My Thoughts Regarding A.I.

It's no surprise that most artists you speak to will be no fan of A.I. In fact, every single artist in my peer group has already been ripped off by this quickly advancing, unregulated technology in some way or another. 

There are thousands of articles and blog posts about this topic speculating how long it will take for A.I. to destroy the livelihood of artists completely. This article by Brian Merchant dives into this topic.

“And it wasn’t long after that before it became clear that the jobs managers were likeliest to automate successfully weren’t the dull, dirty, and dangerous ones that futurists might have hoped: It was, largely, creative work that companies set their sights on. After all, enterprise clients soon realized that the output of most AI systems was too unreliable and too frequently incorrect to be counted on for jobs that demand accuracy. But creative work was another story.”

This article by UNESCO discusses it further by citing the latest edition of Re\Shaping Policies for Creativity, wherein it warns that generative AI is projected to drive significant income losses for artists as quickly as 2028.

So, why am I writing a blog post about this?

It’s because I want to talk about what small steps we can take as individuals to reduce the roll A.I. plays in dismantling the human experience.

I don’t know about you, but I prefer to invest in products, goods, and services that are not devoid of human character. I like purposeful imperfections, comical typos(even mine), real opinions, organic interactions, and a planet we will all still be able to live on in the future. Thinking about the possibility that everything will come down to an interaction with a machine saddens me deeply because it breaks the connection we have to others in so many fundamental ways.

Part of investing in a creative product by an artist is the experience that comes with it. You get to view the world from the mind of others. A.I. completely negates that by isolating you to the boundaries of your own imagination and to the boundaries of a machine's limited capabilities. Kind of lonely, yeah?

Speak Your Mind

Companies should know that folks are not willing to do business with anyone that chooses A.I. software to generate leads. If you can’t convince an ad company to value human illustrators, or a marketing company to value human creative writers, etc, you can speak with your money to let them know you don’t appreciate their laziness and aren't interested in their services.

If we can make this practice un-popular, it could do a lot to help reduce the roll of A.I. in everyday life.

I’ve started my personal journey of doing just that by replying to every stupid marketing email I receive when time allows. How often do business owners take the time to do that these days? Here is an example of a few recent interactions I've had.

OverJoy.ai

I received this email from a "brand success manager" from a company called Overjoy. After a quick google search and a review of their website, it was easy to conclude that the email was A.I generated. Of course, the clunky way their A.I. crawler plugged in my website information was a dead give away. Apparently, the bar is set quite low for their A.I. service.

Although, sadly there were a few on tiktok that thought otherwise. It's interesting to me how it's not obvious to everyone. This is perhaps why these companies can easily take advantage.

My reply was simple and to the point. I've long abandoned sugar-coated responses in preference for brutal honesty. Someone needs to be honest in a world of dishonest business practices, and I prefer that my integrity remain intact.

There were a number creatives and small business owners that agreed with me.

It's unsurprising that I never received a reply. I usually don't.

I might also mention that I've received this very same type of email with the same formatting from other companies as well. The only difference is that the crawler will sometimes pull different information. For example, one might focus on my earring designs, or perhaps my necklace pendants.

Instantly.ai

Here is another email I opted to reply to after they pestered me twice. 

After a short google search, this company called Instantly is also pushing A.I. tools. I looked up the email handle "talphryka.org" too, but that yielded no results. It's interesting that Instantly's website didn't show profiles for it's employees. I suppose they strive for a new level of impersonal.

Can I just mention that I absolutely loath when companies constantly refer to my "pipeline"? I mean... come on... It sounds like some bad version of corporate porn. I also love how he says "suppose I craft". Please... we all know he would have his bad A.I. machine do it.

Unsurprisingly, I did not sugar coat my reply nor did I receive a response.

I understand that some might find the time I spend on these to be trivial or unnecessarily tedious. Some might even think I'm being too harsh. But, if more small creators took the time to reply to these with honesty, perhaps companies would realize that A.I. is not worth using as a crutch to generate business.

SKS Tech Solution

You may ask... Have I ever received a reply to my blunt responses? The answer is yes. Let me introduce you to SKS Tech Solution

This particular email was a bit different from the rest. I noticed right away that, like the others, they were using A.I. to generate email leads. But, unlike the majority of the other emails I receive, it didn't appear they were trying to sell the A.I. software itself. They appear to be an actual company based in India that employs real creatives. Though, to what extent the rely on A.I. to produce creative work is unknown.

Upon skimming through their website and social media pages, I couldn't help but notice that the images they show on their website seem rather different from the office environment they share on their social media pages. I wonder why that is?

Their Website: 

Their Social Media:

Is it just me to do they have a brand cohesiveness problem? It even seems like the images used on their website and the graphics used on their social media might be A.I. generated. Perhaps I'm out of my element. I'm a digital arts and design major rather than a marketing major, and I only took a few marketing classes... So, who am I really?

Anyhow, here are the initial emails I received from someone on their team named David Paniagua.

I decided to respond to this one because first, they were persistent, and second, they claimed to have done some work, but provided no evidence of said work. I wanted to test their dedication to the sale. So, here was my reply.

Admittedly, I went a little hard with this one, and apparently, they thought so too. As a result, they called in the big guns and I ended up having a back and forth dialogue with a new person named Sam who's signature identified him as the "Business Development Manager". In addition, logos and addresses were present.

I imagine they felt happy that their lead worked to generate organic interaction with a possible client. All press is good press, right?

Here is a few snippets of his reply. I didn't include it all, as it was a surprisingly lengthy evaluation including prices for various services, as well as a personal introduction.

I'm still not a fan of the use of A.I. to generate leads, but I can give credit where credit is due. There was real effort put into this communication... even though A.I. was obviously used for grammar correction and sentence restructuring. It's seems they just can't help it.

Here is my follow-up.

Notice, I didn't say I wouldn't blog about it. At the end of the day, exploring the practices of businesses that email me uninvited is well within my right.

Here is Sam's reply.

Had it ended here, SKS Tech Solution would have retained some amount of my respect. However, it turns out that disaster struck by way of the very A.I. they used to begin with.

Three days later, this was sent to me.

Whoopsie. A.I. gone rogue? I responded as expected.

His reply was the funniest yet.

Do you reckon he was a bit flustered? He cussed and misgendered me. How do you say you've never researched a potential client without saying you never researched a potential client? I had a bit of mercy on him though... The comic relief was worth it.

So, I think the lesson here is that A.I. can never truly be a replacement for basic human interaction. It's a terrible tool to rely on and artists all over the globe see it as a joke, as well as something that does a poor imitation of our jobs.

Environmental Impact

Lets be real... The environmental impact of generative A.I. is obvious. You don't have to have a science degree to see what the consequences of this technology will be. There are thousands of reports and articles with personal testimony from people all over that world that are dealing with the expansion and creation of data centers in some of the most unblemished stretches of wilderness.

I thought to do a whole write up about this with cited sources, but what is the point? We all know it. We all know where we are headed. Even those that still deny the obvious effects of climate change know deep down that they would rather have a home planet with drinkable water, breathable air, and a climate that doesn't cook us alive.

It's hard not to loose hope, and it's hard not to give up on our fellow humans. At the end of the day, we cannot control the actions of others, but we can do our small part to reduce environmental impact.

I challenge anyone who takes the time to read this to do your part to reduce personal waste, and to refuse to do business with companies looking to maximize profit by doing as little as possible with the use of A.I. tools. We can demand better, and we can do so by refusing to hand over our money in exchange for lazy, half-assed A.I. services that threaten our lives.

That sounds dramatic, but it is truth.