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It was a kick to create a picture of myself skiing through aspen trees in deep powder. I had tried and failed for years to capture with a real camera the joy and grace and beauty of a good tree run. But in just a few minutes, the artificial intelligence chatbot ChatGPT had created the image I sought, albeit a fictitious rendering of an event that never actually happened. Then it turned that image into a magazine cover complete with snappy teasers to articles highlighting my interests.
Then, on the next day of the recent five-day course on generative artificial intelligence offered free through the University of Colorado and GenAI Academy, Larissa Schwartz, our enthusiastic, knowledgeable and very good-natured instructor, showed us AI-generated videos produced by our classmates. A lion in sunglasses driving a Land Rover on safari and a tiger rollicking downhill on a mountain bike sparked an almost giddy sense of delight at the outrageous creations of artificial intelligence.
But then, we explored AI sound tools and how to make songs in any style, complete with made-up lyrics. I was pretty happy with my AI-generated “Lonely Street Serenade,” which fulfilled my prompt to create “a jazzy, bluesy song with a little guitar and a gravelly voice.” Like the image and video I had made on previous days, it seemed quite realistic.
In fact, instructor Larissa noted that the majority of students in a class she taught could not tell if a song had been made by a human or by artificial intelligence. Both she and co-instructor Samuel Cummings raised the question of whether it makes a difference if you enjoy a song created by AI or one written by a human.
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I believe it does. I think enjoying AI-generated music somehow impoverishes us.
As I grow older, I pay more and more attention to articles about the people who live long lives not dogged by frailty or dementia. More and more, the research seems to come down to one thing: social connections. While exercise, not smoking and even the longevity of your mother all play important roles in your lifespan, the people who have the most social interactions generally live the longest and keep their wits about them best.
Music is a form of social connection. A human has shared their thoughts and feelings with anyone who plays or listens to it. And by listening to that spark of humanity and sharing it with others, you are forming social connections, ones that can strengthen personal bonds, understanding and tolerance.
My AI-generated song did evoke emotion – a kind of wistful sadness with a hint of hope around the corner. But who was I sharing it with? A computer running mathematic algorithms? Is that what we want? To be sharing more and more of our lives with machines? I think not.
The “AI IN 5: Intro to Generative AI” mini course was a tremendous success. Almost 1,000 people from around the world attended and about 600 completed all five assignments. Larissa Schwartz and Samuel Cummings were excellent guides to a host of generative AI tools well beyond ChatGPT.
I learned a fair amount about large language model AI and its tremendous power. The academic research tools we learned about have already helped my journalistic research efforts. The promise of using AI to advance scientific discoveries is truly exciting. And I was not immune to its seductive allure. The images and videos we made were fun.
But as AI spreads through all corners of our society, we must decide what we want it to do and what we want to reserve as the province of human endeavors. Where do we draw that line?
Maybe at human connection. When AI reduces our connections with each other, it is not benefiting humanity; it is diminishing our lives and may even be shortening them. Let’s resist the temptation to let AI replace our connections with each other. Our lives may depend on it.
On weekends, westword.com publishes opinion pieces on matters of interest to the Denver community; the opinions are those of the authors, not Westword. Have one you’d like to submit? Send it to editorial@westword.com, where you can also comment on this piece.
