AI: Our Next Obstacle

I’ve been—reluctantly—educating myself on the use and misuse and theoretical benefits and risks of Artificial Intelligence.

It feels like we’re being forced into this age where everything will be done for us. No need to think anymore. Look something up on Google and AI summarizes the information with everything you “need” to know. If you receive an email, AI will write your reply to it. There are ways to use AI to search the internet for you. AI will build you everything from a playlist to a workout routine.

(As a side note, I’d like to encourage everyone to ask themselves: Why is AI being pushed on us? Is it possible corporations feel like the less we think, the better?)

But my reasons for looking closely at AI were more focused. I needed to know how AI was already influencing both the creation and sale of artworks. I pride myself on providing local art and literature. I want real creators to know someone values their work. As a creator myself, I know how valuable that is.

My research led me to one conclusion. AI is a slippery slope that you’ll tumble headlong down if you don’t put on the brakes somewhere. Writers already use AI, sometimes without even knowing it, for editing. Sometimes for research. Where it really gets concerning is in the field of generative AI. Because generative AI is getting better.

AI can now write for you. Term papers, articles, poems, songs, children’s books, chapters in novels—and whole books. AI can create artwork and graphics that can be used in books and on book covers. Sometimes you can see it. Sometimes you can’t.

Taking all this into consideration, I am asking all current authors and artists whose work I have at the store to reveal how much they used AI in their creations, and I will ask the same question of future authors and artists. Customers may ask for information about the use of AI in the creation of any item from a local creator that I have in the store.

AI’s ability to create art will be debated for the rest of my life. Is it as good as human art? Does it have the heart and feeling that is intrinsically necessary to call a creation “art”? Is AI capable of learning to the point that it has actually has the equivalent of a human soul?

I don’t have the answers to this. And I cannot guarantee you that what I have on the shelves of my store is not partially created using AI. However, I do not support the use of AI in the creation of any artwork. I do not believe we need to give the machine a soul.