The sweltering summers of 2000 were when my sibling and I would spend copious amounts of time glued in front of television screens. The Jetsons, a show set in 2062, was the hype with its amusing and inspiring sci-fi tropes. From flying cars to obscenely high towers, from a robot nanny to groundbreaking gadgets—each element built our reveries of a tranquil, accessible, and idyllic life. Little did we know the future shaping up for us was a far cry for many middle-class photographers. Let us explain why artificial intelligence and its usage is such a concern.
The last few years have seen an enormous spike in unethical practices employed by companies in the upper echelons of the business and tech realm. For instance, Disney’s use of artificial intelligence to create the opening scene of Secret Invasion, PepsiCo and Coca-Cola pumping money for AI adverts, or Netflix Japan taking away the livelihoods of animators through AI-generated backdrops to the production. There is also the alarming burst of explicit deepfakes or likenesses of popular figures (alive and deceased), highlighting the agonies of those who lack the means of fighting back. Even Hollywood studios were recently heavily criticized for using AI in writers’ rooms and being able to reproduce the likeness of background actors without giving them credit or compensation.
While these were some moons ago, let us shed light on two recent incidents where brands took little to no effort to hide their heinous practices. The initial one is Amazon Prime Video’s Freevee, which generated the iconic poster of 12 Angry Men with AI, which users exposed. The distorted faces and mutilated limbs of the characters were no longer 12, but 19! Similarly, Urban Armour, a sports apparel company, drew the ire of thousands for its recent ad. The clip, barely two minutes long, utilizes a figure resembling Anothy Joshua (a significant heavyweight boxer), in addition to components shot previously for its other campaigns. Thus, it is a concoction of a generic (energetic) ad with a dash of testosterone levels.
Could photographers not be hired in this case? Is this an issue of creative directors not understanding art and instead going along with whatever a trend or numbers say?
From what the foreseeable future depicts; AI is not leaving us anytime soon. From our streets to the comforts of our homes, this technology has seeped its way through our daily and intimate lives faster than we could blink. It has achieved a spot where it may reside within us (note: Neuralink’s chip). While such inventions have been around, the rate at which they utilize humans as lab rats is concerning. Furthermore, China even prophesied that tech would reach leaps and bounds in its advancements, leaving humans entirely obsolete. So, where do we go? And if we stop creating, what purpose do we have? What becomes of us?
A gloomy future can be avoided, but it is imperative to halt or regulate malpractices soon. Practices such as AI regulations, fair wages, labor laws, job security, ethical employment, retainment, and more must be streamlined. Those with wealth who forge trends in creative industries must not run after AI for cost-cutting but rather as a tool to achieve work-life balance. Since COVID-19, conglomerates are pushing workers to do the job of two individuals but earn the salary of one. It is more dreadful when biases gain control, leading women, POCs, or any marginalized persons to bear the brunt the most. Humanity and empathy ooze out from CEOs who bully individuals into complete submission. It’s their way or the highway.
Our job is to educate you about the trends and malpractices, like artificial intelligence, in the corporate and creative world, but we can only do so much. Much of it boils down to you, dearest readers—to resist, question, raise awareness, reprimand, and protest—for yourselves and those on the fringes of society. Remember, what you accept today will be passed on to your kin. So, what kind of society do you want to leave behind?
