Why I Refuse To Touch Generative AI As a Creative By: Katie Caudle

My name is Katie Caudle. I am a 22-year-old music education major in my forth year at Hardin-Simmons University.

I was in my senior year of high school when the first widely used generative AI platform, ChatGPT, came out in 2022. A friend’s parent showed me, exceptionally excitedly, a song that he had written about Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson with just the click of a button. I was surprised and excited to see the song was something that sounded half decent. I thought it looked cool, but did not think much about it. 

Fast forward to a few months later and the internet is panicking, “AI is stealing our jobs,” “Companies are trading workers for AI,” and even “Students are using AI to complete homework.” I was very shocked at this turn of events. How could something that was so cool to me just a few months prior now be a cause for such outrage?

I decided to do some research on what AI really was and how it could affect me. What I discovered was that companies were plugging real people’s art into AI. So it would seem like AI was coming up with original work, when in reality, it was using the work of other artists and putting them through an algorithm. 

A famous animator, Hayao Miyazaki, known for his work with Studio Ghibli, once said that he saw AI as an “Insult to life itself” and stated that he would never use the technology in his work. Miyazaki has always been someone who inspires others with his work, so to hear someone who is so creative denounce AI in such a way was a shock to me. Now, though, I understand his concern; with how prevalent AI usage is in what should be creative spaces, it  came as no surprise that creatives are opposed to AI. 

My personal thoughts when it comes to being both someone who enjoys creations and is creative, is that I will not use it. I want to make something unique, which is impossible to do when I have an algorithm of other people’s work creating something for me. I want my work to be personal, which is impossible when I am not personally creating something and instead generating work through AI. I want what I create to be good and up to my own standards of quality and morality, and generative AI does not pass on either of those fronts.