OpenAI with DALL-E 2 Will Disrupt Artists, Designers, Photographers and Others
Up for a rant?
Hey Guys,
This is a free-wheeling Op-Ed, so read at your own risk. I use some foul language.
I have an active Poll on this topic here.
Let’s just not beat around the bush, the truth is the nerds at OpenAI with DALL-E 2 will hurt a lot of real artists, designers, marketers, photographers, freelance marketers and related professionals.
Let’s not be naïve.
I don’t need Venture Beat or a Medium writer to tell me this:
It’s obvious as day and it’s all sponsored by Microsoft. In June, 2019 Microsoft basically “bought off” OpenAI for $1 Billion. The not for profit AI Lab? Oh yeah. As OpenAI does its 1 million Beta (with paid credits), here is a sad story for culture and the internet waiting to happen.
Some nerds and corporate types thought this was a good idea for us all.
On July, 20th, 2022 DALL-E 2, OpenAI’s AI system that can generate images given a prompt or edit and refine existing images, is became more widely available. The company announced in a blog post that it will expedite access for customers on the waitlist with the goal of reaching roughly 1 million people within the next few weeks.
OpenAI: Will DALL-E 2 kill creative careers?
I’ve been warning (for years) that even business development, marketing and human resource office workers were at risk to being disrupted in the years ahead due to A.I. Of course nobody believes me, but one day they will come around.
RPA, no-code, all that jazz is coming, and not just chat bots that feel sentient and language to image technology.
While Substack tries desperately to give fiction writers, cartoonists, cultural misfits and literary essayists a home here, it’s what going on in the real world (a.k.a. the internet) that really matters.
Some artists, designers, marketers, photographers and branding folk are going to be sourly disappointed with what happens next.
Dumb comments from Twitter, Reddit and Hacker News aside, this could scale into a competitive force in how the internet populated its content, with a definitive move to the more “synthetic” variety.
Remember, DALL-E 2 is just one such tool, among dozens and literally a swarm of startups who will commercialize this kind of language model innovation.
Powered by Microsoft-funded OpenAI, DALL-E 2 draws complex images in a variety of styles on command from a well-trained visual neural net and advanced language processing. It can also draw abstract ideas, but since computers don't have ideas of their own, the results are often uncanny or muddy.
As TikToks can embed this on Substack, check out Karen: (you may have to click)
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I too Crave Dystopian Netflix and Starfield like Images
I am considering using this service to design my Newsletter banners, you know, instead of hiring an actual designer, logo specialist, artist and human being! Whom I cannot afford.
WFT, yes DALL-E will pose a threat to designer jobs?!! Dammit.
The images can be created at a hyper-speed, scale and quantity that humans are just not built to process. This is just one tool that will lead to a more synthetic and fake internet. Microsoft and Google will say this shite “augments” humans. In reality, it could lead to lower revenues even as inflation bites and wealth inequality means some churn from the middle class.
Bro, many artists, designers, freelancers and photographs I know are already poor af! Hey let’s hit the impoverished freelancers with our Technicolor spam! That sounds like a great idea! Maybe our Overlords will approve? Monetization! Ching-Ching$$$.
“A whole new world
A new fantastic point of view
No one to tell us, "No"
Or where to go
Or say we're only dreaming
A whole new world
A dazzling place I never knew
But when I'm way up here
It's crystal clear” - Zayn, Zhavia Ward
All I want is cats, dogs, rainbows, robots!
It really doesn’t harm anyone that I’m buying these yo credits right?
Or perhaps I’m helping fund a future cyborg who currently is an engineer or executive at OpenAI?
Fuck it, let’s do it!
Microsoft doesn’t like NFTs for Minecraft, but it knows how to party!
A Lot Less Costly than a Designer, Artist or Brand Marketing Expert
Credits are dirt cheap: $15
Users can create with DALL. E using free credits that refill every month, and buy additional credits in 115-generation increments for $15.
Each credit can be used for one original DALL·E prompt generation — returning four images — or an edit or variation prompt, which returns three images.
Dude, let’s just use A.I. Screw those freelancers.
Sam Altman is a bit like SBF, he wants us to open our minds:
OpenAI says artists are the ones actually benefiting from its tool.
A powerful creative tool
DALL·E allows users to create quickly and easily, “and artists and creative professionals” are using DALL·E to inspire and accelerate their creative processes.
Oh so, I should hire someone else to use this tool for me? That makes sense. In the DIY era of content, and you want me to what?
Building artificial general intelligence is OpenAI’s ambitious goal! They said when Microsoft bought them out. Eh Bitch why don’t you just turn this into another subscription Microsoft! Make me bleed for the synthetic prowess.
I want to be augmented though, I won’t actually consider designers or real artists or their livelihood here - in fact I want my Tattoo artist to design my next mark with this tool!
Give me the tools bro: I want in to the Transhumanistic club.
OpenAI even offered the lucky Beta users full usage rights to commercialize the images they create with DALL-E, including the right to reprint, sell, and merchandise. So my Merch on Patreon can embed A.I.
Users on Reddit insist this is just like Photoshop, won’t hurt a fly. The fake ass internet tells me this is fucking great.
What’s the script again? DALL-E is a tool that “enhances and extends the creative process”. I guess no vote right, this is the future Pops? Welcome to the Technocracy of Altman.
Uncle Sammy boy wants me to imagine ‘a shark and a dolphin cruise hand-in-hand with an undersea city in the background’. I’m on it!
I can visualize designers, artists and others getting hurt. If you are a Musician who cannot afford design cover art, you are in luck. AI is so incredible, I guess.
Time for the rise of the the Uncanny Valley of the Rise of the synthetic internet. Coming for your freelance business in a city near you.
Further reading: Venture Beat: https://venturebeat.com/2022/07/26/openai-will-dall-e-2-kill-creative-careers/
I’ll trade you donations for WALL-E 2 credits, fund a writer bro!