'I fucking hate AI', a series of images by @eddie.tb that showed up on my Instagram feed.

The rapid growth of generative AI in the last few years has caused a lot of consternation about the ethics of AI usage, and potentially rightfully so. We are now practically faced with the results of this technology displacing jobs due to the massive difference in time and effort it takes to produce content. However, I want to touch more on the wave of "AI hatred", which is a phenomenon I've noticed only becoming stronger in the zeitgeist, often seen in replies or comments to anything that talks about or uses generative AI, especially in areas of creative endeavor such as visual art and music production. The vociferousness of the backlash is proportional to the rate at which AI generations become closer and closer to human-created works, to the point of being indistiguishable. In some extreme comments, the hatred of anything AI has bled into cruelty of anyone who supports or uses AI.

I want to know why what I perceive to be an outsized reaction to the use of generative AI is so common.

"Now I have a way to turn my poems into music."

Buddy, there's this thing called a guitar. There's this thing called a piano.

I'm not sure if this counts as a thought-terminating cliché, but it's definitely shaped like one. It's not like people who are generating music with AI aren't aware of the existence of musical instruments. No, it's simply an uncaring dismissal of what someone's chosen to spend their time on. There's also of course the philosophical perspective:

Only humans can make real music. End of discussion.

But I think just beneath the surface is a fear of being cheated. People don't want something good to be made without blood, sweat, and tears. (If it wasn't "good" in some sense, it wouldn't be garnering the ire it does.) The fact that all of a sudden, there is competition in the space where only those who've dedicated some chunk of their life to the artform deserve to participate. I despise the romanticization of "hard work". Give the cashier a stool to sit on. Let the students get debt forgiveness. Let people enjoy things for what they are. Maybe there are similarities to those who decried photography as not a "true" art form. There is definitely still elitism in the art world.

The behavior, "inequity aversion" has been observed in various primate species - being treated unfairly garners angry reactions: a strong aversion to a perceived injustice. There were also observations of violence towards those who benefit from perceived "cheaters" as a form of social punishment. Now, I'm not an evolutionary biologist, but I see parallels here. If you were to place an objective value upon a piece of art or music, that you assume must have taken a good deal of effort, but then discover that it was made with such little effort, you'd likely feel cheated. It's unfair to the people who did put a good deal of effort into their work.

I think what bothers me the most about these arguments is the dishonesty. Many of them are inconsistent or contradictory, but as long as they can bolster the stance of being against generative AI without admitting it's essentially an emotional response to the status quo being challenged, they'll do.

You keep saying the music that people create using AI... There is literally no creation or creativity involved in the use of AI.

I'd like to see how this continues to play out: will a massive schism divide us further? Will we have (more) communities that strictly ban the use of gen AI? Or will we see a shift in the Overton window? I don't know. But what I do know is that I'll be staying true to myself regardless of what others say: I don't have an issue with AI generated creative works. They are what they are -- if someone's vision has come to life through the help of AI generation, great. My enjoyment of something isn't tied to how long it took for them to make it, or how much they had to sacrifice for it. AI generation is useful: in my work, for coding, and in my personal life, for quickly creating things I enjoy. I don't buy that it's theft, or even a lack of creativity. No technology can take creativity away from someone who wants to be creative.