AI - Right or Wrong

old computer

Artificial Intelligence, AKA AI, is either going to save the world or destroy it. Like most technologies, the reality is somewhere in the middle.

I’ve always had a problem with the use of the word intelligence, because these systems don’t do anything they haven’t been trained to do. They are given data. A shitload of data. They are then given an interface with the outside world.

The clever part is that as the system goes through it’s data combinations and then makes new connections. This gives the illusion of intelligence, but it’s all just algorithms.

Semantics aside, I recently jumped on the AI bandwagon. I create animations that I post on YouTube and there are many AI sites and programs that offer assistance in this undertaking.

The usefulness of these tools vary greatly, but some have some amazing results. It made me wonder how this was possible. While researching how I came across both the reason and the problem.

For example; sites that use AI to create images are not just creating out of nothing. They have sampled millions of images and are using those as a basis for their “new” images.

So the AI, or rather its masters, are taking credit for work derived from others, without crediting them. This bothers me. The same happens for AI music, videos, etc..

This doesn’t rule out all AI use. There are animation routines that take your work and smooth out the rough edges. These are based on physics and anatomy. Another creates programming scripts based on APIs and coding rules. No moral dilemma there.

It’s not up to me to tell people what is right and wrong. I’m simply stating that I don’t want to take credit for stuff based on other people’s work. So I’m not going to. You can do what you want.