The world of the artist and creative will be forever impacted by the multi-modal application of this new technology. Like when pigmentation democratized paints, Microsoft Word unlocked a treasure trove of shared writing, and Adobe launched a new genre of craftsmanship, the arts and AI are on the verge of breakthrough. Already, authors are writing books and researchers are prompting informative summaries on ChatGPT. Every minute, a never before seen image is generated using DALLE-2 or MidJourney while the integration of these tools is speeding up freelance creative’s processes tenfold.
Legal battles of profit and provenance of the images, texts, and ideas generated by these tools is underway. These rulings matter, but not as much as what these tools will do to artistic spaces. The zeitgeist has shifted. New tools and new kinds of work have proven a point more than ever before: anyone can make art. The startup cost continues to diminish as the impact you can make when pairing tools within digital spaces continues to multiply. New generations, more than ever before, will reach for an instrument to create something beautiful. And we’ll all be there to enjoy it.
Economy.
Forecasted efficiency “booms” in technological productivity are not entirely overstated. LLMs will be one piece of the puzzle to restore the internet’s ability to be that long-foretold “boom” and clear the clutter of our screens by optimizing bespoke workflows. AI can’t create publishable articles from scratch but will provide researchers with summaries of relevant information. It won’t replace doctors but will streamline patient note generation from electronic medical-record entries. This will not impact the existence of certain jobs, but it will shift the operations of these jobs.
The surge in AI-powered tools has given awareness to the multitude of capabilities in all industries. Scientists are able to expedite research processes and come up with “alien” ideas outside the scope of human reasoning to attempt. Engineers can run simulations and calculations through a series of pre-programmed tests with massive datasets behind them. An amateur like myself can prompt chatbots for aid in creating website elements without any coding experience (many areas of this website were designed that way). LLMs give the curious mind a laser beam of focussed processing to point at whatever problem vexes them.
The risks are high: AI researchers have a conversational probability of doom (“p (doom)”) because of the dangers these algorithms pose. The need for unity on legal and ethical fronts is paramount: LLMs have the potential to bless or curse every industry, person, and area of life. But there is hope. More expert than Google, more collaborative than Youtube, LLMs are the next step in the future of the way we learn, work, and create worlds.
