(Art)ificial Intelligence
According to the esteemed Oxford Dictionary, a crisis is a time of great danger, the moment when things either improve or get worse. The whole world is currently burning in the fire that is fuelled by the human’s incessant greed and avarice, in one such abysmal utopia of the devil, when weapons and bullets have become the official language of the land and the sea, there is a crisis that is spreading insidiously under the safe blanket of demolishing missiles.
Our world is a web spun by our actions. Art is a loyal subject in a world where logic and reason reign supreme. Art has been a preeminent aspect of life ever since the inception of time, while many philosophers state that science has built the world, art has been its nuts and bolts. Every tongue has its way of swirling words out, its own language, but art is the language of mind, it can help everyone stand out as a dominant individual, and at the very same moment, amalgamate every soul into one. European Romantic Artists and poets of the 1800s criticized the glorification of reason and science and focused instead on emotions, intuition, and mystical feelings. They felt that in times of crisis, folk songs, folk poetry, and folk dances could bring people together against their disparities.
Even though it was a well-decorated topic of the past and quizzed the world about its mysteries and potentials, it was in 1950, when the world saw the spark of an uprising, a spark that was deemed to change the world’s webwork, language, communication, and most importantly, art. In 7 years, Alan Turing, an English mathematician, and philosopher introduced a new aspect of technology that had the power to turn the world into a new horizon filled with new challenges and possibilities around every corner. Still, along with the blessing, a curse also lurked around, promising to morph into an inexorable force that would put the world to shame.
AI is the new way of living, talking, and whatnot. After a successful decade of sharing tables with the greatest minds on, AI’s growth was smoothly crawling into reality. While the 1960-80 period played a vital role in the insurgence of AI and its abilities, slender visuals of the supreme era of AI were witnessed during the 1980-87 timeline, which is known as the “AI Boom”. This was possible from both breakthroughs in research and interest shown by several government officials around the world who wished for it to grow and funded the scientists to enable themselves to have the basic amenities necessary for its rise.
The emergence of computers in the era of 1990s played a crucial role as AI’s growth drastically topped the charts due to its heavily popularized transition from physical bots to digital programs. AI was on its path to success, as the media of communication and information increased, AI was gradually becoming a well-established topic in developed countries as they infused it into their technology to stay ahead of the rest.
AI was an invention of the past, yet it was a late grasp amongst the hoi polloi. The recent surge in the usage of AI is powered and sponsored by the increment in sources of technology. From a full-fledged computer system to a hand-sized mobile phone, technology has walked through geysers of industrialization to achieve its fame. People have recently been using AI in every aspect of their lives, and most importantly, art. AI helps art to extend its boundaries and unlock the doors to the unknown utopias that lie buried in the land or wafted in the air as tiny fragments of life. In the modern world, everyone is as busy as a bee, they cannot afford to pause and catch their breath otherwise they will be rattled in the shadows of the high-rise skyscrapers that intimidate every soul.
In one such calamitous world, AI serves as a Messiah of the wretched as it accompanies every runner of this marathon by helping them cut down their time on several dimensions at work. For example, if one has a deadline to prepare a business draft at the break of the next dawn, they will not have to smell coffee in the dark like they had to in the past. They can simply use an AI tool such as ChatGPT which would craft out a masterpiece that would comply with the necessity with a tinge of extraordinary. It would take a human’s sacrifice of sleep under the moonlight to chalk out one such piece of paper, whereas AI would do the same in the blink of an eye.
Many enjoy the privilege of having such a rewarding and intriguing witchcraft in the grasp of their claws, but there is also a fraction of the population that has skeptical and opposing viewpoints upon this phenomenon as they feel that it jeopardizes a plethora of other factors of life such as art.
AI has always been a form of art for technology enthusiasts, but they also know that handling it is a curse that is usually shoved into hindsight by its benefits. At the break of the dawn of AI’s insurgent rise, people saw the dream of a world where AI would revolutionize the way everyone looks at art in the fainting and broken stars. It has redefined art and has allowed everyone to think with a free and liberal spirit, this kind of freedom has a stern impact on every human’s soul, but it has been brought to light that the art products of AI are both creating and destroying the creative shelf of a human being. As mentioned earlier, AI can do anything in the blink of an eye which could cost a human night to accomplish. AI has been prominently used by various graphic designers, artists, writers, etc. for the last two years and AI has found itself a comfortable home in the hearts of these representatives of art. AI allows the economically, and physically challenged artists a crutch they can rely on whenever they would stumble. It allows them to get their job done in an abbreviated period for free, and it saves both time and money, which are two primordial aspects for every entrepreneur or even just a novice freelancer aiming to earn money through their art.
As they say, every coin has two sides, not everyone has the mind of an artist, and AI allows them to explore that very horizon. This might help art reach every corner, but this simply increases the quantity of art, decreasing its quality. ChatGPT can do anything, write scripts, speeches, stories, etc. but the one thing it cannot do is, write an original piece. Since AI provides information about things that have already occurred in the world, it will only provide a fusion from other pieces, it can’t be expected from AI to write a Stephen King novel, because stories are manufactured by human emotions and feelings joined with their life experiences when they commit the bold act of putting pen to paper. One such thing cannot be expected from AI, for example, a Ukrainian Poet who has seen their life waft around and away while they were paralyzed at the eye of the tornado, as life drained out of their eyes. They understand and empathize with those who have been through the same and they would be able to portray that condition better than anybody else, even if it is a highly advanced technology.
In retrospect, AI is a very prominent gadget that fulfills the agenda of the 21st Century to its utter perfection, it has risen above the ranks in the last few years and has become a part of our diurnal course, it has helped the economic rise of societies, but the one thing that AI cannot do is the creation of art, it cannot create something that can present and portray people’s actual expectations. It cannot create something new as it is only going to present a fusion of its database. AI is a vital ingredient of industrialization but its meddling with art cannot move us into the future and even lead to the destruction of both. AI and art should always remain parallel in their ways no matter how identical their ideologies are.
By: Aayushmaan Malviya
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