It almost feels like we are destined to have AI take over our lives. Hillary Clinton warned us about automation taking our jobs, but it seems everyone was obsessed with focusing on … literally anything else during the 2016 election. Now, in 2023, AI is more a part of our lives, and I don’t see how we can escape it. But what about the arts?
As an instrumentalist, I have found refuge in the arts. I love techno and keyboards that can replicate all kinds of sounds, but there is something so uniquely special about a person using their own hands to play the violin or cello, the way it was intended to be played. The same sentiment goes for movies and television. I love movies from all decades! As a millennial, I love watching classic Hollywood! The interplay between witty dialogue, overly dramatic yelps, and nuanced facial expressions from the likes of Joan Crawford and Bette Davis are still so intriguing to watch. Can AI really infiltrate Hollywood of all places?
Some have been speaking out against this, and Tim Burton is the latest. The legendary director who gave us classic films like The Nightmare Before Christmas, Edward Scissorhands, and Bettlejuice saw some of his styles imitated by AI, and he was not impressed. Back in July, Buzzfeed recreated famous Disney characters with a Burton-like twist using AI, and in an interview recently published by The Independent, he described it by saying, “It’s like a robot taking your humanity, your soul.” This will probably be how all of us feel when AI renders us irrelevant!
Others have spoken out about technology in the arts. Actor Bryan Cranston, most known for his iconic role in the tv show Breaking Bad, spoke out at a rally in Times Square back in July. He talked about the writers’ strike and discussed “robots,” stating,
“I know, sir, that you look (at) things through a different lens. We don’t expect you to understand who we are. But we ask you to hear us, and beyond that to listen to us when we tell you we will not be having our jobs taken away and given to robots. We will not have you take away our right to work and earn a decent living. And lastly, and most importantly, we will not allow you to take away our dignity.”
If you didn’t know this was Cranston, it could be any union worker saying these same words. We are in a unique time when workers are striking against the standards of unfair wages and living conditions, but mixing in AI makes the current and future status of work in this country pretty unpredictable.
(featured image: Julien Hekimian/Getty Images)
