https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZESTKVFDBg

https://youtu.be/WImlyoQuQzo

These videos are clips from the Joe Budden Podcast, some thing I am a frequent viewer of. I like when Joe brings the conversation of AI and the art of creating together because he himself is a creator. At one point he was a rapper, but he always prided himself on the ideas of freedom of expression and being authentic with lyrics for the artist who were his peers. All artist, whether they are musical artist, painters, sculptor’s, etc., are very passionate about the things they create because at some point it was literally an original feeling or thought towards something or someone that brought them to their creation, whether its a song, or painting.

We all know they are able to manufacture anything just about today, even the music can be produced through AI. This now creates a question with the authenticity of the music. This is how vocal artist can connect with their fans. Cinematographers connect through their lens with their fans and core audience. How will an AI truly connect with an audience if they are lacking the feelings and emotions that express empathy, that creates timeless pieces. Some may argue that when Vincent Vangough created his masterpieces their were no electronics and it was all done by hand with the most basic tools compared to what we see today, but this painting has been in galleries all around the world, and has inspired many individuals. Do we lose this if we give the power to AI to create what we as humans feel and express?

The article that spoke on Computational Creativity gives a great counter argument to the question on if AI’s and humans should be held to the same standard . “Rather than just seeing the computer as a tool to help human creators, we could see it as a creative entity in its own right. This view has triggered a new subfield of Artificial Intelligence called Computational Creativity.” Authenticity comes from the emotions humans have developed when dealing with life and going through new experiences. Computers are programmed by humans who have had these experiences, but it still wasn’t there to “feel” it for itself, so to speak. So what makes it authentic enough to be compared to great human artist who have shared from personal experience and personal knowledge.

AI is great with assisting artist in the production of their work. That comes with the many technological advances we are starting to make in shorter time spans, which leaves us with so many options to produce the best work faster. Because today everything moves pretty fast in our part of the world so keeping up with the mass production from peers artist today are trying to find faster ways to not only perfect their craft, but to also produce it at a faster rate to keep the engagement from their core audience interested. AI helps with this part when it comes to the money and circulation of the work the artist is selling, but from an authenticity point I can see it creating some issues with trust between artist and fans, nothing would seem real.

The two articles I chose to read this week went hand in hand. They both explored the art side of the AI world. The article, “What do AI image generators mean for visual artists and the rest of us?” sort of set up the scene for us. Basically AI is able to create realistic images like below

You can check out that article here: https://www.chicagotribune.com/people/ct-chicago-artist-viral-ai-pope-francis-puffer-20230330-3uxq3nk6svgqpihoy46b2y7jwq-story.html

By the way when I first saw that picture on Twitter I thought it was real and I was supportive as one would be. But also shocked that the Pope would put an outfit like this together. But that’s besides the point. The article explores the idea of how AI is able to generate images like this and what that means for us. The article also raises concerns about the potential consequences of relying on AI for artistic production, such as the displacement of human artists and the potential for bias or unethical use of the technology. The article highlights the need for ongoing dialogue and ethical considerations around the use of AI in the arts, and the importance of preserving the human element in artistic creation.

But I kept reading, and the other article I read was “Madeleine: Poetry and Art of an Artificial Intelligence.” The article describes the creation of a poem by an artificial intelligence (AI) named Madeleine. The poem was created using a neural network, which analyzed a large corpus of poetry to generate its own unique piece. The article also includes a visualization of the poem in the form of an art installation, which features a projected image of the poem accompanied by ambient music. So now AI is not only able to create a five page paper for you, it can also do your art project? AI is able to produce creative works which now raises the question about the nature of artistic expression and the role of technology in the arts.

I’ve said this countless times before but this is getting scary. Literally AI is not letting us having anything. Now it’s creative too?! I just feel like now it is taking everything special that we individually offer and almost corrupting it. It will come to a point where we won’t feel the need to express and offer our talents, because AI will show us that it can do it “better.”

It’s not uncommon for big companies to take advantage of people in need to fulfill their jobs. The issue right now is that they are being paid far less than they should be, at the expense of “making people’s lives easier.”

Kenya’s minimum wage as of 2022 was €125.3 or around $137 monthly. According to a cost-of-living calculator, this is what Kenyans need to subsist month to month.

The estimated monthly cost for a family of 4 is $2,191 (Shilling289,515), and for a single person, it’s $500 – 1000

Let’s say that workers have an 8-hour workday, earning $16 a day, $80 a week, and $320 a month. It’s insufficient to cover half of the basic needs of people in Kenya. This situation is alarming and exposes how all over the world, companies use those who need work and who are constantly hoping for better wages and a better work environment. Another point that caught my attention is their exposure to working conditions that affect their mental health, and the lack of psychological support. In this case, AI is not to blame for what is happening; it is those behind it.

I’ve previously discussed the exacerbation of scholastic issues such as cheating, but other societal injustices are also intensified by the introduction of AI technology into society.

Much like cheating, exploited labor is not a new problem being introduced by AI. Global superpowers like the United States have been outsourcing labor to third world or less fortunate countries since the iPhone and Air Jordan and Humans have been taking advantage of one another for as long as we have been a species.

AI did not bring these ethical issues to fruition; it has exacerbated them. As time continues to tick forward and Humanity continues to evolve, these problems will only worsen. As society finds more and more meaning in currency than in human life, people will continue to be carelessly killed to line the pockets of those in power. Those on the bottom will be forced to work their entire lives away just to survive, while the select few will benefit from their labor.

Poverty is a deadly cycle put in place to keep those at the bottom down. By valuing currency over one another, we run this world and its people to the ground.

You know, these articles just made me realize how ironic it is that society has made it so anyone involved in the tech industry is perceived as the smartest, the wealthiest, etc., but they are commonly the *excuse me* shittest people. There’s a reason people choose the tech industry over the arts. That could be for financial stability or that little sense of power they have because they can potentially change the world in a more discernible way.

Obviously, I’m not speaking about everyone in the industry, maybe just most of the higher ups. But, it’s funny that they are so quick to polish their products for the sole purpose of marketing, not because it’s the right thing to do. Their true intentions are revealed in the fact that the workers actually cleaning up their mistakes are not properly compensated. I mean, it’s literally the bare minimum they could do – give credit where credit is due. But, if the product’s marketable, let’s just present the beauty of it’s abilities and shove the ugly realities behind the curtain. Right?

Well, unfortunately yes, because the product would be a monster if it hadn’t been cleaned up, yet that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t know how it came to fruition, who’s responsible for it, and rightfully compensating them for their work. Now, how does this censorship affect the results it produces?

I’m thinking back to multiple classes where ChatGPT would refuse to make Erik and Brandon’s picnic more explicit, or Kefah’s AI-generated poem being disgustingly generalized, and how this might be linked to that censorship the creators exploited workers for. There is limited bias, limited emotion, limited experiences, and a limited reality. The real world is not black and white, which is why a lot of the black and white writing it produces isn’t too useful. As we’ve stated before, there needs to be a collaboration between the writer and the machine.

Sometimes I wonder, do we even need all these AI systems in the first place? All the expanded AI systems have done is cause unnecessary trouble for the job market, multiple demographics of people, and academic settings in the past couple of years or more. In a world where workers are already treated as expendable, the greater use of Artificial Intelligence has posed so many harmful effects to communities for decades now. Survelliance is at an all time high, with Joy Buolamwini demonstrating in a 2017 TED talk how police use artificial intelligence systems to scan people’s faces in order to prosecute criminals. But she points out that racism is the primary motive and result of this, because it was only black people whose faces were recognized by the facial recognition software. Even before that, she shows that facial recognition outside of law enforcement does not recognize black faces. This goes to show that the implementation of Artificial Intelligence in the present time has not been beneficial for many people.

Even now in 2023, the circumstances behind AI have not improved. Laborers have been exploited for far too long now. These AI systems are fueled by the underpaid efforts of impoverished workers whose pay are only $1.46 per hour. much less than even I have made in the past, and I never even made $15 per hour. The reason why we don’t see content even worse then the ones already on social media is because of these workers having to view these unethical and inhumane videos and flag them as inappropriate. But they don’t get any compensation. They are left traumatized, disheartened, depressed, and haunted by the things they need to watch and see uncensored for the sake of properly keeping the content off of our media feeds. And the working conditions that force them to make these split decisions in less than a minute, according to this linked article, is so inhumane.

For as long as I could remember there has always been talk about technology taking over. There has been conversations about humans being out of jobs due to technology taking over in some way shape or form. I even think about something as simple as McDonalds, I have noticed certain locations in certain states have machines that will take your order. You simply tap what you want, tap to pay and your order will be ready. Where does that leave cashiers? Yes there are people needed to make the food but eventually there will be machines to do that as well…in my opinion.

AI is something that coming in our everyday lives and taking over. And it’s happening FAST! I’m all for AI being a source to help and maybe enhance a bit like a business or being a help when it comes to education, getting started on a paper or something. But I’m not for AI completely taking over and leaving humans with nothing to do. Whether it is leaving humans without work or doing so much for humans that they are not learning anything at all. AI should only be a source of help not a source to completely take over for humans.

Is AI really a good thing?

Is it providing good change or bad change?

” But the idea of super intelligent machines with their own agency and decision- making power is not only far from reality- it distracts us from the real risks to human lives surrounding the development and deployment AI systems.” I want to start with this quote from “The Exploited Labor Behind Artificial Intelligence” article, simply because this offers the best assessment to the entire AI talking realm. In movies and television we have seen some options of the end of the world being robots taking over the world, and humans became slaves. Literally this is not true, but figuratively this is slowly something that can become possible. I always think of WALL-E whenever disgusting AI. The technology took care of the people in that world so much that they knew how to do nothing without a screen in front of their faces and became slaves to the robots who were caring for them. If they moved out of line or did anything out of order the humans were quickly corrected, and the robots were in control of order. That is no different as it comes to talking about jobs and career related issues.

Looking at job security now can start to look a bit shaky. During covid we were able to see a big change in how you can easily replace the daily office with at home work with the use of technology. This has created a great deal of benefits for both the business and the employees. With this shift it truly shows how great a service technology is actually doing and how well we are advancing with technology. Now with us working from home I can easily see how businesses who have may have seen a huge saving from having workers WFH, can see how AI technology can help them save more if they no longer have to depend on humans for their labor. This can increase the revenue for the businesses, and BUSINESS is all about earning money. If as a business you see something causing your profit margin to grow you are more likely to do it.

Taking a look at the music industry, which is a very big business, songwriters, producers, and engineers, which are very influential authentic parts to the production of music, can have questionable jobs at this point. There was a full AI rapper created and he was an example of the entire culture and even had a feature with a premium artist. A gaming company was behind the production of the rapper and even was Abel to sign his deal. Is this an Authentic artist and should he be help to the same standards of those who have worked hard int he music industry and created their own works? This is the question AI poses as it slowly replaces humans. The control will come from the idea that we as humans were the ones programming it to know everything about us, so in some way by using our phones, and different social apps, or regular apps we are feeding into the total control AI will have over us all.

The text that I want to focus on here (link: https://www.noemamag.com/the-exploited-labor-behind-artificial-intelligence/) states that “while the public is distracted by the specter of nonexistent sentient machines, an army of precarized workers stands behind the supposed accomplishments of artificial intelligence systems today” (Williams, Miceli, Gebru). This stands out to me greatly because, for as fearful as I assume most of us are towards AI, who is expected to take care of such? I have a 2004 Hyundai Elantra parked deep within my parents drive way, it has been there since, like, August (there’s a radio in it that I want to take out of it & transfer into my new whip (a 2005 BMW something, something I’m not a car-head whatsoever) but can’t find the part for. The last time I drove this car it was falling apart to the point where I wouldn’t even be able to drive it the short distance that it takes to get to Kean. Now, shit, if I were to turn on the ignition I’m pretty certain it would ka-boom.

You need to consistently oil a machine to keep it going, and if human beings are not taking care of AI then how the hell is its longativity going to be? Sure thing, they absolutely are paving the way to less job opportunities and worker exploitation, but as time passes and more software/tech issues arise, perhaps a newer generation (I don’t expect y’alls grandparents/parents to adapt too well to this) of workers will be born? I doubt it but this is about as hopeful as I get towards factors outside of my control.

One thing that I am certain of, is that we cannot allow future positions related to AI maintenance to suck! Hell, I’ve worked for bookstores and loathed books as a result (they even had a music/film section and got me to loathing that corner of the store as well), viewed them as mechanical objects intended to poison the prosperity of my workplace existence. This is not to do with the tangible product itself, but because of the mechanical manner in which I was intended to go about promoting and selling them. Utter bullshit. Rather than develop displays, organizations, and sales methods (actually relating the item to the customer) that suited my workplace personality, I was pushed to perform “company-based” methods that, guess what, didn’t work.

Screw you M*****e btw I stole so much from that café & gave out so many free goods to customers – entire families, come at me!

Point is, you treat employees well you get a pretty cool world, one that the world of AI kind of needs given how much hesitation surrounds it. It is an intimidating era of humanity that we are entering, one where many seem to have their livelihoods at question. As a potential educator I know I’m cynical about it all, and don’t want it to even get to the point where a computer does my evaluation or leads to multiple steps just for me to clock into work every day. That shit sucks. Work is a heavy weight to carry enough, why inhumanely complicate it for the worker?

In the article, The Exploited Labor Behind Artificial Intelligence sheds light on the hidden labor that is involved in the development of artificial intelligence (AI). The article explores the labor practices of the global tech industry and highlights the exploitative conditions that many workers face.

The article argues that AI technologies rely on a complex network of human labor, including data labeling, programming, and algorithm development. However, many of the workers who perform these tasks are underpaid, overworked, and subjected to poor working conditions. Which honestly, seems to be nothing new when fast paced systems (or jobs) like these are created. The exploitation of these workers is enabled by the global supply chains and outsourcing practices of the tech industry, which prioritize cost-cutting and profit-making over workers’ rights and welfare.

After the readings, I can definitely say that this is giving Apple, Fashion Nova, and many other big companies that exploit their workers. Now we can officially add AI to that mix. There definitely needs to be greater attention and a continued conversation on this arising issue that sees no end in sight. We need all the attention we can get for human rights and the working conditions of the labor force that underpins the development of AI technologies. Because this will only continue and potentially get worse. But to be honest just like many other bigger companies the only end to this issue is bringing more awareness and protests and even stake-holding approach to involve government, industries, and organizations to help promote ethical and sustainable practices in the tech industry as well as in other industries.