ARTIST vs AI
As AI becomes more advanced, artists who spent years developing their skills are concerned about what AI means for their future in the creative industry. To understand their concerns better, we need to get a better understanding of how AI works. ChatGPT itself describes AI, which stands for Artificial Intelligence, as a “simulation of human intelligence in machines that are programmed to think, learn, and problem solve like humans” which “gets its knowledge through data and algorithms”. Although AI has its limitations, notably created by humans to avoid explicit content, you can pretty much ask anything of AI. Such as a question about a historical fact, would like to know Margot Robbie's birthday, or need a new logo for your business for instance.
Since AI draws inspiration from human creations, the generated art, although original, could be very similar to an artist’s work. Artists lose paid work opportunities to AI, which could not generate art without access to data containing the art created by human artists in the first place. How can an artist fight against a business using AI to get similar results that their art would give, instead of paying them to create an original piece using their skills and experiences built up over many years of training and practice?
The 2023 writer and actors’ strike, both across the United States and the United Kingdom, is a perfect example of this issue. Writers went on strike earlier this year to demand minimum pay, increased streaming residuals, and guardrails against the use of artificial intelligence. Writers haven’t been compensated for the use of their work to train artificial intelligence nor have they had a say in whether their work would be used as training data. The strike lasted for 148 days (about 5 months) until writers obtained a settlement with a major Hollywood film studio. Essentially, the new guidelines allow writers to use AI as a tool while protecting them from big productions to use it to replace them. Studios cannot use AI to write or edit scripts that have already been written by a scriptwriter. Furthermore, a writer’s work cannot be used to train AI without their consent. It’s a big win for the writers working in the film industry.
As laws about artificial intelligence still tend to be blurry, unions are needed more than ever to protect artists across the different creative industries. AI affects painters, musicians, writers, photographers, video editors, and much more as it is ever seemingly growing throughout vast professions. Hoping that people would choose the human touch over the cheaper product is not a viable solution and is no longer a realistic ordeal. Artists from all industries need to use their voices to raise awareness and get their union’s support to obtain clearer laws about artificial intelligence that will protect their rights over their work and incomes.
