Impact of Artificial Intelligence on Content Creation & Employment

There are many things Artificial Intelligence can do, but there are some things the AI cannot do, like writing this blog. This year has seen the rise of AI, and since then AI service platforms and content created by these platforms have taken over the internet. Initially, it was believed that like previous industrial revolutions, this new invention will affect the basic entry-level jobs with lower skills, but it directly attacked those jobs that require higher levels of skills. As Artificial Intelligence improves, it will get better and will compete with artists, writers, actors, singers, and musicians, along with other jobs like product delivery, sales and even data collection and data interpretation.

 

But can there be a human civilisation where everything is automated? If everything right from art to programming is going to be done by AI, what kind of jobs would humans do? How will the economic cycle function? This sudden rise of AI is perceived to be a major threat to human resources and human employment opportunities.

What is Artificial Intelligence

 

I had this same question back in 2007 when I was playing a video game called Half-Life 2. In that game due to a bug, AI would disable freezing all the NPCs (Non-Player Characters) in the game. So basically, they could not react to the game player like shooting enemies or interacting with allies. These AI were also called Bots (short for Robots), a term now more widely used. Artificial Intelligence would enable these NPCs to understand and respond to the actions taken by the player or other forces within the game simulation. This same feature evolved for the internet where AI collected and studied data and curated relevant results. But now it has become so intelligent that it not just curates but also creates content, like a human being would, but faster and at times better.

 

While it will impact the IT sector, Medical sectors, and other high-level job markets with highly functional purposes, it will also affect job markets with higher aesthetic value.

 

Generative AI in Art

 

Artificial Intelligence takes the ‘Art is Imitation’ idea literally and creates content replicating what already exists online. This is useful to create something in a very short time without much effort, but it also floods the internet with similar-looking content that will have a diminishing utility.

 

Quick Saturation of AI Content

 

Ever since AI art became available to the public, the internet has been flooded with AI art and other content like AI-generated scripts, AI voiceovers, AI paintings, AI graphics & AI personalities. The results were astounding, but soon it reached its saturation point. One could see a repetitive pattern in these AI arts. The whole content pool created by AI was formulaic and repeated the same patterns.

 

When you copy from one art, it is called plagiarism. But when you copy from multiple arts, it is called references. Artificial Intelligence does exactly that. This makes the results repetitive leading to a saturation point faster.

 

There are limits to what AI can create. AI has limited knowledge and limited vocabulary. It is primarily created in the West and thus has a limited worldview. On prompt it will be able to provide wonderful Gothic, or Renaissance architecture. But it cannot understand the nuances between different Indian architectural styles like Mughal architecture or Deccani architecture. It often misunderstands prompts, and its visualisation capability is limited to its reference points. Maybe as AI learns and gets more data it will get better at its job. But that alone won’t solve the issue. It is a tool, and its result depends on limitations to what a prompter can imagine.

 

Creativity with Artificial Intelligence

 

Artificial Intelligence is a tool which gives a person the edge over others. But who will have the edge if everyone has access to AI and we have a level playing field? The answer is the person with better creativity and better skills. AI will give you what you prompt it, but that prompt has to be precise. The greater detail you give the better result it will provide. A person with better insights will excel more. But even after the results are provided by AI, it has to be reviewed and improved by the person using creativity for optimising results. AI will always tend to follow formulae, but humans can bend or break them to create something new.

 

This way, humans can always stay ahead of AI in some way. When AI gathered data, humans attained information, for example, a basic Google search. When AI gathered information, humans attained knowledge. When AI will gather knowledge, humans will attain intelligence, and when AI gathers intelligence, humans will attain intellect. When AI somehow reaches the level of intellect, humans will attain wisdom. Wisdom comes from real experiences, AI can merely process probabilities. If someday AI attains wisdom, that will get into the realm of artificial consciousness – which deserves a separate blog.

 

AI in Film & Entertainment

 

Firstly, it will make basic-level editing and VFX obsolete. Older film stars can continue to stay young on screen, and dead actors can be brought to life on screen using AI and AI-generated voiceovers. Living actors, singers and musicians’ work can easily be replicated using AI without them having to do any work. These artists could outsource their job to AI for a licence fee and chill at home or go on vacations. Imitating robots can also replace stunt doubles for dangerous tasks. But will they create barriers for newcomers to replace these older stars? Maybe this system will also reach saturation and people would expect changes in faces and styles.

 

AI content creators and AI social media influencers are already here. But unlike real people, they can’t provide a sense of personal connection. A film star will always have more fan following than a film star created from AI graphics and has a mind of a computer. This is because human beings are social animals and they require to build connections with other human beings.

 

Unreliability of Artificial Intelligence

 

Artificial Intelligence is at times unreliable because many times it is inaccurate in its assessments, and many times it lies blatantly. I have personally experienced this and so have many people. Just like any human being, AI can be fed with wrong data, and wrong information that may lead it to reach wrong conclusions. Also, AI can develop its own biases based on its previous experiences. Like humans, AI will also have to unlearn and relearn.

 

Content created using AI has suddenly flooded the internet and most of them are very repetitive. Hence, search engines are now using AI to filter out these AI spam. Therefore, simply creating AI content will not be fruitful. AI can provide content but they still have to be contextualised by human beings to stay relevant.

 

Reference point to Artificial Intelligence

 

Before the emergence of AI and even today, when a client asks a graphic designer or a content writer to create content, the brief they provide is the 'prompt'. Based on the brief provided, the designer or writer creates content. Hence, the designer or the writer is considered to be the content creator and not the client. Similarly, when someone prompts the AI to create the content, the prompter cannot be considered its creator. But in the absence of any other human being involved, the authorship may go to the prompter. This may lead to legal issues in coming future if similar content is simultaneously created.

 

Future Jobs for Human Creators

 

Civilisations run on the economy. The economy functions when there is a circulation of wealth. Producers are consumers and consumers are producers. Therefore, there cannot be a human civilization where everything is automated to AI. So, then what kinds of jobs would humans do in the future?

 

AI Content Vs Human Content

 

One can get a burger or a pizza at a restaurant chain that provides cheap but standardised food that tastes the same as any other franchise, or one can get a burger or a pizza from a local vendor who makes it traditionally and has a unique taste. One can get a Greeting Card from someone who bought it from a gift store that has a template design and a standard message. But if someone gets a greeting card tailored for the receiver it will have a greater emotional value. An instant noodle packet may save time and fulfil your hunger, but it will still have a lower value than a premium noodle dish you would get in a restaurant.

 

What AI will provide is a template form of content that will be cheap and may have a high functionality value, but will have a lower emotional value. Here, human art or human writing will excel over AI art or writing.

 

A fandom of a film star will always be greater than a fictional character. This is because the film star exists in the real world. Even if an AI provides a relationship, human interaction will still be considered to be greater simply because of its realness. AI is good for transactional purposes, but it won’t create a long-lasting relationship which a human can.

 

Unique Personal Voice

 

I could have asked AI to write this blog for me, but the result it would give me would have been very different from the one that I have written. This is because I have an original voice, AI does not. As a writer, I have some views which would not reflect in AI content. I cannot outsource my thoughts to a machine. My original thoughts make my blog original and will stand out from the AI-generated content that has no soul. Of course, someone could ask AI to write it in a certain way but would be fake. The whole point of being a writer is to have an independent unique voice. AI content can never replace it.

 

Future of AI and Real Threats

 

While job losses are the most immediate after-effects of AI, this new technology will have some other adverse effects. Photo manipulation and deep fakes already exist, but now AI will be able to create realistic fake videos. This would blur the borders between reality and fake news. Too much dependability on AI would make civilizations very fragile and prone to cyber-attacks from enemies. Such cyber-attacks may not be taking systems offline, but could slightly manipulate the system without getting noticed.

 

Another effect of AI would have been the creation of a surveillance state. Individuals would be spied on using AI technology by governments for security reasons and by advertisers and corporations for sales and marketing. Another down part of this system would be the death of privacy, and if your data is with the AI, someone might manipulate it to use it against you. This would also give rise to police departments working in AI on AI, but society will have to adapt and evolve faster than ever before.

 

It would also make humans smarter. The past few decades have seen the rise of smartphones which has been making people dumber. Now, to survive in an environment where AI is getting better, humans will have to stop being sheep following the shepherd or the herd. Maybe, future humans would not believe in anything at face value, and be more analytical and critical in their thinking. Survival of the Homo Sapiens depends on its ability to be truly sapiens. Overall, it feels like the world of science fiction is here.