Last week saw ‘Magic Avatars’ trending in our digital timelines, ethereal and ‘artistic’ selfies generated by AI art app Lensa.
It escalated quickly from pictures of people looking like they had been for a visit to Glastonbury, hiring their own personal tarot deck illustrator to document their multi-dimensional avatar selves, to much more serious debates about the ethics and energy of AI.
I started writing as it was happening, with a view to publishing on the full moon as I usually do, but I was not inspired to sit down at the laptop to write. I put this down to having just finished a huge client project and being on the wind-down into the holidays. Yet, I also trust in divine timing, in life and in writing, and the pause did not disappoint. It has been fascinating to explore a wide range of responses that the past week has brought. Plus, it gave time for more memes :)
Curiosity did get the better of me at the time – because, research! I was one of the millions that headed to the app store to download Lensa in search of my own AI transformation… I did do some due diligence, by reading the Privacy Policy before downloading. It told me that they delete your actual photos, but have full rights to the AI images they create from your photos, which can be used however they see fit, for all time. With everything we upload to the internet in this day and age, I decided it was worth the trade-off to see AI’s interpretation of me as a fairy princess or a cosmic empress…
Like this guy, I think it’s probable that our likeliness has ‘probably been stolen for the multiverse’, imho, more so for the Metaverse – and we will all be featuring in a multitude of VR/AR fantasy games of the future.
The response to the images and to AI itself grew louder and louder from excitement, intrigue and interest to a fair amount of shaming, guilting and flaming those for sharing. As we know, the internet can be a very judgmental place sometimes. And this is not uncommon in witnessing the polarity within our collective these days.
However, much of the conversation allowed for many layers to be uncovered; I’ll try to do justice to the wide range of conversations I saw and had about it.
AI Avatars and The Self
It was pretty trippy to see lots and lots of you – but not you – presented in different artistic styles and settings. Some were awful and some were amazing. In one, I looked like The Empress from the Tarot, and in others, I had 3 arms, a wonky eye and looked nothing like me!
It was a bit of an ego trip, though, with some of my magic avatars looking pretty haawwwt! On the flip side, it picked up ‘imperfections’; I do have a lazy eye, which doesn’t always show itself, and although I uploaded photos where my eye looks straight, the AI picked it up in quite a lot of images. Overall though, the experience was activating and empowering for me, rather than triggering any insecurities. I did have fun looking at all the different me-not-mes and imagining them all living their different lives and channelling their different energies.
You may have noted that I said my magic avatar was pretty hot in some of the images; this isn’t just my ego talking. A lot of women noted how there was a bias towards sexualisation of the female form in many of the images. This was way more pronounced for women than in the pictures of men, imho. Our body shape was changed more – in some images, we were half naked with big boobs, small waists, younger, slimmer, aesthetically pleasing eyes and face, subtle shape changes.
It was this that led to a message from a friend who had decided not to download the app and do it, because she was concerned it could trigger body dysmorphia or insecurities. That getting the pictures could create an impossible-to-attain image and ultimately affect mental health and self-esteem, no matter how cool it might be to see themselves as a fairy princess. This is a legitimate concern about using AI-enhanced avatars and the impact this could have on us if we start to use them more in VR and AR as the metaverse develops.
It is hard to keep track of reality, as we merge more deeply with technology. Becoming aware of what it’s doing to our psychology.
In social media spaces, we have already been altering ourselves en masse for some time now. I saw people complaining about people using these AI avatars as their profile pics, because of it not being real, whilst simultaneously using a filter on their next Instagram post. Using a filter, although not as extreme, is still using AI to modify how you look. It is something we do physically (concealer/makeup, etc.) and digitally (filters) to cover our perceived imperfections. But it can be insidious, particularly the subtle filters (such as on zoom) which are so tempting to use to cover wrinkles and tired computer eyes.
What is this doing to us and how we feel about ourselves long term? Did you get your magic avatars? If so – how did they make you feel?
AI and Art
What emerged within around 24 hrs of the trend going viral was the news that the app uses a technology which takes the styles of art and artists and plugs it into the AI, which then learns from/copies that artist. This has been done through a legal loophole – as AI is moving much faster than us when it comes to any kind of copyright laws in this space – you can even see artist signatures on some of the images. Of course, there are huge ethical implications here, and this news led to a lot of people removing their images they had posted. Understandably it has created a lot of conversation about the ethics/future of AI as a whole.
I reached out to my bestie Lisa Lister,
, best-selling author and illustrator, to get her insight on this as creator of SHE art, portraits of people in a somewhat similar vein to some seen in this Lensa trend. This is some of what she shared on the topic:‘I create art. I do it with pencils + pens + paper. I have tried to use procreate, but it’s simply NOT my jam. I’m old skool + there is something incredibly therapeutic + magical in creating art the way that I do. For both me, and I hope for those who receive it + get to work with it. When I saw some of these AI generated pieces of art over the weekend, my heart + belly DID sink, because well…It’s just so bloody good + What I KNOW is that as an artist, NOTHING can replace the magic + medicine of creating art by hand. AND I also enjoy a LOT of computer generated art. Except this isn’t what we’re talking about. Computer generated art, usually consists of an artist, using their skills in collaboration with the technology to enhance/amplify/create art. AI generated art cuts the artist out altogether, and in fact, having done a little investigation, the AI is mining/taking the work of many artists, without permission + from every source they can find to simply ‘generate’ art. However, I won’t lie when I say that my heart + belly DO sink at the possibility of art no longer being something that ‘created’ + is instead ‘generated’. I am NOT okay with that. Because NOTHING can, nor should, replace the meditative, messy + glorious process/journey that an artist gets involved with when CREATING art + NOTHING can replace the frequency/energetics of a piece of art that’s had love, magic, medicine, heart + soul poured into it.’
She makes a lot of good points here, particularly how nothing can replace the frequency, energetics and PROCESS of creating art made by human hand compared to the AI-generated images.
We cannot replace the process of creating art and we must not.
If you have been following my work for some time, you will have heard me talk about the impact of high screen time on our brain health, on our minds and on our ability to be creative. It is because of the high information load and multi-tasking we do when we spend a lot of time on our digital devices. It is so important for us moving forward as a human race, to our brain health and ability to do deep thinking and keep creativity alive. We must make sure that we don’t hand over our creative endeavours to the AI because it is quick, cheap and convenient.
As my friend Louise said to me yesterday, ‘Convenience will be the downfall of the human race if we are not careful.’
Storytelling and making art has been passed down through the millennia; we have evolved making and creating art as a form of expression and communication – and I don’t think it is going anywhere any time soon. In fact, in times of crisis and change, we tend to create more art, as a way of sharing how we feel. AI does not feel. We do.
On the plus point, people have said that this trend has made them more interested in buying or commissioning art, with a desire to support artists even more because of AI.
As has been predicted, over time, AI will be able to do everything that humans can do, faster, cheaper and often better than we can. In some cases, this will be amazing. We can work together with AI to change the world for the better. And we do need to get used to AI being part of our lives because I think we will start to see it become much more apparent and forward-facing over the coming years. Whereas it’s been slightly hiding in the shadows until now.
I tried using an AI writing tool this year that helps people write blogs and create headlines or other writing blocks you might need for social media and the web. I tried it because I was curious and have to create a lot of copy for clients and for my own projects and wondered if it might help, but it can’t write like I can. Much like the art, which a lot of people noted was missing soul, it definitely lacks something. It’s ok for an odd sentence here or there, and for doing research, but it is missing nuance and much like the AI art, it is getting content from across the web, without permission. So I have stopped using it, other than as a tool for bouncing around ideas for things, like an AI assistant.
Speaking of AI assistants, that makes me think of the film HER - have you seen it? Stick it on your watch list if you are interested in how our relationship to AI may develop in the not-too-distant future!
We are using and interacting with AI every day now – from the Instagram algorithms to the price of things on Amazon, to AI-written blog posts and filtered selfies… It is everywhere, you may not even know you are interacting with it, be it a customer support bot or more! You can read more about that in my second book, Social Media For A New Age 2.
Some people think AI is stealing our souls, that it is part of a trans-humanist agenda, and like most things, there are many sides and aspects to a story.
For the more multi-dimensional amongst you, I thought this was an interesting reflection from Sister Shanti, so I wanted to drop it into the mix for you to contemplate too.
What we do know is that AI is being developed and programmed by us, the humans, and it learns from us – through machine learning – so if we want ethical AI, it has to start with the people who are programming it and creating it.
Can we trust the tech billionaires to be ethical about AI?
It is highly unlikely! Elon Musk announced just this week that they are months away from testing the Neuralink chip on humans, whilst facing allegations of killing 1,500 animals in the process.
We will all dance with the ever faster development of AI, across all areas of our lives, so let’s be aware of what’s happening and become more discerning in the years to come.
PREDICTIONS & FUTURE PROOFING
Change is a constant, of that we can be sure,
The digital revolution wants us online more and more.
With data more valuable than gold these days,
Neural interfaces are on the way...
Facebook’s no longer just a digital town square,
Mark’s moved into our living room,
Bringing us a new Horizon on his way there.
Augmented and virtual realities,
Instead of walking outside amongst the trees.
If we can look up from our mobile
for long enough to see,
We can create a world where we take responsibility.
Viewing our technology more mindfully,
Stopping before we connect everything we own to 5G.
Securing new rights to our data privacy,
And freeing ourselves from this digital primacy.
Poem from Social Media For A New Age II (written in 2019)
AI is inevitable. How we choose to use it is up to us. Artists can see it as a threat or as a challenge - think about how fine art has changed since the discovery of the camera. It creates a space for a new form of art. We will always value what appeals to us, and if that is hand drawn art then it will survive. There may be other artistic modalities, ways of telling stories, ways of being soul-full. The ai generated images lack soul, to me anyway. But many don’t see that. I also dislike their claim to the rights of the images - imaging seeing your ai generated face on an advert for yoghurt? Well they said they’d use it however they wanted to. That’s where I have issue.
If neurolink helps paraplegics move their limbs again, I’m for it. But you have a point about animal ethics. My friend had laser surgery and now he can see clearly again. There is a place for technology - and there also is a place where it overreaches. It’s a fine line.
Remember, science fiction, particularly the work of Philip K Dick, and Asimov has much material around this very topic. The evolution of ai has accelerated and the possibility of an ai takeover seems to be coming at a faster rate than ever before.
Thanks for the great post Katie. We need to keep talking and stay grounded in it all.