This Just In: the Robots Are Coming for You

When I worked with teenagers, one of the kids was deathly afraid of robots. She watched one of those History Channel shows about the “Top 10 Ways the World Will End.” One of the features was robots, which she was convinced would lead to our demise. Today, our robot overlords are entirely part of our lives, whether we realize it or not. There’s a lot of talk about AI-generated art and AI writing, but is it something we must fear? Let’s dig in.

AI-generated art is all over the news right now because a man used the tools to win the Colorado State Fair’s art competition. When the results went public, an internet conversation developed about if the man is an artist or if he simply used a tool to create the art. I’d argue that the tool is no different than a camera or Photoshop. You can take whatever side of the argument that you want, but the fact is that AI-generated content is here, and it’s not going anywhere.

I used Midjourney, the same tool used to win the art contest, to create the image that sits atop this post. I used the prompt the robots are taking over the world because I thought it was fitting.

I should probably let you in on another secret; I’m completely dictating this post to my phone. I’m not “writing” it as you typically would, and I’m letting Siri add all of the punctuation based on the pauses in my voice. This is a new feature of iOS 16, which I have to say is pretty fantastic. I’ll then use Grammarly, also a form of artificial intelligence, to edit the content to ensure that it reads well. Other writing tools will generate the entire content for you without using your brain, but I’m not too fond of those and haven’t found great success either.

As I explore more of these AI-generated tools for creativity, I’m excited to see where they go. They give me a new outlet to explore my imagination and enable me to write in different ways. I never thought I could create a string of words and output an image based on them, but it’s fascinating to see the possibilities. Plus, the quality is extremely nice for essentially beginning-level tools. Imagine where we’ll be in a few years!

What level of AI-generated content are you comfortable with? Hit reply, and let’s have a conversation. I promise the AI won’t be the one responding; it will be me.


What’s Capturing My Attention Right Now

• There are three big players in the AI-image game, and they each have the potential to create greatness.
• Maybe AI is smarter than we think.
• I chose dragons over elves.
• Sinem Günel invited me to be part of a roundtable discussion with Zulie Rane, Tony Stubblebine, and Jon Brosio. Missed the conversation? It’s on YouTube. Isn’t everything?
• New shiny things are coming my way, so they’ll be taking up my time for a bit.
• I crossed 50k followers on Medium! Thank you if you’re one of them.

Today’s Bonus Link

Green Day reminds us that when September ends, it’s time to make way for the queen.