TL;DR version: To be blunt- Fuck AI.
I’m old, and was raised with computers before they were a common thing to have in your house, but my dad was into them. He said that he recognised that they were where the future was headed, so he got in early. He taught me DOS commands because he had me using the computer before Windows 3.1 (the first version that had a graphic desktop to use to operate the computer- Apple had been using it for a while, but we were always IBM compatible), and I remember being disappointed in my first ever “computing class” in high school. It wasn’t even teaching us to touch type properly, and I don’t even think the computers really had any ACTUAL programs, but I *think* it was a “let the kids start hitting keys so they aren’t scared of computers” type of mindset for them. In my grade 10 class we were finally learning the absolute basics of how to use a word processing program… and MAYBE the absolute basics of how to use Excel. I remember the switch from 5 1/4 inch floppy discs to 3 1/2 inch floppy discs, and when we got a CD Rom, and when we got our first ever 28.8k modem. I was definitely the first kid in my grade to use the internet, back in the day when you’d load up Netscape, type in your search, go make a cup of tea and maybe it would have loaded by the time you finished and came back. All this is to say that I didn’t grow up with computers being a “magical box that can do ANYTHING” as a mindset. I grew up when you could see each improvement, each iteration, and being very aware of the limitations of it.
So when it was announced that we had “artificial intelligence” I was pretty skeptical. I mean… there are lots of people kicking around who don’t seem to much in the way of basic intelligence, and given that at one stage one of the principal architects of it were saying that AI could “solve physics” (clearly showing that he was not someone who had a basic understanding of physics), I was doubtful. It sounded like a bunch of bullshit, and given that something as simple as autocorrect thinks that I want to use the word duck as much as it thinks I do… It really didn’t sound serious.
Then we found out about how they did it. They fed the combined works of generations of artists and writers into a machine. Not parsed or weighted. Giving as much weight to Mein Kampf and Hitler’s shitty, shitty artworks as that of the writings of Kurt Vonnegut, and the art of Miro (two of my favourites). I’ve studied at university. One of the very first things you learn in any further education is to weigh your sources. Is the information from a flat-earther meme as qualitative as a statistical breakdown? Of course it isn’t. And information changes- we know more about the universe than the people who thought that the Sun revolved around the Earth. Is a machine supposed to recognise that and know that the information from a source of 10 years ago is more likely to be accurate than that of 100 years ago? Is it supposed to understand irony? Or hyperbole? That suggested to me the old adage of computing… garbage in, garbage out, and there has been altogether a LOT of garbage written throughout history… and would you be comfortable eating a cake knowing that there was a teaspoon of shit mixed in?
There’s the labour aspects as well. People touting AI and CEOs who make more money in a week than I am likely to make in a lifetime saying that they could replace people with AI. Just changing out the human experience for a computer responding to a prompt. Saying that the human desire to get others to think about things a different way, to feel an emotional connection, to live for a moment in someone else’s shoes could be replicated by something that can’t even experience, or describe what your favourite pizza tastes like, let alone to experience or describe the thousands of things we experience in the 10 minutes it might take just to eat that pizza. How could a machine ever possibly express that? Why would I even *want* a machine to do that? I’d much rather hear someone talk about how their favourite pizza tastes like the associations they have with it from when they would grow up and get it for their birthday meal, or remind them of a great date, or a hilariously terrible date! It’s more than just the taste of the ingredients, it’s the way those ingredients make you feel, and I would never want to take away someone’s livelihood and expression just to have a machine pretend that it had a childhood.
Later still, we found out the environmental aspects of using AI. How much energy it used, how much water was needed to cool it from it using so much energy. How it’s just adding fuel to a planet already on fire. How anyone can possibly feel comfortable with using it knowing this, knowing what the state of the world is in already boggles my mind.
So no. I don’t like AI.
I won’t willingly use AI EVER. I will never use it for anything that I can do- such as writing a description, writing an email, drawing a picture (yes, even if I can only draw it VERY, VERY BADLY). There are many things that I can’t do, and I won’t use it for that either. I would rather do things badly myself, or find someone to do it for me than use AI.
There have been times that I’ve accidentally bought fabrics that I later *have* figured out to have been generated with AI. I will not be getting them again. I don’t want anything to do with AI. I have already contacted a number of the fabric suppliers that I use to specifically request that they not stock AI generated fabric designs, or at least to note that they have AI generated artwork on those items, but many of them do not feel the same way I do about AI, and certainly don’t seem bothered to have their name and brand associated with AI.
I don’t. Zedstar Rocks is a brand that represents me. It represents MY ethos. My ethos is to stand with others in solidarity. To stand up for the environment. To not compromise on ethics. And to be proud of what we do and who we are. I will *NEVER* choose AI. Because FUCK THAT SHIT.