Bald Man Rants About AI

Another Project Starts

Today has been one of those days. Did I need to start another project? Did I need to start 3D printing a bunch of Farrow that just dropped from Warmachine 3D? No, I shouldn’t have, but I did.

If you want to have the Road Hog and the War Hog match the current models, you should scale them up about 10-15%. But I’m fine with how they look out of the box.

I’m going to play in a One Piece tournament on Sunday—just jumping right in without really knowing how to play. Also, behold my plant. It really pulls the place together.

The Painting Assembly Line

Painting wise, I’m still working through the assembly line. I ended up printing a third Toro because I realized the second one had a pretty bad misprint—too bad to let it slide. This new one also has a gnarly hole in the shoulder pad, but you can’t even see it. I’m just going to paint it like damage.

I’m starting to get that feeling like maybe I’m getting sick again. We didn’t actually get the flu—we got RSV. I guess we saw everybody catching up on Christmases and now it’s just hitting us.

Why Generative AI Has Been on My Mind

I was reading another book today and thinking about generative AI. I know it’s a buzzword and there’s a lot of controversy around it.

I should preface this by saying I use AI for productivity—I don’t write my emails anymore. I use it to help me code things for my own convenience. But I don’t use it to write anything meaningful. I don’t use it to make art.

In my job, which is a mix of marketing and programming, AI is everywhere. It’s totally replaced everything. I’m in a weird place because morally I’m kind of against it for a lot of reasons, but just to support my family, I’ve got to use it.

The Real Concern

There’s a lot of fear around AI, and definitely a lot of clickbait-inspired fear. But from what I’ve personally witnessed, there’s a lot of entry-level jobs that just don’t exist anymore. It’s not that we’re waiting on AI to get there—AI is there. It’s already able to replace these jobs.

The things that entry-level people would have done before they learned how to progress in their industries—that’s already gone. The business owners just don’t know it yet. The ones at the top certainly do, but the mom and pops, the small businesses in your local area that are still hiring for these jobs, don’t know it yet.

The Bigger Question

But that’s not really what I want to talk about. I was thinking: why is generative AI specifically for art, images, and creative writing being pushed so much?

There’s ethical pushback from the copyright perspective, but I’m actually not that bothered by copyright issues because I think everything is channeled from the collective unconscious—I don’t even think copyright is possible. That’s probably a whole other can of worms.

Here’s what concerns me: if the way people are engaging with art is to chat in a terminal and generate art that way instead of making it themselves, we lose what inherently makes us human.

The Divine Spark

The fact that we draw, that we create art, that we write—that is what makes us human. The divine spark, however you think we get it, the ability to be creative and create things and create art is the manifestation of that divine spark.

Generative AI is taking that away. It’s taking away our ability to be human and replacing it. I haven’t really heard anybody else talk about this.

There are environmental concerns. There are moral and legal copyright issues. But look at what it means to be a human, and AI is taking that away.

What About the Next Generation?

The greater issue is: what happens when a kid, instead of picking up a pen and paper to learn how to draw, just immediately starts playing around making cool pictures with AI? They never feel called to pick up a pen and paper. They never feel called to pick up a paintbrush. They never feel called to pick up a model.

Where does that leave us—not even 10 years from now, but five years from now? Where does it leave us as human beings when the core thing that makes us human has been outsourced to a computer?

I personally use AI now to handle all the non-human BS of the day, all the work stuff, so I can get to creative processes more. I’m using it to get the productivity and the dumb stuff done so I can get to artwork and writing. But what happens when that creative drive just doesn’t exist anymore?

Already Happening

My wife got an Alexa for Christmas and our daughter just wants to sit and talk to it all day. We’re like, “Look, you can ask it math questions and get animal facts, but you’ve got like 15 minutes with this thing.” She’s already kind of obsessed with it.

It’s like—you’re sitting in the kitchen. You should have a crayon in your hand right now. What’s going on?

That’s on me to mitigate and stay on top of. I think it’s cool she wants to talk to the robot and learn animal facts, but it’s a very slippery slope that I don’t even fully understand myself, and I’ve been in tech my whole adult life.

The Jobs Are Already Gone

AI is replacing the creative jobs first. Music production, commercials, advertising—advertising was a great way for creatives to make money doing something creative. What little commercials I do see now are so clearly AI, when that would have been at least a design team, 3D designers, animators, artists.

Those were the few avenues where you could make a living being creative full-time, and they’re what’s being replaced first. The powers that be are eliminating first the things that make us human, the things that are arguably far more important than anything else.

My Take

I don’t think I’m forming a coherent thought here, but it’s something to think about: why is AI being so heavily targeted at creating art and creative writing? Are those just the lowest hanging fruits? Is the goal for it to take over everything?

I’m sure the goal is to make as much money as possible—that’s pretty much what it always is. But why does it have to be in the two main areas of artistic expression that humans engage in? Those areas really need to be protected and remain human.

My Stance

If you’re having fun generating AI images, go for it. Whatever makes you happy. And I’ve played with Midjourney too—of course I have. But is being a prompt engineer to generate images different than the traditional method of making art? Am I just being a boomer?

For me personally, it doesn’t feel the same. It’s like the first time you play a video game and pop a cheat code in—“Oh wow, this is awesome”—and then 15 minutes later you’re like, “I don’t want to play this game anymore because it’s ruined now.”

That’s kind of how using image generative AI felt to me. There was a brief moment of “Oh wow, this is awesome” and then it was “All right, this is really not cool.”

The Bottom Line

Use AI to do the inhuman work, the stuff that doesn’t really matter. Speed up the day-to-day BS so you can get into the creative side. Don’t use it to write anything meaningful or create anything or design anything or make pictures.

That’s what makes us human.

Don’t forget to like and comment—get entered for the giveaway. I’m going to announce it next Wednesday for that toad. Anybody who’s ever commented on anything will be entered to win. Thanks for watching. I’ll see you tomorrow.

Transcript

Today has been one of those days. Uh, but I just Is it ridiculous? Did I need to start another project? Did I need to start 3D printing a bunch of Pharaoh that just dropped from War Machine 3D? No, I shouldn’t have, but I did.

And I didn’t see this in time, but if you want to have the Road Hog and the and the Warhog, I think what they’re called, match like the current models, you should scale them up about like 10 to 15%. But I’m I’m fine with how they look just out of the box. game today. Uh, and I’m actually pretty excited uh to learn how to play it. I’ve been playing in the the simulator app thing, but I haven’t like actually touched real cards.

So, that’s probably most of my hobby time today is be looking at this. I’m going to play in a in a tournament on Sunday. I’m just jumping right in without really knowing how to play. >> Behold my plant. Uh, it really pulls the place together.

I’m starting to get that feeling like maybe I’m getting sick again. Uh, I don’t know. It just feels like something’s off and like what is going on? Uh I guess it is like that season and we didn’t actually get the flu, we got RSV. So I think like we saw we started catching up on Christmases and saw everybody and I guess now it’s just uh I think I painted that metal and I shouldn’t have.

I sure did. Awesome. I wasn’t supposed to paint that. I wasn’t supposed to paint that broad sword silver. zoning out, talking.

Uh, painting wise, I’m still working through. I ended up printing a third Toro, so I’m catching it back up to the assembly line. Uh, because I realized that that second Toro I had had a pretty bad misprint and I was just it was like too bad to let it slide. Um, and this one also I’m just cleaning this up real quick. Getting I’m just I just did it.

So, I got I just put water on my brush. I just put water on my brush. I’m just wiping it off the excess. Um, I This one also has a pretty gnarly like just a hole in the shoulder pad, which you can’t even see it. So, I guess that’s a good thing.

But, it’s uh somewhere on here. You got to trust me. Oh, there it is. You can see it there. I’m just going to paint that like damage.

I’m not sure what happened there, but the other one it like the whole back side of it was warped and I didn’t I was in this in such an assembly mode mentality that or assembly line mentality that I didn’t even see it. But um I don’t know what’s going on cuz it’s just that that time of the year. All right, that’s good enough. So something I wanted to talk about it’s I was reading I just been was reading another book uh and just thinking about some other things today and something I can’t like get out of my mind is is generative AI and I know like it’s like a buzzword and there’s a lot of this is could this be my first controversial video? I don’t think it will be.

Uh, but and I also I should preface this by saying like I use I don’t think I I guess it’s generative, but I use AI to like like I don’t write my emails anymore. Like I’m not going to spend the time to write a work email when I can just AI it and it be like the same I was going to say. Uh, so you know, and I use it to like help me code a lot cuz I don’t I don’t like code as a part of work. I like code to make stuff for my own convenience, you know. Um, and I use it as like productivity, but I don’t use it to like write anything meaningful.

I don’t use it to to make art or anything like that. And then and I was thinking like why is it getting so you can actually see what I’m painting here. Uh, new angle. Here we go. Boom.

Here we go. So, like why I keep seeing it like everywhere, right? And in and in in my job, which is like a mix of marketing and like programming, uh it’s everywhere. Like it’s totally replaced everything. Like even it’s in a weird place cuz I think like morally I’m kind of against it for a lot of reasons, but just to like support my family, I got to use it, you know?

Uh so it’s just in a weird spot there. And there’s there’s like a lot of fear and there’s definitely a lot of like clickbait inspired fear around it. But even just from what I’ I’ve personally witnessed and what I I’ve seen what’s possible is there’s a lot of entry- level jobs that just don’t exist anymore. And it’s not it’s not like a we’re waiting on AI to get there. AI is there.

It’s already able to replace these jobs and the things that entry level people would have done before they learn like how to progress in the industries and it’s already there and it’s a matter of like the business owners uh just don’t know it yet. like and then the ones at the top certainly do know it, but the like the mom and pops, like the small businesses in your local area that are still hiring for these jobs don’t know it yet, but I would assume it’s only a matter of time before they do. Uh, but anyway, that doesn’t that doesn’t really have anything to do with what I actually want to talk about. But I I was thinking why is generative AI specifically for like art and images and writing and creative writing being pushed? I got to look at my reference model to make sure I don’t do that again.

Um, why is it being pushed so much? And and obviously there’s a lot of like ethical push back against it from like the copyright perspective, but I I actually I’m not bothered by the copyright perspective because I think everything is channeled from the collective unconscious. So, I don’t even think like copyright is possible. Uh, which is probably a whole other can of worms. But uh any anyway uh if so many pe if if the way that people are engaging with art is to chat in a terminal or an interface and and generate the art that way instead of making it themselves.

Like we lose what inherently makes us human. Like the fact that we that we draw, that we create art, that we write, that is what makes us human. Like the the the divine spark, however you think we get it, the ability to be creative and to create things and to create art is the manifestation of that divine spark. And generative AI is taking that away. It’s it’s taking away our ability to be human and replacing it.

Uh and I that’s something I haven’t really heard anybody else talk about. And I know there’s there’s environmental and there is like depending on how you look at copyright, there definitely is a moral and legal uh issue with it there, but like just look at what it what it means to be a human and it’s taking that away. And even and I I my personal I don’t think like we exist to to work and I say that as someone who spent most of their life as a worker worker be a happy worker be. Uh but I mean it’s taking away a lot of the ability to work already. Like it’s pretty crazy uh what it’s what I’m already seeing it doing.

But the greater issue is what happens when a kid instead of like picking up a pen and paper to to learn how to draw just immediately starts playing around making cool pictures and then it they never go past that. Like they never have they never feel called to pick up a pen and paper. They never feel called to pick up a paintbrush. They never feel called to pick up a model. You know, like what where does that leave us?

not even 10 years. Where does it leave us five years from now? And where does it leave us as human beings when the core thing and again I mean it’s my opinion too, right? The core thing that makes us human has been outsourced to a computer. Like what is like what are we doing?

Like I I personally use AI now to handle all the nonhuman BS of the day and all of the the work stuff so I can get to this thing, this kind of thing and the creative process more, you know? Like I’m using it personally to get the productivity and the dumb done so I can get to the creative like the creative processes and the artwork and the writing. Do I do a lot of like pen and paper writing. Um, but like what happens when that just doesn’t exist anymore? And what does it what does it mean for the human psyche when that gets taken away?

And also is this like and I’m not even like I’m not even going to like clickbait title this about AI or anything. So like like you know my my goal is not to get a bunch of clicks for AI, but it’s just something that I’ve been stuck on thinking about all day. And even like now like my wife got an Alexa for Christmas and our daughter just wants to sit and talk to it all day and we’re like look you can ask it math questions and you can get some animal facts but we’re going to like you got like 15 minutes with this thing and she’s already kind of like obsessed with it even just with that you know and it’s like you’re sitting in the kitchen. You should have a crayon in your in your hand right now you know like what’s going on. Uh, and it’s just really I mean again and that’s on me to like mitigate that and and correct that or not correct it but it’s like stay on top of it you know like I think it’s cool she wants to talk to the robot and learn animal facts but it’s just like that is a very slippery slope you know that I don’t even really understand myself and I’ve been in tech my whole adult life and it’s just like I don’t know I don’t even know what I’m trying to say but I what I’ve and thinking about all day is the ramifications of being a human in a world where humans don’t make the art anymore.

And is that is that just like catastrophist? Is that an unfounded fear? I don’t think it is. You know, I think I think more and more what we’re going to see is AI replacing one, it’s going to replace the creative jobs, right? Like I think we’re already seeing that it’s replacing music production.

Uh I’ve seen it a lot in commercials and in advertising, you know, like advertising was a great as as terrible as advertising is, right? Uh but advertising was a great way for creatives to make money at least doing something creative. And I can’t believe and what little commercials I do see is like so clearly AI now when that would have been at least a design team. It would have at least been like 3D designers. It would have been animators.

It would have been artists. And then looking at the ad campaigns and just like videos are getting replaced by AI, uh, animators, like cartoonists, like artist, like still artists, and it’s already happening. And it’s just like those were the few avenues where where you could make a living being creative full-time. And it’s like those are what’s being replaced first is ridiculous. And then it the greater implications of that is like look at what the powers that be are eliminating first are these things that make us human and are the things that are arguably far more important than anything else could be.

And I don’t know, that’s just what I’ve been thinking about all day. Uh I’m just painting boring stuff that that you’ve already seen me paint, you know. Uh but and I don’t know, the 10 people that are going to watch this, I don’t even know if I’m forming a coherent thought, but it’s just something to think about. It’s like why is AI being so heavily targeted at creating art and creative writing? And are those just the lowest hanging fruits?

Like is the goal for it to take over everything? I mean, and I’m sure the goal is to make as much money as possible, right? Like I don’t think it’s I don’t think it’s some nefarious thing beyond a certain amount of people or a small group of people just wants to make as much money as possible, which is pretty much what it always is. Like people just want to make as much money as possible. And I’m sure that’s the motiv motivating factor.

But why does it have to be in the the two main areas of artistic expression that humans engage in just and those that those areas really need to be like protected and remain human. So, I don’t know. And again, like if you’re having fun generating AI images, like go for it, man. Like whatever whatever makes you happy, go for it and do it. But it and even like am I wrong in my assumption?

I mean and I’ve played with like midjourney too like I haven’t used it to like produce anything but of course I’ve played with it you know uh but am I wrong in my assumption that being a prompt engineer to generate images? Is that different than the traditional method of making art? Am I just being a boomer? Um I know that for me personally it doesn’t feel the same you know. Um, it kind of it’s like it’s like the first time you’re playing a video game and you pop a cheat code in and you’re like, “Oh, wow.

This is awesome.” And then 15 minutes later you’re like, “I don’t want to play this game anymore cuz it’s like ruined now.” Uh, that’s kind of how using the like image generative AI felt to me. There was like a brief moment of like, “Oh, wow. This is awesome.”

And then it was, “All right, this is like this is really not cool.” Man, I ran out of space in the middle of that. Uh, but I got this guy all caught up. uh or not all cut up. I got to do gold still.

Uh but I don’t know. I’m going to try to restate uh 12:45 restate my hypothesis. Um the point I’m making is don’t let the bastards grind you down. No, I don’t know what the point I’m making is. I’m like running that point of like, do I have a fever?

Am I crazy? Why was I thinking about this all day? I don’t know. I just think it’s messed up that uh the two the one thing like the create the creative act is what is being most heavily influenced and and replaced and manipulated by AI when it could be used for so many other things to like give us more time to do those things. So really that’s kind of like that’s my stance on AI is like use AI to do the inhuman work, do the stuff that doesn’t really matter.

uh speed up the day-to-day BS and like help you get through that kind of thing so you can get into like the creative side and don’t use it. I actually do use it. Do whatever you want to do, you know, like don’t listen to me. I’m a guy in my basement. Uh but uh I know for me personally, I’m very uh very weary and and I I personally wouldn’t and won’t use generative AI to like to write anything or create anything or like to design anything or make pictures.

Um just cuz like that’s what that’s what makes us human, you know? So, I don’t know. Uh don’t forget to like comment on this one. Tell me I’m wrong. Uh get entered for the giveaway.

Uh, I’m gonna announce the giveaway on on next next Wednesday uh for this guy. I haven’t really been talking about it. I should probably remind people as a as a thank you for 100 subs. Anybody who’s ever commented on anything ever, you’ll be entered to win that. But uh I don’t know.

The the hobby stuff I’m doing now is kind of boring. So, I was trying to think of something else to talk about and that’s all I’ve been able to think about like all day. And I got this cool new plant. Uh, thanks for watching. I’ll see you tomorrow.