As the discourse will inevitably shift from the morality of AI to what constitutes its ethical use- (I’m not much of an optimist when it comes to resisting the march of progress)
This is one use of AI in art I can get behind
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I’m aware there are contentions surrounding the ethicality of the sourced datasets (which is a topic that requires much more research on my part before I can even form an informed opinion).
Yet, in terms of usage and application, this is a sensible demonstration of what I would consider an ethical AI-augmented workflow - supporting the worker by taking away real pain points in their workflow (I’d be surprised to know if any artists are passionate about creating textures) instead of aiming to eliminate the people themselves.
I know there will be businesses that balk at such statement (“but margins! but efficiency!”). But guess what, whatever these businesses are after is also the natural outcome without consciously aiming to replace people to cut capital cost. Workers hate bloated organization as much as the business itself, so if they could shrink team size because they could get more done by themselves, you bet they would without even making this some manager’s KPI. The difference really comes down to whether the business respect its existing workers enough to consider them, hence approach this wave of technology adoption from the perspective of giving support, or merely see them as disposable. The former gives morale, solidarity, and the possibility of having your expectations exceeded by passionate workers; the latter gives you resentment.
I wonder if the talk around AI will ever shift from “what do businesses need to 10x their output” to “what do workers truly need from AI to become capable of helping businesses 10x their output”. People and gains should both be given consideration (we are not some naive idealists now, are we?), but it’s long due to let people come before business goals as the priority of focus. Because this is the only approach through which the productivity gain by AI could become meaty and real, in the sense that it would be improvement that survives long-term scrutiny and creates actual meaningful economic value, not some house of cards propped up by short-sighted greed that’s threatening to collapse the economy if left to its own device on the alternate trajectory.
In this sense, “ethical use of AI” really means doing what’s aligned with the long-term prosperity of humanity as a whole. The tension has never been one between some fuzzy good will and logical business needs. It’s one between what we are immediately tempted to do with the tool, versus acknowledging the need to moderate such temptation such that the tool’s benefits can be reaped sustainably instead of fallen victim to its immense influence.