From Richard: We knew it was coming, but it's still hard to believe

 We knew it was coming…



First it was text to text back in 2022.

Conversations with a machine that made sense - astounding.

Then in mid 2023, text to image.

Photoshop started rolling out text to still images within its industry-standard app - incredible.

Now in Feb 2024, it’s text to video.


I am now speechless.

From the imaginary to the realistic, these web-sucking machines can now 
do more than me.

Instantly turning an idea into a moving visual reality.
Terrified. Delighted.
Horrified. Excited.

My mind first goes to a tech podcast conversation I listened to during the 
week… (I listen to so much now, I can’t recall… and ain't that a thing I’m 
finding more and more with my forgetful brain meat!) … a conversation
about trust, believability.

We won’t know what’s real anymore, and how ineffectual for the giants 
just saying, “Oh we’ll put a watermark on anything AI generated.”
Like that’s going to help!

But here’s the personal surprise: the first two stages already just part of 
my daily life, so I’m sure this stage too will simply become just as common 
and banal.

My mind, it seems, is becoming less able to be blown.

Where are we going with this?

So much humanity being sucked into the great black hole of technology.
I don’t actually fear for my job as a video producer.
So many aspects of what I do are not machine-replicable… or so I think.
I probably only have around a decade of employability left in me anyway.

No, it’s not my job I worry about
It’s humanity itself.
We’re losing the ability to… I don’t know…
Be human.

Flesh. Bone. Brain. Heart.
This is not an existential crisis
Just a sad moment of watching the senses dull even more somehow.

Yet it’s also a challenge.

Will we appreciate the less than ‘epic’?
Will we appreciate the failed and flawed?
Will we value the ordinary?

I’m sure someone will express these thoughts more eloquently than I about 
all this. Perhaps ChatGPT can write a better ode.

But I’m a hopeful person.
I think we WILL continue to value humanity.
Yet somehow I’m still a bit sad.
Despite it being inevitable.

We knew it was coming,

but it's still hard to believe.



Richard Leigh














Comments

  1. DJKFebruary 20, 2024 at 2:55 PM

    Yes, Richard...I feel much the same. Terrified and exhilarated at the same time. I have, in front of me, the possibility of using the basic script for an animated short film to create that actual short film. No professional animators or voice artists required. AI will generate it all from the mere words on the page. It will live, I'm afraid, as some sort of stunning visual poem, having sprung straight from words I wrote on a page to the screen. I once dreamed such a thing might be possible, how we might project images straight from our minds onto a screen without all the messy business of 'making a film' (or video). Without the problems of casting, of finding locations, crew, post production people, and all the ego issues that go with it. Without the need to find people prepared to finance it all. Now it's, in fact, possible. I could do it tomorrow - no, today. Yet, I hesitate. I'm afraid, somehow, that once I take that step there will be no stopping or turning back. I dither and procrastinate. Could I still call myself an 'artist' if I use AI to create this idea from words on a page to images on a screen? Will I still BE an artist if I do? Will I be relieved if AI cannot actually grasp and create my vision? If it creates only a poor approximation of it? Do I owe it to myself or the world to do this otherwise no one will ever see this particular artistic vision, given that I'm unable to pay professional animators and the like to do the work? Is there any difference between paying them and asking AI to do it (apart from money going into another human being's bank account? But then, I will probably need to purchase the AI tools with whichh to do it so it's merely transferring money from the bank account of a fellow artist to the bank account of a technocrat). So many issues and questions. Terrifying. Exhilarating. Perplexing.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. MR.GRIMFebruary 20, 2024 at 4:26 PM

      That summed it up beautifully for me! Maybe I just start leaving in "mistakes" as my signature 🤔

      Delete
    2. AnonymousFebruary 21, 2024 at 12:56 AM

      Thanks Mr.Grim - yes, definitely mistakes feeling like a quaint human touch already.

      Delete
    3. AnonymousFebruary 21, 2024 at 1:06 AM

      Appreciate the feedback David. The 'ego issues' - yes. I can certainly see the appeal of not having to deal with people who get tired, grumpy and just have *stuff* i dont want to have to bother with. So maybe the best thing about all this, is that it now forces us to think about the trade-offs (or at least *allows* us to think about the trade-offs) because the option was never there before.
      Funny, I got an ad for a stock footage library supplier today. For a change I felt a bit sorry for them; they're probably the first in line to be most impacted as a business by the likes of Sora. Those libraries were always the 'bland / detached / lacking in personality' shots that I'd only go to if I was really stuck. Yet suddenly I saw all the hard work that went into creating that beautiful, REAL imagery. So strange how my perceptions have already started shifting!

      Delete
    4. DJKFebruary 21, 2024 at 8:27 PM

      Here's very interesting angle on the impact of AI on thinfs like the VFX industry. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDTqz4npCVc

      Delete
    5. AnonymousFebruary 25, 2024 at 3:08 PM

      Thanks David, i'll take a listen!

      Delete

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