One of the first few things I think of (and I think many people think of) when it comes to AI, is AI generated art. As an artist, I am incredibly against generative AI art. The system has no limitations on what it scans to produce its outputs. Countless artists have not given their consent for their work to be included in the training and active use of these systems. Artists works are being copied almost exactly by systems like Claude when they give you an output. There is no credit to the artists thats being copied. If the creator for an AI system wants it to be able to create visuals for a users promts, they should create thier own style, or only scan from free use and copyright free websites.
Using the systems to write for you also debilotates your creative thinking, and even more so, your critical thinking. As is true for many of thses categories, I am not opposed to using AI as a starting point. Use it to help you form an outline for your essay if you're truly stuck, or if you're often overwhelmed with task paralysis. But do not let it do all the thinking for you, because it will make mistakes and someone else will inevitibly catch those mistakes.
I would like to preface this section by saying I do not agree with many of these arguments. I see the arguments, and I can appreciate on some level why they might be helpful to some people, but I still think most of these are cop-outs.
Many people use the argument that using generative-AI art is more accessible for people who might have mobility issues. This one I can sympathize with the most, because if you are 100% paralyzed and have a creative mind, how are you supposed to create things? However, for people who have any oucnce of mobility, I beleive if there is a will, there is a way. If elephants, chimpanzees, dogs, or even penguins can make art then so can you! Let go of the weight of creating something 'good' because good is subjective. There is only one you in the world and no one else can create what you can create.
Some people use gen-AI to take some mental pressure off their work day. Using it to respond to emails rather than taking the time to respond themselves, which frees up time to do more important tasks. On the one hand, findind ways to improve your day and keep more of your mental sanity intact is important. However, when people are contacting you to communicate with you, they want to communicate with YOU, not a robot.
Using AI to lessen your mental load I can almost appreciate, but when you constantly use something or someone else to think for you, you are cheating yourself out of so much. Each time you do it, you're lessening your idividuality. You're becoming one with a system that will give the same automated response to many different things. Keep your voice and your critital thinking alive by challenging yourself.
I think creativity is one of the greatest superpowers we humans have. Be brave and create something 'bad'. If you use the system to create an output and just take it blindly, you will be slowly killing your creativity. If you use it as a bouncing board for your ideas, you may be able to enhance your creativity. But I believe you should just find a person to challenge you, because they'll do it better than AI will.
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