PuppetEProf’s AI generated images, music, and thoughts on artificial intelligence.
Suno Music
AI Generated Images
I Believe in AI as a Tool
I BELIEVE AI AS A TOOL is a good thing. However, I also believe that it needs stricter rules, especially for creators that the AI scrapes. If artwork, music, voices, etc. is used to train the AI those artists should be compensated and also have copyright protection and credit. While, yes, I believe AI is a good tool, it is still in the early stages and a lot of people can and do abuse it. But that’s a conversation for another time! Today, I want to talk about why I believe it can be used for good.
“There will always be a**holes who try to cheat, steal, and make money off of someone else’s work. But they will do that even without AI. I think as artists, we should go after those jerks, and place the blame on those who actually cause a problem, who are using AI to steal work and pass it off as their own through lies, deception, and general underhandedness.“
I Don’t Use AI to Write My Novels
I WANT TO BE UPFRONT: I USE AI ART. As a helpful tool. But not for writing my books. First off, I am a writer. I am currently writing a series of novels titled Adventures of Rel Rel. As a writer, I do not use AI to write my stories. I don’t need to. And I will say, as amazing as AI is, it still isn’t that great at writing, and its style is boring.
I have generated a few short stories to play around with, and while they are interesting, they’re usually poorly written, cliche, and don’t have the imagination or nuance that I have as a writer. So I don’t need it. Thus, I don’t use it.
I will add, though, that I use AI to help with ideas and to check out some of my writing. More on that below!
AS ANOTHER ASIDE, AI, in any form, if used purely with ONLY AI and no human input is lazy. If AI Art generates the cover, the content, and everything else, the end product can be shoddy. Some people may enjoy the stories, but I don’t think AI writing has come far enough to replace real writers. Will some people do that? Yes. Is that okay? I think so. Do you, dude.
But it’s akin to tracing someone else’s work or photocopying an image and saying it is yours. It is creating something, but not great or original. Again, I don’t care if people do that but they should give credit if they know who their generated work was influenced by.
Why Don’t You Just Pay Artists?
WHY NOT JUST PAY A REAL ARTIST? I would, and I would love to. If I had the money. But artists are expensive. This is fine, but I just don’t have the money to pay all the artists that I would need to do what needs to be done. Truthfully, with the price of rent, food, gas, family expenses, car payments, insurance, and all the bull shi** you need to take care of as an adult, as a father, and as a husband, my family is barely making ends meet with how expensive things are as it is.
I have also heard the argument: “If you don’t have the money, don’t do it.” And to that, I say, why? So I put my projects on hold because I can’t pay real artists? Life is short. And if I happen to have money to pay, I will. But I will create and do what needs to be done. I won’t wait because someone says I should.
I do pay artists. For my books, as an indie author, I pay for beta readers, editors, and cover designers. While I love and condone AI Art, I will not trust it when it comes to publishing my books, at least for the content. I write my novels, I want humans to read, edit, and beta read, and I like working with an artist for cover design. AI Art is good, in my opinion, but it still looks like AI Art. And that’s not what I want for my book. So I don’t.
So What Do I Mean by I Believe in AI as a Tool?
I DON’T USE AI TO WRITE. Since I am a writer, I don’t need it. I love to write, so I write because it is my passion and it brings me joy. But where I believe AI is helpful is in things that you can’t do or afford to pay for.
HERE’S WHAT I USE AI FOR. I use Suno to write lyrics and turn them into songs. They are pretty good, and I love what I have generated so far. I create instrumental melodies by telling what kind of mood and style I want. I then use these in my videos, streams, and content without the fear of copyright strikes because it’s my music. I can use it how I want, and it fits my style, my brand, and how I want the music to sound.
I use ChatGPT to see if a sentence or paragraph I wrote makes sense. Sometimes I write something, and I wonder if anyone will understand it or if it’s just an incoherent mess that I wrote in a stream of wild thoughts.
I’ve also used ChatGPT Sora and Maze.Guru, and Leonardo.ai to create AI art for my characters. I use it to mess around with styles that I can’t draw, to visualize backgrounds, and character designs I have yet to create. I then take those, redraw them in my style, utilizing the AI as an idea, and then use what I know to bring it to life fully in my style.
Just Learn to Draw or Write!
I’VE ALSO HEARD THE ARGUMENT from writers and artists, “Just learn to draw! Or learn to write! It’s easy and better than AI art.” To that, I say not everyone is an artist, a writer, or a creator. Not everyone has the same discipline OR passion to learn.
That’s like telling us, as creatives, to go work out and get ripped, or go for a run, because some people can and it’s easy for them, and that’s better than sitting and staying in a house all day. Instead of microwaving food or buying fast food, learn to cook, learn actual recipes from scratch, and become a chef. Or instead of going to the grocery store, raise your farm, butcher your own meat, and grow your own produce. It’s easy! Why take the easy way out?
MY POINT IS NOT EVERYONE has the time or desire to learn when there’s an easy way. We all do it. Why take your car to a mechanic when you can learn to rotate your tires, change your oil, repaint and tint the windows, and whatnot, on your own? You could learn. Why drive a car when you can walk? Why use a computer when you can write by hand?
I DON’T HAVE THE TIME to teach myself another skill. I’m a writer, I write. I’m an artist, I draw. I’m not going to take the time to learn how to compose and create music because I’m not a musician. And I honestly don’t care. I don’t care to take the time to learn, because I want to concentrate on writing my story.
COULD I LEARN? Yes. Do I want to? No. And I don’t plan to. I have musical ideas, and it is fun to write lyrics and use Suno.ai to create songs based on my books, with my lyrics, and style that I want. It’s fun! It’s cool. And I don’t need to spend years learning music theory, learning how to read notes, and how to mix, and match, in a music program.
“…I don’t care about intent, what an artist meant, or what their work represents. I’ve seen people splatter paint and dirty clothes on a canvas, knock over buckets of sand, and slap a painted line on a wall while running, among other things, but that’s art because of the intent. I don’t care. What matters to me is the end product. Is it visually appealing? Does it inspire something? Does it hold meaning and value to the person seeing it?”
Because I’m not a musician. I just want music to go with my streams, my videos, and my radio show. And it won’t be generic music I have to pay for. And it won’t be music that kinda fits my ideas. AI can create music that fits my style, mood, and my needs.
Just as a lot of people don’t want or have the time or passion to learn color theory, gesture, form, lighting, flow, and all that to become a great artist. Or spend the time learning pose-to-pose animation, secondary animation, form, weight, timing, anticipation, background elements, foreground elements, and all that to become an animator. Why don’t you just learn to animate? You could do it!
AI Helps Writers and Artists
NOW WHILE I DON’T NEED AI to write or draw for me, it can be helpful to use AI to generate ideas that you want to mess around with. Sometimes, I have an idea but I can’t quite articulate it. So with writing, I’ll ask ChatGPT what it thinks of my idea or if it makes sense. Kind of like a writing buddy. And yes, I could have a human writing buddy, but I have no writing friends. So as a solo writer, it is nice to bounce ideas off and see if they work, or not.
I also ask ChatGPT: how do you write a resume? What is a good title for my video/stream? Can you give me SEO keywords and hashtags? I saw this make-money thing on TikTok, is it a scam? How can I make a side income as a writer? I’m trying to create a title, can you give me a list based on X and Y? What are some growth strategies I can use as a writer to sell more books, reach a larger audience, and gain new readers?
There’s been so many times I’ve googled, “How Do You Do This?” And been bombarded by tons of videos that say they know what I want. But they end up not getting to the point, not being what I was looking for at all, or being a step-by-step guide that SKIPS a step, and doesn’t tell you how they got from point A to point F all of a sudden. It’s infuriating! Like how in the f*** did you end up there? I just want to know how to do this! ChapGPT gets to the point when I have no clue what or where to go.
And for artwork, AI-generated art is fun. Sometimes I just want to see what an idea off the top of my head would look like. But as I said, credit and copyright should be given to the artists if the AI-generated material uses their style.
Afterward, I take the AI art, take what I like, and then draw the design in my style. I use AI art for rough ideas. And yes, I could thumbnail my own work, which I do. But AI allows creatives to throw out ideas and mess with things without committing to them, or do things out of their expertise. To play. To try something new. And leaves more time to work on their main project or passion.
It is also really neat to see your work in different styles. And yes, I could learn to draw a new style, but that’s more dedication and time to something else. And I just want to write my book and see my characters come to life. Through AI, I can play around and see my characters as realistic, anime, based on celebrities, and whatnot.
What if I wanted to mess with the idea of my characters being in sci-fi or another genre? Yes, I could spend the time to draw it, to learn to do that, but it isn’t my focus. I just want to let my imagination run wild and see what my world looks like in a different light. It’s freeing, it’s fun, and then I can go back to my work.
AND I BELIEVE THIS GOES for other creatives. If you just write, life doesn’t allow you to pay an artist, and you cannot draw to save your life, you can use AI to bring your work to life. Just to see your creations in another light, in another medium, to visualize them differently.
And as a Musician, if you can only create tunes and beats, but not lyrics, or can’t sing, or vice versa, AI can help bring another level to your creations.
If You Don’t Want to Use AI?
DON’T USE IT. You don’t have to. But hating people for using it, telling them to just learn to do X on their own, and trying to get AI to go away isn’t helping anyone. AI can be used to help and be used for a good purpose.
And if you don’t want to work with AI or anyone that uses AI art? That’s valid too. AI is still new, it can do a lot of harm, and people have a lot of strong emotions about it. And that’s fine. You can hate AI art. You can hate people who use AI art. That is your right, and I agree with you feeling the way you do about it. That is understandable, too.
I’m just speaking my piece. There will always be a**holes who try to cheat, steal, and make money off of someone else’s work. But they will do that even without AI. I think as artists, we should go after those jerks, and place the blame on those who actually cause a problem, who are using AI to steal work and pass it off as their own through lies, deception, and general underhandedness.
I also believe we need to push for some kind of protection for artists and creatives. But even now, with copyright, intent, and verified accounts, scoundrels are still stealing work. Scumbags are still pretending to be “this person”. Still creating fake profiles. And that isn’t the fault of AI. But I will admit, it makes it a lot easier for these d-bags to do what they do, unfortunately.
Are AI Artists, Artists?
DO I BELIEVE AI ARTISTS are real artists? Not counting the desperate chuckle-f***s that steal or try to scam people, but the ones that generate art, because they enjoy/think it’s cool? YES. I believe they are artists.
I know there’s a debate about intention, how AI isn’t done by a human, and that emotion and intent matter. But to that, I don’t care about intent, what an artist meant, or what their work represents. I’ve seen people splatter paint and dirty clothes on a canvas, knock over buckets of sand, and slap a painted line on a wall while running, among other things, but that’s art because of the intent. I don’t care. What matters to me is the end product. Is it visually appealing? Does it inspire something? Does it hold meaning and value to the person seeing it?
And yeah, a lot of people can say, “No! It doesn’t inspire me! It holds no value, and I don’t find it appealing! Because it’s AI generated.” That’s fine. But people find inspiration and value in different things. Someone might be inspired by a sunset, a loved one, a picture, a song, a place, a moment. And those things will mean nothing to another person. It’s different for every person, and we shouldn’t discount what people find inspiring, just because it means nothing to you.
There is some AI art that is amazing. And yes, there should be human intent behind it. But there is some AI art, that if these AI artists never decided to create the piece? The art would not exist. AI artists are starting to create some things that normal artists would never think of, or care to create. Artists are too busy doing their own thing, working on their own projects.
I have seen AI art that is weird, trippy, and intriguing. And it only came into being, into existence, because of an AI artist. And I have found some fun, disturbing, and fascinating pieces that no other artist has brought to life.
I think that at least counts for something. No artist is going to take the time to make it, because they have their own projects. AI artists can and do just create whatever the fu** they want. And sometimes, it’s amazing. AI art also looks like it is creating its own style, because it generates and makes things according to different rules.
But I will admit, with AI art, sometimes the style is stolen. And the artist isn’t credited. And their years of hard work are reduced to a prompt and generated in less than a second. And I agree, that’s fucked up. But as I said before, I also believe that AI needs stricter rules, especially for creators that the AI scrapes. If artwork, music, voices, etc. are used to train the AI those artists should be compensated and also have copyright protection and credit.
Closing Thoughts
WILL AI REPLACE HUMAN ARTISTS? No. I don’t believe so. Because the human element will always have something unique to add. But I also don’t think AI should be discredited and villainized. It creates something that didn’t exist before. And I think whether you believe that it is art or isn’t art, that is something to consider. It can be used as a tool to help move projects forward or enhance them. AI can be useful in the right hands. And destructive in the wrong hands.
And I, for one, am all for it. I follow AI artists. Here are some I have personally been inspired, or at the least been intrigued, by. And if you know the artist they are referencing/using/etc, let me know and I will credit them.
AI GENERATED ART:
AI GENERATED MUSIC:
AI GENERATED VIDEOS:
https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8reRgJV/ Blanco the Yeti Vlog by Blanco the Yeti
https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8MXBPDk/ – Ghouls Galley Buffet by liberaitor
https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8MxuQMR/ Food Eating Food by Planeta Surreal
https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8MxqjSv/ Corpse Bride Brought to Life by AI Fusion Hub
https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8MxybQj/ Disney PBrought to Life by Ai Fusion Hub
https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8Mx4Fx8/ Cats Taking Jobs by Oliver Maroney