AI will take all our jobs, even creative ones. Possibly.

I am not trying to be controversial or complacent about AI here as I am talking purely from a personal perspective. I have written before about the race for AI supremacy and even how they might be of benefit, but the concern for most people is simply that an Artificial Intelligence will steal their jobs. In some cases that has already happened. There are some fascinating books about the rapid rise of AI, and which superpowers are winning the race, if you want more of an insight.

The thing is, jobs for life are no longer really a thing. People need to retrain more often these days because the landscape is constantly changing. Hence things like the gig economy and online course sites like Machine Learning, Data Science and Deep Learning with Python Course for as low as $10.99“>course to learn coding. This has good points (freedom from “The Man”) and bad (I like a decent wage and job stability), but it is the way it is. Younger generations get this more than older generations, obviously, but until now I always thought the creative arts would be spared. I still think that, so I am a massive hypocrite when I warn people to be prepared to retrain and yet have made no steps to do so myself.

I have a degree in English language and literature, which isn’t as helpful as you’d think (that was sarcasm) but I guess I could always teach. I worry that journalism might be done by a robot but fiction writing might last a little longer. The sort of articles under threat are the ones that are largely click-bait and are written in five minutes. Like one ingredient being found that lowers weight or helps with diabetes and there is an article of 500 words of filler when the entire thing could just have been – “Cinnamon”. Bollocks to the people who write that kind of stuff.

When is comes to more creative fare, yes there are now AI writers, artists and musicians but I think, generally speaking, decent writers, artists and musicians need not worry. There are human geniuses doing those jobs and yet the rest of us still find a way to live. An AI can join the market and might make their own fascinating additions to literature/ film/ TV/ art/ music whatever. Ironically, an AI stealing jobs means people will have more time to chill out and read a book.

It’s possible I am in denial but whatever, it is a fascinating topic and really interesting to see what an AI can come up with creatively. The picture at the top of this article was painted by an AI and its signature is just a cool looking algorithm. It sold for almost half a million USD. Which seems mental except that the art world can be full of shit anyway. Sometimes literally. There is an artist called Piero Manzoni who did a shit in a load of tins back in the 60s. Those tins now sell for almost 250,000 USD each. I would prefer the AI art to two tins of his crap. I digress.

The One Zero publication on Medium recently got an AI to write some articles for them and the results were interesting. Some were pretty normal but some were odd. Like this:

Life in the Time of Coronavirus (written by an AI)

At 8:45 each weekday morning, I drop off my four-year-old at preschool, hug him goodbye, and drive back home.

The pavement is lined with cars, and for some reason I feel as though I’m alone. These past few months, since the election, have been unending. My office sits in one of Trump’s most distressed locales: close enough to Manhattan, but far enough away to feel like an alien in my own country. I can’t find my kids on any social media or in any of my apps. Their phone alarms go off for imaginary visitors, and the playground is scruffy and the sidewalks are dirty. The Trump portrait on my wall, borrowed from a neighbor, looks shabby.

(Farther down the street, on the other side of the house, there is a huge painting of Obama looking at a phone.)

Along the community’s main artery, dozens of houses show signs of front-yard repairs: The curb has been cut in half and the basketball hoop had to be shifted to the other side. There are no flowers in sight.

Even music is getting in on it

The Verge recently ran a story about how music produced by AI is changing the industry. It’s pretty interesting.

So while creative types are technically in the firing line for AI replacement, I think they will continue to be ok. There is room for a new breed or genre of creative. A year from now I may well be writing about a TEFL (Teach English as a Foreign Language) course I’m taking but I will certainly still be plugging my writing. (Please have a look.) Fingers crossed for you all.