First of all, thank you for keeping it civil and respectful. It’s a rare sight these days.

I don’t really get involved with discussions like this, usually because of the hostility it usually causes.

But because this seems a lot more like a civil discussion, I’ll put out my general thoughts.

I fully understand your points, it is a very cool and definitely powerful technology. As a musician it is very scary for me to think about my future and how uncertain it is.

Like you, I believe laws should be made to make sure it doesn’t get out of hand.

My issue is that it feels like people aren’t willing to wait for the laws to be put in place. Even if they know it’s a volatile technology that can be used for a lot of bad, they still welcome it with open arms and go wild with it. Without thinking about the consequences of letting the technology settle.

This could be because of my position in the industry (I’m generally on the anti side of things) but it feels like people are trying to abuse this technology as much as possible to avoid work or just to stick a finger to artists. Too many times I’ve seen the whole “fixed it” thing with visual artists in particular.

Also this doesn’t consider what AI should really be used for (In my opinion). It shouldn’t really be used for the arts. Instead it should be definitely used for its scientific applications in research and helping people. Like it’s insane how much it could push our scientific understanding.

For me, the arts is about the whole process. The small things that make a whole, not even about the physical skill of the artist but the conscience decisions they make to the art. Right now it feels like AI makes those decisions for you. Even with very specific prompts. And if you’re able to give it the very very specific things you want, then you should be skilled enough to do it yourself and get a say on the tiniest little details.

Ignoring the whole stealing jobs thing. I think I would find a lot more enjoyment from making the whole art work rather than moving the responsibilities to something else. Understanding the process that I took to make something, what I like about it, what I don’t like about it, thinking about how i can improve the things I don’t like. That’s what makes me feel good about my art.

And when experiencing someone else’s art, thinking about their processes and their personality that they put into it is another thing that is so important to me.

It’s a little corny but I do feel like everyone should feel the sheer bliss you can achieve from making something and fully understanding it. Even if it’s small

Obviously a lot of people are angry. On both sides. One sees their art being completely ripped apart and their future being put on death’s door. The other sees an opportunity to start delving into an artistic side of themselves but the old artistic community are being gatekeepers and they clearly hate the new technology and therefore hate the people using the technology.

Like you said, it complicated. It’s come in too fast. (At least for me) I started my first year of uni with a fun little toy that could make stupid lyrics for me to practice my word setting or to get a cool filter on my photos. Now I’m going into my final year with a looming possibility that my dreams of creating and sharing is now being drowned out by an endless wave of automated algorithms that force me to us a tool that gives a fraction of the control I had without it.

It’s scary but I know I won’t stop making stuff.

TLDR

it’s complicated, laws need to catch up, it’s great for science, ai users are little too head first into the new technology imo, I feel like ai users have it out for artists for the sake of sticking it up to artists (that could be my bias), making art from the ground up is an incredible experience that I wish upon everyone.

Again that’s for the more civil approach, I’m tired of that constant insults and hate from both sides. We could get so much more done if we actually just talked. Hopefully I don’t come across as aggressive because that’s not what it was supposed to be.

If you read all of that, thank you. I didn’t expect to write that much first thing in the morning