being an author and (drawing) artist who also does jewelry and other handcrafts… has given me a pretty complicated set of feelings about LLM-generated writing and art
does it result in the market for my work being saturated by machine-made lower-quality stuff that makes my own work much harder to find? …yes. like always
Is that machine-made stuff a lot more harmful to the environment in its production? …yeah, as usual
Is it really only partly machine-made, with a lot of the work actually being done by sweatshop laborers who get little to no credit for their contribution to the process?… yep again
Is it cheaper? Is it all that some people can afford? Yeahhhh
Does it try to mimic, sometimes even dishonestly claim to be, the type of work that people like me do? Is it algorithmically chosen to appeal to the masses? Do some people actually grow to prefer its style over that of individual creative work like mine?… Yes yes and yes
Are elements of the design copied from people like me without our consent? Fucking probably, but no damn way we’d ever get anything done about it
Is it a new problem? ….hmm. define what you mean by that.
The reason the feelings are complicated is because of the imperfect parallel.
i.e. that as an author or painter who sells printed copies or digital downloads of my work, I am not doing the same sort of art I do when I handcraft a hundred similar small pendants or coin purses to sell.
In that second capacity, I am working more like the machinery that is used to create and distribute prints and digital downloads.
In the capacity of author or artist, I am doing the sort of work I did only once, in designing that style of pendant or coin purse. On the author or painter side of my life, all the rest of the job after that is automated.
The feelings are complex because I want to be recognized for my work, even writing/painting/drawing work– but I do not truly believe that it’s worth as much payment for each copy as I would need in order to live on that as a sole income.
(One can’t both believe that, and believe pirating copies of intellectual property is always okay. Those beliefs are incompatible.)
The feelings are complex because I feel the same bitterness about being replaced by machines when I’m a crafter and when I’m a writer… but my role as a writer is analogous to the role my crafter side considers the enemy.
Centuries ago I’d have probably been bitter about being replaced by the printing press.
I don’t know.
…I think the crux of my cognitive dissonance is always gonna be the fucked up idea of “earning a living.”
Part of me says “the plagiarism machine (and/or piracy) is a problem because it steals livelihoods”
Part of me says, “of course copies of your books/drawings are worth whatever it takes for you to live off them, because you have a right to live”
But authors and artists have a right to live no matter what their work is worth.
And “worth” is a subjective concept that means only “what anyone’s willing to pay for it.”
And that is getting constantly lower for the work of everyone who isn’t already rich and powerful.
And the whole concept of “machines are stealing the livelihood of real artists” is founded on the idea that artists only deserve to live because they make real, original art.
… if we could fix the economy in ways that allowed everyone to survive regardless of what work they do, there would still be MANY serious problems with a lot of this automation and how it’s used.
I feel like it’s dangerous to focus on the problems that only exist because artists don’t make enough to survive in the first place.