FRATPACKER WORLD.

FORGET THE AI LET’S GET BACK TO THE PEOPLE

A topic that has been a big one since the introduction of the technological tool or weapon of mass creative destruction, depending how you look at it, and Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) is still causing chaos as it splits the creative world into two sides. Some creatives see it as a tool to evolve oneself the limits of what our imagination can do. While others see it as a weapon used to destroy jobs for creatives and kills imagination in us because we are no longer forced to train our brains to think and create using what’s in front of us or creating and building what’s not here. Now, I’m not here to tell you what’s right or wrong but just how I feel and perceive the whole situation.

With technology since the creation of the computer it has always been said, feared and prophesied that A.I. would be coming sooner or later into our world and would eventually take over the world and humans. We see this concept in movies like Terminator, I Robot and various Sci-Fi films and books. The main problem in every case study is that as humans we become lazy and start relying on the machines to think for us and so in term the more the machines think the smarter, they become and start to gain conscious while we as humans start to live unconsciously as if everything is meant to happen or take place automatically with no action or thinking required on our side.

Now as much as technology can be helpful in the creative industry with fields such as animation and making it faster and less expensive to create or digital illustrations. Even in movies we saw how the upgrade of CGI elevated the movie experience as well as the quality of effects that could be added and experienced in the movie to bring it closer to real life and give the audience and immersive sensory experience. If we look at movies such as Transformers or Avatar, we can see how far we’ve come in terms of technology in the creative field.

The difference with the forementioned technology and A.I. is that it still requires you to think, strategize and figure out how best to use it and implement the technology into your art and work process. With A.I. the point is for it to provide you with the solutions or answers that you either don’t have the time or energy to figure out or easily give you the skills that one may not have time to acquire or just weren’t meant for them. For example, if one needs to design a poster and has a brief but no idea or inspiration to come up with an idea, they can use A.I. to render some ideas and options for them removing the task of having to create or generate an idea. Or it could be that one is looking to have a poster designed but to try and save money they use A.I. to create a poster instead of paying or hiring a graphic designer for their services.

Now while both help and can make life easier for an individual you can also see how it steals from the art of creation and the pockets of creatives. Not only that it steals the experience of human interaction. Being able to share ideas, thoughts, experiences, emotions and perspectives that can help shape and add on to your character and outlook as a person. As tiring as it is the acts of brainstorming and reverts in the creative process build us and force us to think not just outside the box but outside ourselves as well.

Another thing people don’t consider when looking at new technology is that the laws around technology are always reactive and never preventive. It’s like when websites first started and there were no safety checks on the web and the dark web thrived in the shadows. We didn’t know what could or would come from chatrooms and all the nasty that can go on. The laws are always reactive to how people use the technology and what can be done with it. The same goes for A.I. where now in the music world people have been using A.I. for posthumous albums or verse but now it’s worse with A.I. artists existing and now the common fan using A.I. to make songs that sound like your favourite popular artist and real but are from it. What are the implications there and how do we have a check against A.I. generated material and creations.

With the whole world in a frenzy over A.I. I genuinely had the belief and thought that as the cultural country we are filled with a history of art and creation. A country that prides itself on Ubuntu and connecting with one another as humans. That we as South Africans stood strong against A.I. and especially in the hip-hop community. I mean the international hip-hop community as a whole is still angry at legendary producer Timberland creating and endorsing his own A.I. artist so it leaves me lost for words when South African hip-hop festival, Back To The City [the largest hip-hop festival in South Africa], chose to use A.I. in their promotion of the festival.

It really hurt me, and I believe majority of the South African hip-hop community because it feels like the biggest violation ever. Firstly, let’s look at the culture of hip-hop and how it’s supposed to be a celebration of one being able to look at nothing or something of old and be able to use that as inspiration to build and create something new out of it. It’s more of an homage to the art and creatives that have come before when producers sample or make flips and mashups or performing artists find new ways to re-imagine or re-use lyrics to bring something new to life. Hip-hop is celebrated for its originality with artists who have ghost writers not necessarily frowned upon but not seen in the same light as thought who create their own. A.I. goes against this whole philosophy. A.I. is the ghost-writer in the situation and they shameless put it out there thinking as hip-hop that would be it but I ask you what happened to the real? This is adding to the cries of South African is either dead or dying.

The second point is that hip-hop has always pushed and encourage entrepreneurship especially for black people and the youth. With the A.I. creations they are taking away what could have been a job opportunity for a young creative wanting to learn or sharpen their skills or to give the graphic designers, strategists and creatives who have put in the 10000 hours a chance and opportunity to show that all their time, effort and hard work has finally paid off and being recognised. This feels like a pie in the face.

Thirdly and lastly, hip-hop has never been shy of labelling something as whack and calling it out and the use of A.I. in especially in this regard is just whack and nothing more about it needs to be said. From our leaders and people who have been pillars of the hip-hop community this one was heart-breaking to witness and experience.

Taking away that home emotion from what has been known as a festival that connects creatives and humans of all walks of life together to celebrate an artform and culture that is based off the people and using your creativity to the fullest to not just making a living but make means of expressing yourself just feels as though we have been short changed, Luckily though we are all still human and we are all allowed to make mistakes but as well redeem ourselves for our past mistakes. Back To The City has always been a pillar and foundation for the growth of South African hip-hop and even though they might have fumbled the ball with this one we still thank them for all the service they do for putting us on the map and always shining a spotlight on all fields of creatives in the hip-hop and giving young artists the opportunity to perform on the big stage in front of 10 000+ people. As a community let’s close our laptops and let the A.I. die; I mean it was Jay-Z who told us death of autotune, and open our hearts, minds and soul so that the real can rise again because it never died.