Did you know AI has been a “thing” since the 1950’s and 1960′? How about in the 1930’s with Alan Turing’s work? So, maybe the problem lies with generative AI? All except there was this thing called ELIZA in the 1960’s that was the basis for chatbots and natural language. I guess the real problem with AI might be the LLMs, but not until 2022 or 2023.

In the earliest days of AI, I was not impressed. As you may have read before, I tried a popular image maker and found it lacking. Then in 2023 I watched as AI was able to produce better results. I watched as my client base dried up and as my art friends shuttered their doors. Many of them turned away from digital art altogether and went back to traditional mediums. Those staying tried to protect their works with programs that promised to poison AI. I thought long and hard about the ethics of it all and still felt like the whole thing was lacking and polarizing but that it was not going anywhere.

Which brings us to 2025. I’ve been numb for most of this year. I haven’t been as enthusiastic about my art or my books because of the state of things. I’ve felt isolated and sad. It’s 2020 all over again.

I watched as people went on witch hunts against anyone who even looks at AI. Then I watched AI generated music explode onto the scene. And yet more witch hunts. And you know what? I’m tired of it all. I’m tired of being told anyone who looks at or enjoys AI is evil. I’m tired of people leading witch hunts against other creatives because they even dared to speak about using an AI tool. I’m tired of the whole damned thing. AI isn’t going anywhere and if anything, it’s just going to get bigger. So, your choices are to adapt or die.

I say this because of that recent Anthropic lawsuit. Sure, they had to pay out money, but it wasn’t because they used copyrighted works to train their models. No, the key words people should pick up on was that Judge Alsup ruled it was only bad because the company used PIRATED books. If they had bought all those books, scanned them in, and then used that to train their AI? That’s “fair use”. It may not be a precedent since it didn’t actually go to a trial, BUT, mark my words, this case is going to be a benchmark.

As AI has progressed into something more robust, I have come to study some of the prompting and outputs. There may be a “make art” button now, but it doesn’t mean it will be good. Much like my 3D renders, you have to learn a lot about technical issues to get the generator to give you what you want. Before, in the early days of AI, it really seemed like anyone could do it and get good results without much effort. However, upon re-examination of the process and actually playing with many AI generators, I have changed my tune a bit. It’s not a plug and play process. Can you get lucky? Sure.

In the early days of AI, I believed the ethics of it all was black and white. That these companies used ill-gotten works to train a model so it could spit out reproductions. Yet, as time has moved on and I’ve read more and more information about what AI does and operates, I see that what AI spits out isn’t really a reproduction anymore. And not all of them trained on the same things nor are they all made equally. The programs analyze patterns and as a neurodivergent, I get that. I personally like to “deconstruct” things I see and turn them into something new. In a way, this is what the programs do. So, when someone says the AI process is no different than when you look at inspirational items to make art, I think I understand that a bit better. There are only a finite number of combinations of musical chords or written words. So, feeding the system the information and then having it create something new, I can see where they can say this is fair use and the same as “learning. Is it true learning? I don’t think a non-sentient being can learn like a human. It can only mimic the pattern of learning. Is it true creation? Maybe. Creation is just the act of bringing something into existence. If what the AI “makes” is new and different then maybe it is creation?

I recently watched one of my newer favorite artists filming herself making a new track. I watched as she beeped and blooped on a lot of little synthetic noise keys on a machine to make her base beats and then eventually the music part she sang over. Which left me wondering, why is that any different than what people do with AI? If you sat at a keyboard full of pre-recorded boopy boops and just mixed them until you had the sound you wanted, how is that any different? You didn’t play any of those instruments. You didn’t record the bloops. You just pushed some keys until it sounded like you wanted it to?

I think the main hang up is that people feel threatened by the AI and are all mad that they are going to be replaced. Will AI replace some jobs? Sure. But if you look at history innovation always causes change. Computers were a “fad” that never went away. Now they are in everything. For instance, I grew up working on cars, and there are days where I truly miss the non-electronic systems. But you can hardly get a car like that anymore and if you can find it, there are no readily available parts. Even my fridge has a freaking tablet in its door so I can control things from an app while I’m away from home.

Can AI make some things better than humans? Possibly. But you have to remember the machine can only work as well as its programming lets it. Humans will always be needed to fix the machine. I really think we are past the arguments that AI is “bad”, and we are into the “adapt or die” phase. The people hoping AI would go away are living under a rock. AI is popping up EVERYWHERE on EVERYTHING. Even my day job has AI tools that the company requires us to use. Like it isn’t an option, you gotta use it. And those tools are varying in degrees of helpful and so stupid you look at it and go are you kidding me right now? Like I needed you to add anything stupid into my already complicated process.

At the end of the day, I find myself enjoying some of the AI art and AI music being made right now. The ones that have had a lot of input from their creator who is using it like a tool are often pretty good. It isn’t just a click-boom-it has 4 fingers and is crossed eyed, but I don’t care–type of production. You can hate me for that statement if you want. I still support the musicians I always have and buy books from authors who write good stories. I don’t buy much art and never have…it’s because I like to make my own. AI hasn’t changed that. I just think all these people arguing that AI needs to go away and anyone who uses it for anything is evil could do something more productive with their time these days because AI isn’t going away.