I have previously mentioned my preference for “Natural Intelligence” over Artificial Intelligence, and I feel as though this topic warrants its own post. The rise of artificial intelligence as a whole but specifically generative AI has been disastrous for the creative industry. 

One of the main arguments in favour of the use of AI in creative spaces has been that it makes art, writing, and content creation easily available for everyone. This completely ignores the fact that art has always been readily available for anyone – it just takes practice! I have been writing since I have been able to hold a pen, and my writing has steadily improved since then. Similarly, visual artists and content creators have been honing their craft trying to get to a point where they can be sustained through their work. Replacing real people with AI cuts costs significantly, but it also cuts humanity from the project. You are asking a machine to sift through the entirety of human knowledge and give you the most likely answer, not necessarily the correct one. The machine does not have any experiences of its own: it can only analyze others’ experience through its own lens and directives. 

In a world where profit is the only thing that matters, AI is an incredibly useful tool. However that is not the world we live in nor is it a world anyone should want to live in. We live in a world of collective human experience and creativity is the manifested product of each interaction we have with each other. AI was promised to make the mundane easier but instead it has corralled us to a point where effort towards anything but the mundane is frowned upon. 

The question of how to resist this terrifying onslaught of regurgitated material remains. To put it succinctly, We as humans need to support humanity and the beautiful things it produces. Instead of using AI to create an image, make it yourself or pay someone to make it. Instead of using AI to fact check information, take the extra 5 seconds to do a proper search and double check the validity of the information. Instead of using AI to create an impersonal blog post or email blast, hire a business like Wej Media to create unique content that is tailored to you and your vision. Natural intelligence is and always will be superior to the artificial variety, and I believe time will only prove me right.