I wanted to go to a local cafe for lunch. I searched online for their address. I was greeted by an AI graphic for Dolly Parton.
Instead, they posted slop in zero minutes. It still cost them $0. But it also cost them a potential customer.
The only way we can show how we feel about AI, specifically generative AI aka GenAI, is to boycott it in all forms.
For my entire life, I was assured every word I read, every piece of art I enjoyed, and every photo that took my breath away was created by a human being. Even if the words were awful or the graphics were hideous, I knew a human being was responsible. In retrospect, it gave me comfort.
Today, my diet of content is overwhelmed by AI. I’ve discussed my own struggles with GenAI, from “news” articles hallucinating what happened or chatbots giving me writer's block for months. I’ve made a very conscious decision to remove GenAI from my life. It appears no one else has.
On YouTube, it feels like 1 out of 2 thumbnails are pure slop. Why would I want to watch your video when you’re too lazy to produce a suitable promo image?
On television, there are constant GenAI elements in ads that quite frankly blow my mind. Do they not realize how creepy it is to watch an AI-generated person talk to me about the incredible deals they scored online? I don’t want to use your service; I now want your service to be dumped in a fire.
Even the music industry hasn’t been immune, as a shocking number of GenAI songs have infiltrated streaming platforms like Spotify.
I could go on and on, and you likely have dozens of your own examples. Once you notice it, you can’t unnotice it. I could probably give another 1200 examples just from my LinkedIn feed over the past week.
But the worst part is how many “creatives” have taken to defending the technology. Most notably, Dr. Dre came out and had the audacity to compare it to a drum machine.
That’s why we have two groups of people using GenAI: the lazy and the cheap.
The lazy are people like Dr. Dre. He hasn’t had a hit in years, if not decades, but his name still resonates from the past. He can put his name on any beat, any sample, any song, and there’s a good chance he could make some money.
It has to be good, though, and we’ve seen from his recent output that “good” has escaped Dr. Dre for a while now. So what’s to be done? That’s right, fire up the AI prompt machine and see if you can strike gold that way. Even if the quality isn’t up to par, it’s a song he can put a name to and try to squeeze out profits.
Another way to squeeze out profits is by being lazy, as best exemplified by WWE.
The pro wrestling giant has been the top promotion in the world for decades. One of the heralded aspects of WWE was its graphic designs and video packages. They had a polish and style to them that became as recognizable to fans as the wrestling itself.
In the past year, WWE has openly embraced GenAI. The result? The graphics look terrible, the video packages have become bland, and fans have started to turn on the product.
There was no reason for WWE to make a shift to AI, except to cut costs. They had the best of the best in the pro wrestling business working for them. Instead, they’ve been replaced by AI, and the quality has clearly suffered.
In a beautiful twist of fate, many of these individuals have ended up with WWE’s main competitor AEW, which coincidentally ended a recent episode of Dynamite with one of its best video packages ever.
AEW has an official “no AI” policy while WWE has an official “we love AI” policy, as fans increasingly choose AEW over WWE. I’m sure there’s no correlation there.
It’s not just big multinational companies, because my experience with GenAI from a small business is not unique. We’re seeing it more and more, and it’s quickly becoming a scourge on our already crumbling American society.
The solution is simple. When you see GenAI in the wild, remember that whoever created it is lazy and/or cheap.
We don’t need to give lazy and/or cheap businesses our time and/or money.
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