However, there is another annoying thing about generative A.I. that I hate... it's become the new insult the Internet is throwing around whenever they see something they just don't like.
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| The image has how many eyes? |
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It Just Keeps Happening...
There are always going to be people who criticize the things you make. That's part of the job when you're an artist of any stripe. However, the proliferation of A.I. generators has caused several problems that are tough to deal with in the wild, and they don't seem to be going away any time soon. Namely that people will either assume (or just accuse) you of using A.I. when they don't like you, your work, or both.
Foe instance, in the recent past I've been accused of:
- Using A.I. programs to generate RPG supplemets (even though they were published before the onset of any generative A.I. programs).
- Using an A.I. text-to-speech generator in my video essays like the one below (it's clearly my own voice, and there are dozens of videos of my speaking right into the camera in the same cadence on the same channel).
- Using A.I. to post on social media platforms due to the sheer volume of posts I make (and while I wish I had a program to do this, no, I have to make a majority of my posts manually. People always seem surprised when I respond).
While this is extremely annoying to deal with, however, I wanted to take a moment to remind folks that this isn't just the inability of many people to tell the difference between A.I. and non-A.I. content. There is definitely some of that going on, absolutely, but there's something far older at the root of so many of these comments.
Put simply, it's just haters using the most recent fad to sling mud at creators. Same as they always have.
How can I be sure of that, you ask? How can I come on the Internet and state with conviction that so many of these comments are not coming from a place of genuine concern, or an opposition to the use of A.I. generators which just so happens to catch human creators in the crossfire?
Two reasons. First, it's always an accusation (typically phrased in a demeaning fashion) rather than a question. Secondly, even if you provide evidence that it isn't A.I. (whether you have a time lapse video of you making something, you can provide the sources for all the items in the project, you have time stamps and publication dates, etc.), the goal posts move. The conversation then morphs into, "Well it looks/sounds like something you'd make with A.I.," or, "Well, if someone wanted [content] like that, they'd just use A.I. instead of paying you for it," and so on, and so forth.
And while this is annoying, and frustrating, and damaging to the calm of all the creators out there still making art with sweat, blood, and spite, I want to say something else that might be a little controversial, but which I feel is important.
Screw the haters. You don't need them to succeed.
You Just Lost Yourself A Customer!
We've all been in those stores where there's a Karen pitching a fit because she didn't get her way, and she storms out with something along the lines of, "I've been shopping here for ten years! You just lost yourself a customer!" But then it turns out that she's bought like one item there in that ten year time span, and most of the time she's just a pain to the staff and to other customers.
This is the box most haters fall into, and it's why you should just ignore them a majority of the time.
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| So it's agreed. We move on with the day, yes? |
It's perfectly legitimate to check your sources to be sure you support creators who match up with your values. And if you don't want to support someone who uses A.I., then you're well within your rights to not do that as a consumer. However, if someone comes out of the gate swinging before they bother to check that what they're seeing is or isn't A.I. (something which can usually be established by a quick check of a sales page, or just asking the creator in question in the comments section), they're probably more interested in the fight than they are in actually finding out whether your project was made using A.I. And if you make it clear you didn't use A.I., but they're still interested in hollering? Yeah... they were never going to support you in the first place. Cut it off now, and save yourself the sanity.
Remember that no matter how cool the thing you made is, and no matter how hard you worked on it, there are some people who just won't bite. They won't watch your videos, won't listen to your podcast, won't buy your books, and won't play your game... and there's nothing you can do to persuade them.
So don't waste time trying... instead, focus on reaching people who will actually become part of your audience, and who do want you to keep making more stuff.
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That's all for this week's Business of Writing! For more of my work, check out my Vocal archive, or at My Amazon Author Page where you can find books like my sci-fi dystopian thriller Old Soldiers, the Hardboiled Cat series about a mystery solving Maine Coon in Marked Territory and Painted Cats, my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife, or my most recent short story collection The Rejects!
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