Perhaps our jobs will shift more towards cleaning up or curating AI imagery. I've actually already done some of that and I don't hate it. I find it kind of oddly cathartic. Or perhaps we'll dip out of digital art into real media. Many artists may just opt to find a new career path entirely. Whatever the case may be, this technology will rewrite the world, it will absolutely force people to adapt or die, and it will challenge us in ways we can't even predict.

In a personal bit of irony, I assumed "the robots" would come for my job last, not first. As founder and CEO of OpenAI, Sam Altman, said in his Dall-e 2 launch blogpost:

"It’s a reminder that predictions about AI are very difficult to make. A decade ago, the conventional wisdom was that AI would first impact physical labor, and then cognitive labor, and then maybe someday it could do creative work. It now looks like it’s going to go in the opposite order."

I'm prepared for the eventuality that I may have to find some other source of income. It does scare me a little but mostly, I'm excited. I'll still make art regardless, even if the AI "terk muh jerb." I do art because I love it and I wouldn't rather be doing anything else. It's my reason for living. It's the first thing I think about when I wake up and the last thing I think about when I go to bed. No AI can ever change that. I think AI will, if anything, enhance it. Rather, I hope so.

That is assuming these AI are ever released to the general public. As it stands, they are being withheld for safety concerns. Frankly, as desperately as I want it, I understand the hesitancy. Let's play some AI misuse mad libs!

• [Politician name] doing [terrible act] to [child, elderly person, dead body, animal, etc], images taken on a cellphone.

• Two male [racial minorities] doing [type of violence] to [police officer, priest, comatose victim, etc], security camera footage. There is blood splattered across the floor and walls. The two men are smiling and one is holding a [weapon description].

• [Celebrity name] doing [extremely perverted act] with [celebrity name, politician, teenager, etc].

• [Celebrity name] having sex with [celebrity name] on a hotel bed as seen from outside a window through dingy blinds, taken with a cell phone.

• [Input an image] Remove [person description] and replace with [person description].

• Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I submit for evidence... [AI-generated images that are indiscernible from actual photos being shown to a room full of people who are completely uneducated on the topic].

These are just a few things I could think of off the top of my head. There are people a lot smarter and a lot more sinister than I could ever be who would come up with gods only know what. The reality is that a significant portion of the public would believe such images without question and if even a small fraction of them acted on it, we've got serious problems- I mean the kind of problems where innocent people get hurt, killed, or have their lives ruined. This isn't a very big leap. People have committed heinous acts based on way less.

I want this technology desperately. I want it more than I think I've ever wanted anything. But I don't blame Google or OpenAI in the slightest for being hesitant to hand the genpop such a powerful tool. That said, it's only a matter of time before this technology finds its way into public hands and if we're not prepared for it, we're gonna see some ugly shit.

Anyway, those are my long-winded thoughts. How about you? What do you think?