Have you ever been scrolling listlessly through your Instagram feed and suddenly encountered Donald Trump, Joe Biden, and Obama playing minecraft with each other? Or a horribly realistic video of Mr. Beast’s face on a toddler’s body? That’s Artificial Intelligence, more commonly abbreviated to AI.
I cannot remember AI in 2022. All of sudden, in 2023, AI became something everyone had access to, a lesson I learnt harshly when my friends started changing each other’s genders and spamming pictures in our group chats. Business has been booming for the AI industry, with its influence slowly gripping onto a plethora of media types. However, this influence, unfortunately, hasn’t been all good and has led to some…concerning consequences, to say the least.
Entertainment:
Jumping into an industry we’re all familiar with, the entertainment industry may be the most affected by AI. Studios have started using AI to write scripts. Now you may be thinking, “Oh wow, technology is so amazing!”, but the reality is a bit more cruel. The scriptwriters are being threatened by this emerging development. And, thus began the Writers Guild Association (WGA) strike. If there was a movie that you were eagerly anticipating and was delayed…yeah this is probably the reason (I swear if Deadpool 3 is delayed again-).
The strike essentially demands a controlled use of AI in the industry to safeguard writer interests which have been grossly disregarded recently. Look at it from the writers’ perspective: all of a sudden, a brand new technology threatens to not only replace you but also ruin your livelihood. The writers were willing to allow AI aidings, on the condition that writer credits and residuals–payments when their works are reused–are secured. A reasonable demand to anyone with common sense. Welp, not for certain giant evil mega corporations like Disney, who’s CEO literally roasted the association’s demands, leading to a 330 thousand dollar PR crisis (good going man). Going forward, Disney plans to use AI to write scripts in 2024.
Recently, after thousands of writers refused to work for 5 months, the 148-day strike, one of the longest Hollywood stoppages in history, came to a close, with the guild scoring a major win! Good for them.
Art:
Now, if you’re a Reddit crawling rat like me, you must’ve been surprised by the absolute floods of fanart the subreddit started gaining. Initially, I assumed people were getting more creative. People just started prompting these AIs online to create fanart. I think it’s pretty easy to identify whether art is AI generated or not, the AI images just have this weird sleekness to them that normal art doesn’t.
Honestly, AI art is pretty cool. Writers on Wattpad started generating AI art to use in their fanfiction, which not only provided a visual representation of their words, but also made the reading experience much more immersive and fun. Additionally, my friends and I started experimenting online with prompts to embarrass each other in ways indescribable. Not to mention, making AI art is ridiculously easy, so easy, in fact, that I’m gonna try and make a graphic for this article using AI art (Note from my future self: I failed miserably).
As I’m sure you can surmise, AI art also has its drawbacks: the jobs of artists and animators, pitifully compensating as they are, have been put at risk. Animators have always been undervalued by Hollywood, and this may undervalue them even more. A certain company even used AI art to generate opening credits for their recent TV show. I wonder who it could possibly be (Yeah, it’s Disney). Many passionate artists absolutely loathe AI generated art, thinking it to be a soulless knock-off compared to the people who genuinely care about their work.
AI Voices and Deepfakes:
Now, I’m sure all of us have encountered these deepfakes one way or the other. Whether it’s US presidents playing minecraft together or hilarious commentaries between Messi and Ronaldo. Deepfakes took the internet by storm. People used AI to mimic the voices of renowned individuals and make them say stuff that would have the FBI agent keeping tabs on me raid my house.
As the continuously repeating trend shows, AI deepfakes come with their own set of problems. However, unlike the previous two, these problems can actually harm us as well. AI deepfakes are set up to be the next Nigerian prince scam. Imagine this, you see a Tiktok of Mr. Beast giving away iPhones for a dollar, you think to yourself, “Oh wow, today’s my lucky day”, and send the account a dollar, later finding out this was a deepfake scam. Well, some people don’t have to imagine because this took place a few weeks ago. Scammers only need a few voice recordings to emulate a voice, so in the future, you might not even be able to tell if that’s really your parents calling you or a scammer. Absolutely terrifying.
It’s amazing how rapidly humanity evolves: creating a highly complex tool that’s continuously improving and adapting to the world around us. A tool with limitless potential—for good and bad—to change the world. A double-edged sword, so to speak. The future of AI is filled with uncertainties, but one thing that’s essential is the responsibility held by both the creators and the consumers to optimally refine and use this tool. And although that day may be far away, I hope, someday, we can use AI without any risks.
By Ali Haziq
Writer (Team 2023-2024)
Note: the views expressed in the article solely belong to the writer and do not reflect TLC.