"Ai" ... and how I feel about it ...

OK ... it's unavoidable ... it's the future ... and it's here to stay. Whether you call it "artificial intelligence" or "Super-intelligence" it truly has much to offer our world. And that's hard for an artist like me to admit because let's face it: "Ai paints better than I do!"

It's a huge annoyance to me that several "artists" (intentional quotation-marks because I'm talking about people who are NOT artists at all, but rather, "fakery specialists”) ... often post their Ai-creations in social media groups on FaceBook, Instagram, etc. etc. Most of the time, we can pick out this "fake art," but the technology is evolving quickly, and I predict that won't be the case in the very near future. In fact, I believe it will soon be the rare exception to be able to spot the "errors," or the obvious "Ai style" in Ai-created art.  Currently, whenever I do recognize Ai-art, it feels slimy … cheating … dishonest. The “artists” sharing/posting "their" art (created by Ai) are in my opinion, nothing but attention-seekers, who deserve NO attention.  Their “talent” ends where their cleverly-worded prompt to Ai begins.

Here’s a situation to ponder: I used to be quite active on a great Art website created for artists to share their work with one another, and with the public.  There are fun “contests” on this site, and I used to participate in many of them … until one day in the Fall of 2025 when my highly-realistic entry to a particular “themed competition” was “booted out.”  I reached out to the woman hosting the contest, and asked “why?” My painting had fit nicely within the theme, and I had followed all the rules. She got back to me with a lovely apologetic note, but she was definitely embarrassed.  Her sight had been diminishing, she admitted, so she was now relying on an “Ai program” for judging the contests she was hosting, and Ai had flagged my painting as an “Ai-creation.”  I was thoroughly frustrated, and decided not to enter any more.  I’m still unsure as to whether I should have felt highly complimented (as friends suggested), but all I felt was pure exasperation.

By the same token, the poetry I’ve written for my children’s book, “Monday Mice” (soon to be published) has been PAINSTAKINGLY written by me, and only me, over many decades of my life.  (Two of my favorite poems in the book I wrote when I was a young mom in my 30’s … and I’m now a Grandmother in my mid-60’s.)  I’ve spent countless sleepless hours wide awake at 3 a.m., staring into the dark, rhyming in my head — mostly to the cadence of “iambic pentameter.”  It’s been a frequent exercise for me to need to get up in the middle of the night to write down a poem, lest I forget it by morning. In recent decades, I’ve been able to quietly drag my iPhone underneath the covers and type the poem into “Notes,” so I wouldn’t wake my husband.  And yet, if you give a great prompt to “Google-Ai,” “Chat-GPT,” or “Duck-Duck-Go-Ai” with plenty of descriptive words, Ai will write a decent poem for you in about 30 seconds.  I must add that though Ai’s poetry is currently (mostly) “easily recognizable as Ai” … that too is part of this evolving technology, and soon Ai will probably be receiving the Nobel Prize in literature.

It’s enough to make any creative person feel disheartened and obsolete.

Still … I’m finding some fascinating ways to see Ai as pretty darn useful!  For instance, when illustrating “Monday Mice,” I got to my poem titled: “Bath Time Tale” (one of the poems written in my 30’s), and discovered I really did need to depict 3 mice dressed in various “costumes.” I needed: 1) a cowboy-mouse, 2) a sailor-mouse, and 3) a fireman-mouse. How was I going to do that? I couldn’t even begin to fathom creating actual tiny costumes the size of my pet-mice … and then there was the problem of how to get those costumes ON the mice, and have them remain still long enough to photograph!  Lightbulb moment:  Ai could help me! And sure enough, a simple word-prompt for costume descriptions gave me “photo references” I could use to illustrate these appropriately dressed fancy-mice!  Problem solved, and I gained a whole new respect and appreciation for Ai.

Here’s yet another example of the greatness of artificial intelligence:  I’m a history nut, and I’ve been working on my family’s ancestry (genealogy) since my teen-years.  It wasn’t until my 40’s when the internet allowed for such sites as:  Ancestry(dot)com, Find-A-Grave(dot)com, Genforum(dot)com, etc. etc., when I was finally able to accomplish MUCH in the way of discovering actual records documenting and tracing our family tree.  (Some of my family's history has been absolutely amazing, worthy of historic novels!) I’ve been able to build quite a tree, complete with these records and as many photos of these ancestors as I can find.  For me, building a family tree is NOT just about names, dates, and locations.  I want to know … WHO these people were? WHERE did they come from, and where did they end up? WHAT did they do, or contribute? WHAT did they look like, and what did I inherit from them? Well … only VERY recently, I’ve discovered the genius of Ai “photo-manipulation,” “photo-enhancement,” and “photo-correction” — all incredible evolutionary advances in artificial intelligence!  It’s truly amazing.  And here's how Ai has become the most extraordinary tool:

  our family has a very special ancestor:  my lovely great-great-grandmother Rachel McGuire-Andrews who died very young (age 27).  The only portrait we have of her is a large “hand-tinted” photograph from the 1880’s which is rather fuzzy, and sits behind a piece of oval, beveled glass, making its appearance even fuzzier.  I posted that photo to an “Old-Photo Restoration” group on FaceBook, where many of the group's members have access to a rather-pricey subscription to Ai-photo-enhancing software. (For which I’m very grateful.  I’m quite a bit Scottish, and therefore naturally “penny-pinching.”)  When my fuzzy photo of Rachel McGuire came back enhanced and sharpened … in under two minutes — my mind was blown!  My eyes could scarcely believe it — it was HER, but as if she had stepped out of a photography-studio just moments before — crystal-clear and “in the flesh!”  I cried real tears that day — tears of joy — thanks to Ai.

To sum up my feelings about Ai, it’s a true “love/hate” relationship.  I’ve always loved technology … but this one feels a bit scary, and sorta “beyond” a normal technological advancement; as if the “George Jetson” age arrived too soon, before we knew what to do with it, and how to “keep it on a leash.”

• I love that I can ask Ai for help with “mice costumes,” but I hate that I need to now worry about Ai “stealing someone else’s art or ideas” and handing it over to me.

• I love that I can ask Ai to sharpen and clarify a fuzzy old photograph, but I hate that many of the detailed enhancements are “fake” (and in many cases I've seen, “beautified” unnecessarily).

• I love that Ai can quickly and expertly write up a report — or a history of events — or a beautiful poem, but I hate that Ai is infinitely faster (generally) than the human brain when it comes to creativity.

(For the record, I refuse to use Ai for ANY of my writing.  For some odd reason, I find it easy to alter a painting by taking an "Ai-photo-reference" and adding things, leaving things out, or enhancing the light — truly making it “mine."  I don’t know how to do that as well when it comes to words. When the right words feel “perfect,” you want to use them, and feeling the need to substitute words (especially for rhymes) seems inferior.  So I’d rather just ignore Ai’s ability to write, and pretend it doesn't exist. I enjoy writing and rhyming, and though I may not be the world’s best writer … you can be sure, my writing comes from my heart.)

Suffice it to say, I will never try to fool anyone by secretly using Ai and taking credit for it.  (In my book “Monday Mice” I’m planning an entire page for "Credits" at the end, where I’m giving “model credits” for the people I’ve painted interacting with my mice.  I also plan to give Ai a brief credit for the costume-references “it” provided me. That’s me being honest — an important virtue my parents taught me. And because my recent project “Monday Mice” is MY book — MY dream — MY effort — I have not used Ai much at all.  I refuse to share credit for something I’ve waited my whole life to put together.

Am I grateful for Ai, and do I look forward to seeing everything it can do for our world?

You bet!

Do I despise (and somewhat fear) this “artificially” intelligent age?

Yes, indeed!