OPINION: Artificial

Love really does make the world go round, and the Western world is on the brink of a renaissance. As technology becomes oversaturated and AI slop floods the internet; a once-sacred space for sharing experiences, ideas and comedy all over the world, human art is increasing in value. The rate of increase is as rapid as the flood, so have no fear artists, your brushwork will remain cherished. But why is human art becoming more valuable? Five years ago, we didn’t have the same descriptions for terms like “slop” or “human art.” All art was human and slop was mud that pigs rolled around in.

I believe we are currently in a state of processing. Much like with the printing press or the internet, people needed time to digest new content and new truths. Suddenly, anyone could print what they thought was a universal truth and nail it to your door. Suddenly, anyone could write a blog and promote their ideas as universal truths. AI can only generate what it is fed, but like the printing press and the internet, it is fed entirely by us and our ideas. Technofeudalist warlords and AI investors would have nothing without our data. They would be nothing without us. The algorithm would wiggle as directionless as a worm on concrete if we weren’t regularly accessing the soil to burrow our own trails. We may not be at a point where we can feel hopeful for the future as a collective yet, but the human mind is undoubtedly being pedestalled as a natural and beautiful network for creation. Nothing, not even the most advanced technology funded by unwilling taxpayers, can replicate the human brain.

Let’s look at translation as an example. I went to the University of Ottawa for translation in 2021 and my courses were heavily centred around both surviving and thriving with technology: LLMs, translation memories, machine translation, concordancers, etc. I was also trained to use multiple software called CAT tools, or computer-aided-technology, which is a fancy term for a translator’s workbench. But picture this: Ten years ago, my translation colleagues used Google Docs, a dictionary and one primary CAT tool that dominated the market. Fifty years ago, translators used dictionaries and the most incredible source of information that the tech market still hasn’t quite snagged: the human brain. So, what happened?

Translation is one of humanity’s oldest living and breathing careers. As time passed and the world globalized, the demand to have every communication translated increased by a hundredfold. Even today, there are not enough translators to meet the demand. We want to travel to Japan without learning Japanese, to understand the politics of Russia without learning Russian, and most importantly, we don’t want to pay the high cost of having a Russian-to-English translator do the work for us. Translation has always been at the forefront of tech advancement and the industry has witnessed dramatic changes with each new invention intended to speed up the process and lower costs. Ten years ago, Trados Studio was the reigning CAT tool of the industry; a powerhouse combining linguistics and machines. Today, more CAT tools are flooding the market to monopolize words and make communication even faster. We are now at a point where AI has been crowned as some saviour in the gap between time, cost and quantity. Anyone can plug a French sentence into ChatGPT and make it produce another sentence in English. The problem however, is the absence of quality–quality that can only be produced by the best processor out there: the human brain.

Translators and artists alike have been individually resisting the AI flood. We can see this with Guillermo del Toro’s new Frankenstein film, which was filled with practical effects and minimal CGI (which importantly requires human intervention, unlike AI). The director proudly shouted, “Fuck AI!” at festivals and award ceremonies, which was met by the cheers of other creators and enthusiasts of real art. Morgan Freeman is suing AI companies for using his voice in an unshakeable statement: “Don’t mimic me with falseness.” If you need another example in the film and video world, look no further than the AI-generated McDonald’s ad that sparked immediate outrage and was taken down. The people yearn for real voices and real art, as it is a way we connect with each other. I believe resisting AI is an act of love not only for yourself, but also for your neighbour writing a book or the little girl down the street hoping to become an actor someday. Don’t even get me started on Tilly Norwood.

In the literary world, physical books and book clubs are on the rise. Young people have begun to abandon smartphones for the printed word, and old ways of studying, socializing and expressing are becoming currency. Though BookTok has its fair share of criticisms and controversies, I can’t help but wonder if reading as a trend is a bad thing (yes, I do see the irony in an algorithm influencing the physical world). Influencers may not be absorbing the lessons of Charles Dickens or the adventures of Alexandre Dumas, but those texts are not going away and are waiting to be rediscovered. I believe there is already a growing space on the internet of people seeking out classic literature, particularly by John Steinbeck at the moment, as a way not only to learn from great authors, but to connect with other people over timeless stories and prose.

In Montréal, I can’t help but picture The Word bookstore next to McGill campus, which just celebrated its 50th anniversary. Store manager, Brendan King-Edwards said, “Secondhand stores–whether it’s books or vintage clothes–they’re booming right now. Younger people are way more interested in buying secondhand than ever before.” According to Statistics Canada, more Canadians are reading books, but they’re also writing more books. In 2022, Canadian author book sales rose by 10.5% to $707.6 million, while total book sales rose by $11.1 million compared to 2018. Maybe it’s time to pick up that pencil or rather, flip open that laptop and get writing. Your words matter.

I don’t believe we will ever snuff out advanced technology or iPhones. I don’t believe we should. In truth, Montreal is becoming an AI powerhouse since it was chosen as the headquarters for SCALE AI, Canada’s AI supply chain supercluster. But with controversial inventions like AI also come advancements in healthcare and science, so maybe there is some light in the dark. Some people love AI, some people are curious about it and some people loathe it. I am sure that similar controversy was met when the internet was popularized or when the first printing presses began mass-producing literature outside of the bible. I reject “the end of near!” mentality and offer this: we will digest AI and learn to live with it in the background, however far away it may lie. It may take away jobs–it already has. It may suck precious fresh water out of our earth and pollute our lands–it already has. But I believe that we, the majority, fundamentally understand that the essence of life comes from nature, of which we are a part. I believe that we as humans, who are inherently wired to connect with each other, will love ourselves enough to reject a brutal erasure of an essential form of human expression. Don’t lose hope.

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