In my work as a designer and fine artist, AI is being regarded in various ways. As a useful helper, a horrible cheater, and a grabber of jobs. Should we deliver ourselves to it? Withstand it, endure the agony?
How to handle this? Indeed an old question
My own first results in using AI were mixed, a bit of all the above. It is a very useful help in Google searching, and it can write Grasshopper code for my Cad program. It also can code for Arduino, also a time saver. But a question (or better: prompt) to write a setup for an AI study group produced thirteen in a dozen results and ignored the scope and purpose of such a group. Something a human, experienced user would not miss. Or was it inexperienced prompting?
In my work for the Art Union (Kunstenbond) I notice AI being used frequently already, for better or for worse. Animations are made using AI, writers illustrate their books in a certainly not uninteresting way. That’s nice. Musicians are afraid to lose work and income because of the huge volume of songs on the playlists that are AI-generated and deprive them of their income. That’s not nice.
One thing is sure (for now) : AI does not have an intent. And it does not understand your intent either. You are the one who has to guide AI to where you want it to go. Not the other way around. Be aware of that. Always ask yourself: is this what I need, want, desire, or have to do.
Good prompting will definitely help you a lot and guide AI into interesting ways. Especially in the routine work like searching, coding. But can it compose a good song? Probably that still is your job. Expect a lot, but not everything, and stay awake.
This post will be expanded in the coming weeks. I will give some examples of AI use in a more professional design context, as that is what interests me. Think: developing packaging, coding Grasshopper. Probably also some useful links to books, sites, examples.
Personally, I don’t care so much about a flawless drawing made by AI. I’d rather go out into the field with a sketchpad myself. And I don’t feel that I have to surprise my family with a song that I made for them. They know I cannot sing or compose and nobody gives a damn.
If you are interested, feel free to email me. Direct reactions on this post, however, are blocked to avoid spamming.
January 25th
Some experiences with AI.
An weird example: a lawyer who produced a lot of material we had to read, that we found incomprehensible, but nevertheless had to react upon. Every reaction and request for explanation was followed up with more, longer letters. It ultimately ended up in court. The judge, obviously better informed and experienced than we were didn’t need much time to implode the bullshit. At the end of the court he asked the lawyer (who lost his case completely), asked whether he used AI because not a single part of what he had written was founded anywhere.
Fast forward: if you don’t master the subject AI can deliver wildly varying results. And you lack the understanding, intuition or experience to be aware of it. That is a very dangerous part of AI. It can be rubbish and you don’t notice it. It may also have been a strategy, flooding us with letters that caused a huge amount of work for us, time that could be used better. Luckily we could hang on and indeed went to court. Others may not be so fortunate and simple be destroyed by this barrage of bullshit.
Another one: I asked an approach for a workgroup about AI, how to start it. A list came out that appeared quite understandable and useful. But what AI missed completely, and what a human advisor could (would?) have sensed was the reason why we wanted to start such a group. A simple human question would have made clear that our question was not to the point. The answer looked good, but missed the point completely.
The rule to understand AI seems to be : garbage in , garbage out. But if you know what you’re talking (prompting) about, usefull answers can follow.
So the next step will be: test AI in an area where i have some knowledge: design, art. And see if ” prompting like a pro” indeed has much extra value.
For now the working hypothesis is: AI is not more, but also nothing less, than a tool, that you have to master to do something useful with it.
February 13th.
Much work on the house of the inventor, little time for AI. That’s why i prefer this “static site” above instagram or whatsapp. I can pick up the text where I left it. A pitfall is that text gets too long and that it lacks a theme, focus.
maybe we could say: information is followed by knowledge. And knowledge is followed by wisdom.
AI is organised information. But it lacks wisdom.