02/17/2024
Machine learning and generative image creation is a threat to an implied balance and security we all crave in the post capitalist world. It threatens to remove WORK from people. It's designed to. That and manipulate us. Read the terms of service.
I want people to be happy in their vocation OR avocation, jobs are just one path. The lie we have swallowed as artists is that we can both take great risks and have job security and a contented life (whatever that is).
It is pretty to think so, but sometimes this is a CHOICE. Jobs, or income, are not guaranteed, no matter what social or government force is used. And while artists have always relied on patronage, that deal is dependent on pleasing a patron...a bit like a straight job is dependent on pleasing the boss.
I find that a lot of objections to the existence (and use of) these tools are surface level and based on ideas like being replaced, or creating bad things, or a variety of "humans are the only ones that can do this or that".
Its certainly true that the method of its arrival is deeply problematic and jarring. I do ponder what would the reaction would have been had the tools arisen without the scraping.
These are not a manifesto, just some thoughts as I sip coffee in the frigid North.
