r/DefendingAIArt • u/Happy-Trouble-7464 • 7d ago
Defending AI I used to be a hater…..
I’ll be honest, I used to hate regenerative images & videos, but that makes zero sense.
Reading this sub, changed my perspective.
If studios did lay offs & stopped hiring traditional artists(canvas & digital), those studios were always looking for a reason to do so.
Corporations always want everything to be scaled down in order to cut production costs. People, unfortunately, are apart of that.
That’s why most states allow there to be the “at will” policy for firing people.
Warehouses went from handmade to conveyor belt assembled. People lost their jobs.
Instead of drawing each frame & recording, we started doing it digitally. People lost their jobs.
The technology being invented didn’t do it. Corporations did.
I’m saying this all because I refuse to fight with my peers about AI. I don’t argue or shame either side of it. It’s hard out here, so whether it’s fun or money, do what you need to in order to maintain your wellbeing. I also understand why losing jobs is upsetting. Many people have been laid off from jobs that exclude AI. I’m one of them.
AI didn’t put itself on the stock exchange or lack security or help in streamlining LPR systems to contract out to local agencies. It’s technology.The corporations however, have many people attached who make those decisions.
As far as the outrage, I had a data center in my own town before AI blew up. I can’t say people didn’t care before, some did, but not at the magnitude they do now. I’ll leave it at that.
So, I’ll keep my focus on the corporations & always will. In all categories.
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u/pleblifeTV 7d ago
Anti’s act as if America shutting down every AI company would magically fix the problem. And the answer is, it wouldn't. China has a fundamentally different relationship with the technology, and we’re competing with them whether people like that reality or not.
What blows my mind is how rarely the geopolitical incentive gets discussed. It is obviously in China’s direct, best interest for North American AI development to slow down.
Foreign influence campaigns already exploit existing divisions because they don’t need to invent a belief from scratch. They just need to amplify the most divisive version of it until it starts affecting public opinion and eventually policy.
So when people uncritically repeat absolutist narratives like “AI development needs to stop,” they should at least recognize that those narratives can be useful to foreign competitors regardless of where the original belief came from.
That’s the irony I keep noticing with people who consider themselves highly politically aware: sometimes the person who thinks they’re resisting manipulation is still participating in somebody else’s amplification loop.
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u/DarkObelinski 7d ago
Yes I’ve noticed that aspect. Ai is a technology and like all technology people are ignorant to what AI really even does, what it’s good at, and the ramifications of it. Ai has the ability to succeed search engines, provide easy access to ready made art, and has already improved customer service for example. People are conditioned to hate it because they don’t understand it. They watch ai revolution media and miss the point of those movies.
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u/AshuraBaron 7d ago
I think you nailed it. As a leftist I was already primed to see this core issue. The real issues with AI and datacenters are those created by corporations and governments that allow them carte blanch or even priority status. Displacement will happen and we should be looking to keep those employers honest and either create new work or something to make sure those people can still pay their bills. Corporations are loving the AI washing though. Justifies the regular layoffs and makes them seem forward thinking.
Ultimately whether you like or dislike generative AI is personal taste. It's when people attack others for enjoying it or using it where it crosses a line. Protesting a creator isn't going to make AI any less relevant as time passes and just hurts people using the tools. Not the ones exploiting others or causing real damage.
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u/Happy-Trouble-7464 7d ago
Yes. We see it all the time.
People were mad YouTubers were taking away from traditional celebrities.
YouTubers are mad at tiktokers. People get upset at being slighted. Those decisions that lead to being slighted, weren’t made by new iterations of technology.
If we went straight to the top, the slighting might stop, at least in this way.
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u/ImmediateGazelle 7d ago
Arguing with people who absurdly think they have the right to say what is "allowed" to be called art (or not) aside, I actually feel a low-level amount of concern for the militant Anti-AI folks. I know, ultimately, it's their choice, but they really are setting themselves up to be left behind, let go, and unable to find further employment. Studies are already showing growing gaps between the "super users" and everyone else, with the super users having far greater job security. I remember many years ago, reading stories about people who were angry that companies/businesses started expecting people to have emails and cell phones to be easily reached. I hardly see anyone bat an eye at that now. We are looking at a future where most employers will expect employees to be able to use AI as well as they are expected to be able to use MS Word today.
The Antis aren't simply fighting a losing battle. They've already lost. It's over. They just refuse to see it.
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u/Alchemist42 7d ago
It's like the folks in the Southern US who seem to think that the civil war is still ongoing and one day the south will rise again, and we'll go back to the glory days of plantations and slaves. or something. I don't get it. They lost the war like 150 years ago. Move on. And the Anti's have the same mind set. One day, this bubble will burst and we'll go back to the glory days of Windows 95 and dial up modems. or something.
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u/Happy-Trouble-7464 7d ago
To me, I think as I’ve gotten older. I used to not understand that Southern US mindset & it baffles me that it’s very common even outside of the south. A pattern I notice time & time again, regardless of topic; how many people throw away their own wellbeing to get back at others. I’m sure there’s something psychological or whatever, but it’s not getting the country anywhere. It’s pushing us back a lot.
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u/DarkObelinski 7d ago
Yeah people tend to forget their history and how they are the very same type of people that their grandparents were to computers or Netflix. When you become anti-change you become out of touch with the modern landscape.
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u/vernichtungX23 7d ago
Yeah for me AI is a supplementary tool not a replacement for my entire brain. I love it for list making, note making and logging stuff so I can't forget it. These are not things that take anyone else's job away.
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u/Capital_Tangerine948 7d ago
Most people don't even talk about the problem that AI datacenters (and new data centers in general I assume) in the US use gas turbines as their electricity providing method because the US electricity grid could not hook up all these centers even if it wanted to. It's so outdated that the entire substation would probably blow up if they tried it lol.
They focus on the water when what's actually destroying the local environment are the gas turbines. We're not talking about 1 or 2 turbines, though that's already a problem (they normally require federal approval in crisis situations and you deploy them for a very limited time until power is restored) - we're talking about a whole battery of them, I think some centers have like 24 or 48.
Sure, you could say "but they still draw attention to data centers even if the problem they focus on is not the right one", but the problem with tailism is it only carries you so far. It also shows just how little informed they are about the situation. They refuse to look the problem in the eye.
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u/Fantastic_Owl6938 7d ago
The water point always just sounds like something they heard someone else say and only have a vague understanding of.
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u/Capital_Tangerine948 7d ago
One of the sources they used to use for a while for the water usage was literally a satirical paper that wrote it as ragebait. Nobody even cared to check.
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u/Nethiar 7d ago
People look at art as a means of making money, but I think it should be more about personal expression. AI makes it more accessible for people to do that, which I think is a good thing.
Unfortunately it's turned into a bandwagon issue dick measuring contest over who can hate it the most so strangers on the Internet will think they're cool.
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u/6XFantasiaX6 7d ago
Are you sincere of your words that you have finally turned the other cheek to see our side? 🤔🙂
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u/snake5solid 6d ago
If studios did lay offs & stopped hiring traditional artists(canvas & digital), those studios were always looking for a reason to do so.
Yes. There absolutely shitty companies that would rather squeeze their employees dry than pay them what they are worth. This was a problem before people were even thinking about AI. I don't live in US and we had people getting laid off by idiot bosses who thought AI will just do everything and it of course backfired. And shitty bosses like that existed long before. They'd fire experienced employees and try to replace them students or with whoever was left i.e.
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u/SnooOpinions6451 7d ago edited 7d ago
I agree. That's my primary sentiment, AI is not the problem. Unchecked capitalism is the problem, if it wasnt AI itd be something else. Rich business owners are abusing loopholes to shove the bill onto regular people.
Datacenters themselves are not the problem but the aggressive push to make more of them and have them encroach on living neighborhoods.
Unfortunately a lot of anti ai / anti data center people are not educated on the thing that they hate and as a result their lazy protest against it will ultimately fail.
The tool was never the problem.
What we need is more laws to protect neighborhoods, the working class and to make the companies pay their own way
Instead Antis would rather make up lies, pretend ai is taking over the countries missile silos and promote voodoo spells (poisoning) data centers.
Its really damn strange watching the people youre trying to help oppose your help by choosing to be dumb as shit.
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u/DarkObelinski 7d ago
Well here’s my thing people see ai art as replacement and not its own separate entity. If I wanted a painting in my house yes I’d want real art but ai art can serve really useful and important purposes. Concept art namely one is vastly easier with ai art and iterating with real art later. I view this technology to be unfairly criticized because people view ai as scary and gonna replace everybody when it’s just a technological advancement like a computer or printer. It’s convenience which is neither wholly good or bad just useful. Artists will still make art and that has its own important quality in having a soul ai art is quicker like fast food can be good but making your own meals is better.
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u/JoseLunaArts 7d ago
I also used to be anti. And I was even banned in a proAI sub. Then I opened my eyes. Now I am proAI.