Are we dancing in the ruins of Human-Only-Art?

Cafe locked Out

Michael Gray Griffith

Oct 31, 2024

Transcript

True artists are rare, and they often choose not to be so voluntarily. We have entertainers and decorators, but many stifle their true voice in order to regain access to their audience. There is a methadone-like dependency on applause.

Personally, I believe our bravest artists today are the meme creators, even if many of them are using AI. One meme can communicate so much instantly; it can even have profound depth, like a visual poem.

Currently, AI is a creative tsunami, washing away many artists forever. Voice-over actors are all but gone, graphic artists who don’t learn to use AI will soon follow, if they haven’t already, and musicians are under attack from AI-generated songs. Today, I heard from a producer that many film producers are delaying the completion of films until they can replace post-production staff with AI. None of this will return.

Are actors next? Why not? From a producer’s point of view, millions of dollars are spent to produce a film that may fail to turn a profit, while a few thousand spent on AI could be a much safer bet.

Could theatre become the last bastion for actors? Surely, people won’t want to watch robots act, right? Yet in Europe, ABBA did a full AI show, filling huge venues and delighting audiences.

I don’t have all the answers, or even all the questions, but I know AI is here. I saw an ad today promoting the ability to write a novel a day for Amazon using AI. A novel a day? Grammatically perfect and in any style you wish.

Last night, one audience member penned a poem for the play My Brother, My Brother, My Brother on his way back from the theatre. He then used AI to add music, and it worked.

The future is here, and one question looms: where will we fit into it? I even got AI to proofread this.