> But the feeling this gives me, is what happens for the future of art. Sure, this example is no where even close to replacing real artists, but it’s already generating images better than I can draw after a year of practice. It does give me a feeling of “what is the point”. Which might be an irrational feeling, but I’m sure others feel the same.
There's a similar situation ongoing with fiction writing, by way of NovelAI. (And some competitors, but NovelAI is head and shoulders ahead of the pack. Thankfully; they seem to be the nicest of the lot.)
I'm a fairly prolific (fan-)fiction writer, and also AI enthusiast, so of course I jumped on that bandwagon as soon as I could. What I've found is...
- AI cannot write stories on its own. It just can't, full stop. Some people try, including me, but the results are nonsensical without significant tweaking. I expect that to change eventually, but not without a conceptual breakthrough or two.
- AI is immensely useful as a prosthetic imagination.
What I use it for isn't to write the story for me. It's to, in case I ever get stuck at some point, offer me suggestions for how the story can continue -- suggestions that I can accept or deny. Even if I deny it, it's useful as a way of illuminating my own ideas for the story. There's got to be a reason I don't like that continuation, and that is often enough to think of something I do like.
In other words, it's mostly eliminated writer's block.
It's also handy for expanding my vocabulary. English is my third language, and while I like to think I'm good enough for daily life -- I've lived in Ireland for over a decade, after all -- there's a big difference between 'good enough for daily life' and 'good enough to write good fiction'. Prior to using NovelAI, my writing was... dry. Conceptually heavy SF doesn't necessarily require high-end wordcrafting, but it helps.
The AI, especially when told to emulate Sheridan Le Fanu or any of the other great authors, is better than me at this. And since I can ask it to jump in at any point, it's become the most attentive, capable cowriter I've ever had. Perhaps noticing this, NovelAI now calls their default AI tuning 'Co-Writer'.
It's still likely to write something I can't immediately use, but that just means I need to absorb its ideas and make them my own. Repeat a hundred times per day, and I end up learning much, much faster than I ever did when I was writing on my own.
To summarize, I don't use AI to write my stories for me. I use it to get better at writing.
I think it should be possible to do the same for other forms of art.
There's a similar situation ongoing with fiction writing, by way of NovelAI. (And some competitors, but NovelAI is head and shoulders ahead of the pack. Thankfully; they seem to be the nicest of the lot.)
I'm a fairly prolific (fan-)fiction writer, and also AI enthusiast, so of course I jumped on that bandwagon as soon as I could. What I've found is...
- AI cannot write stories on its own. It just can't, full stop. Some people try, including me, but the results are nonsensical without significant tweaking. I expect that to change eventually, but not without a conceptual breakthrough or two.
- AI is immensely useful as a prosthetic imagination.
What I use it for isn't to write the story for me. It's to, in case I ever get stuck at some point, offer me suggestions for how the story can continue -- suggestions that I can accept or deny. Even if I deny it, it's useful as a way of illuminating my own ideas for the story. There's got to be a reason I don't like that continuation, and that is often enough to think of something I do like.
In other words, it's mostly eliminated writer's block.
It's also handy for expanding my vocabulary. English is my third language, and while I like to think I'm good enough for daily life -- I've lived in Ireland for over a decade, after all -- there's a big difference between 'good enough for daily life' and 'good enough to write good fiction'. Prior to using NovelAI, my writing was... dry. Conceptually heavy SF doesn't necessarily require high-end wordcrafting, but it helps.
The AI, especially when told to emulate Sheridan Le Fanu or any of the other great authors, is better than me at this. And since I can ask it to jump in at any point, it's become the most attentive, capable cowriter I've ever had. Perhaps noticing this, NovelAI now calls their default AI tuning 'Co-Writer'.
It's still likely to write something I can't immediately use, but that just means I need to absorb its ideas and make them my own. Repeat a hundred times per day, and I end up learning much, much faster than I ever did when I was writing on my own.
To summarize, I don't use AI to write my stories for me. I use it to get better at writing.
I think it should be possible to do the same for other forms of art.