Stupid, Flawed, Lazy Creatures.

A/N: Hi. Before starting this story, I would like to warn you that there will be a lot of cursing in this story. Also, this is fiction. It may be offensive to a certain audience. However, please remember that this is just a story and no ill-intent was intended. This story (if you can even call it that), is meant to be biased. But, it is also meant to spark debate. Not in the manner of the story, of course, but in a creative, productive, and civil manner.

Fuck. I’ll probably regret starting my story with that but I don’t care. This will be raw, emotional, and truthful to my thoughts. I’m an artist. I’m also a writer. My name is Sua, and I like to create things. Ever since I was young, I always had a lot of creativity. I used to let them out through drawing comics. I always loved comics. They are peak storytelling. The only thing I love more is animation. It’s the very medium that brings fictional characters to life. What can be cooler than that?

Currently, there is a large debate going on. It’s about AI. I think you’ll be familiar with this topic if you are reading this. Like… c’mon.

The public has become more generally pro AI and it fucking infuriates me to my core. Yes, I fully acknowledge that AI is a great tool with so much potential to revolutionize so many different industries. That’s an overall huge plus to humanity. However, as soon as it hits my domain? The creative side? Imma throw punches.

Today, I’ve got a great opportunity. I was going to be going on a debate about the use of AI. That’s why I started my story with that word. I was ten seconds from going on stage and debating some bitch that thinks AI is good for humanity. Did I mention I was on national television? Yeah, my legs were shaking like the structural integrity of spaghetti as legs.

“Good morning everyone. Today, we have two great debaters coming out and debating about AI. The topic will be covering “will AI be good for humanity?” and each side will have 3 minutes to give their opening, and so on. We will be starting from the left with the proposition, “AI is a good to humanity”. You have one minute.”

“While there are a lot of people arguing about the dangers of AI, they don’t know what AI truly is. It is a revolutionary piece of technology that has the ability to be implemented into almost any field imaginable. They are able to do calculations no human will be able to do for a billion years in a matter of minutes. They are able to predict weather more accurately than any of our current tools can. They can even create a movie in an instant. These are all important breakthroughs that will push humans to the next step in the industrial revolution and even bring UBI (universal basic income) to fruition.” The proposition said.

Fuck that was good. I looked at the opposing side, which was some techbro named Luke. While he looked formal and dressed up, I couldn’t help but look at him as a slimy, condescending piece of- STAY PROFESSIONAL SUA. Anyways, I was up next with my opening.

“Alright, now we will have the opposition give their opening. You will also have three minutes like the proposition.”

“He- Hello (why am I introducing myself? No, I can’t waste time. I have to get to my points right now). While it is true that… AI can revolutionize our current technology, there are many cushion- cautions (get a hold of yourself you idiot) that we need to think about. First, AI is threatening to cause a huge job shortage. The technology sector has already been hit hard with AI replacing a lot of lower tier workers in the software engineering industry. Coding and writing can be done in an instant, which makes lower tier jobs useless. These people, who depend on these jobs for survival will be suffering the hardest. AI is just another tool that will make the rich get richer.

“It is also dangerous because… uh… (brain… BRAIN… c’mon focus)... the art industry is also in threat from AI. The thing commonly used to refer to “AI Slop” has become more common than ever in art sites like Pinterest, Twitter (the twitter bird is alive. I refuse to call that thing X), and Instagram, causing an overall lowering of quality in content in these sites. Art is an inherently human process and it is wrong for AI to-”“I’m so sorry but we are out of time. Now, let’s move on to the rebuttal.” The chair said.

Luke started first. “Miss… Sua. You previously mentioned unemployment as a problem right?”

“Yes…” I said.

“Well, then you should be aware that this is only an issue because we live in a capitalistic society that can’t provide for the weak. Like trickle down economics, but more successfully, the implementation of AI will allow for human beings to not work anymore. This won’t mean that human beings won’t earn money, as UBI will be able to be implemented as costs for production will go way down. This won’t make poverty an issue, it will fix poverty.” He continued.

“Uh… the thing is… well…” I stuttered.

“Are you not able to refute this, miss Sua?”

“No.. well, you mentioned trickle-down economics but I think it should be noted that that economic policy did not work as intended, and the tax cuts for the rich have only made the rich richer and the poor poorer. It is hard to guarantee that this massive loss of jobs will come with UBI. The people who developed the AI, or are lobbying for it, will reap most of the profits and it won’t work as you say it will.” I said. Good job me. That was pretty good.

“But that’s just an assumption.”

“Okay, we will now be going on to the next part of the debate. We have a couple of questions, and you will each have an opportunity to chime in. The first question is,

“How will generative AI impact humanity?”

This time, I started.

“While generative AI is an impressive piece of technology, like I mentioned in the beginning, it is capable of nothing more than generating “Slop”. Part of the creative process is the input of human beings; the soul. Without it, the content generated by AI is void of any emotions.”

“You say that miss Sua, and yet you seem to not understand how generative AI actually works. In terms of writing, the human has control over the output, as they can tweak and change it as much as they want. Also, in terms of drawing, you say “soul” but how can you define that? If an image is generated through a lot of prompting and altering, all with the touch of human beings, is that not a human process as well?”

“The inherent difference is that while drawing is a skill that takes hours and creativity, AI art does nothing but take that creative process-”

“But the human being is still involved in the process. Tell me this. Is a banana taped to a wall, art? Apparently it is. It’s not about the effort, but the thought and intent put into the artwork isn’t it?”

“If we go into the territory of modern art, it was created as a movement to invoke social commentary. Part of the banana with tape is that it allows for people to wonder why it’s considered art. AI doesn’t have that.”

“Sadly, that’s time for both, and we will be going over to the next question.” The chair said. We both tried to protest but it clearly wasn’t her first rodeo.

“Next question, What impact can AI have on society? And will it be positive?”

I know you’re probably mad at me for skipping forward. But I have to. Most of the rest of the debate was going as planned until this moment, and we’re running out of words.

I don’t remember what the question was (probably something related to generative AI again), but we were having a heated debate until I… uhm, kinda lost it? I guess?

“If you keep pushing that rhetoric, you should also know that human art is flawed as well. Children can’t draw the Mona Lisa, and yet we still congratulate them and consider what they draw as art and hang it up on the fridge. Human beings copied and plagiarized from each other for centuries. Even in the modern day, genres are created because humans are unoriginal and copied the same stereotypes to the point they became commonplace. If all of these things that humans have done can be considered art, then why can’t AI-”

“SHUT THE FUCK UP! Yes, human beings are stupid, ugly, flawed, and greedy. But that’s what makes us so creative, beautiful, perfect, and kind. Not everything is a binary. In fact, this stupid debate shouldn’t be a fucking binary in the first place. AI is good in some fucking aspects, but it is also destructive. Generative AI is nothing but a FUCKING bitch that does nothing but steal like you uncultured swines that think typing on your stupid keys is the same as creating art, or writing a story. We all pretend that advances in technology are good, but it isn’t. Sometimes, it’s better to stick to older methods. While AI can create a hundred paintings, or write ten books at the same time, that is fundamentally missing the point. Stories are meant to be a part of you. Drawings are meant to be a part of you. Creativity can be mimicked but never recreated. AI can only create whatever hundreds of thousands of data it stole without permission, but it can never replace humans because we are flawed. We make mistakes, we do things inefficiently, but that’s what creates the perfect story. The mistakes humans make are natural and beautiful. AI can mimic a seemingly perfect, boring story, but the best stories are often flawed, controversial, and entertaining. You are hide behind this stupid fucking rhetoric that “AI has useful implications” because of course it does. But you also pretend that applies to writing and drawing when it doesn’t. Stop lying to us and fucking shut up!”

Oops… I looked around and everyone was kind of astonished. I didn’t realize it because adrenaline was pumping through my body, but I was crying.

That debate turned into a disaster. It was live, so it was kind of hard to take back a lot of what I said. After that statement, I was lightheaded for the rest of the debate and I can’t even remember what I said. Honestly, I’m surprised they didn’t kick me out then and there. Well… Not that it mattered anyways. The public looked at my breakdown and largely split into two; The side that hated me for being so inappropriate and unprofessional, and the other side that loved me for speaking out with true emotions.

While Pro AI was still more vocal, our debate has made the whole argument a lot more gray. People were less willing to say AI will take over everything, and they are now focusing more on the positive aspects of AI. There’s still a ton of slop on the internet, but there is a piece of legislation being worked on that hopefully will limit that.

I honestly don’t know why I was even able to get on national television in the first place. I’m emotional, stutter a lot, and generally have all the traits of a horrible debater. However, I was reached out to through twitter due to my vocal stance against AI. There were apparently a crap ton of other people that were reached out to, but I somehow beat them all. Twitter was rampant for a good week after that debate with people saying, “I would’ve done better than that girl.”

I don’t know how to end this story. There’s no concrete ending as things are still ongoing, and the future is uncertain. AI has had breakthrough after breakthrough and there’s now a fuckin’ movie made entirely by AI. But, what I do know is that the world doesn’t change for the better with a single revolution. It changes from continual resistance.

And if you'll excuse me, I'm going to write a rant post about this stupid movie on twitter.