Should we stop using generative AI? | The Current State - video Dailymotion

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Generative AI has taken the world by storm, with many participating in the Studio Ghibli trend despite the disapproval of founder Hayao Miyazaki. This begs the question, is AI art ethical? We spoke to Dr Wolfgang from LASALLE and art therapist Sze-Chin to get their opinions.  Watch more: https://www.asiaone.com/video

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00:00So here's the thing, AI has actually been around for quite some time, since the 1960s in fact,

00:06but I've noticed how much more prominent it's become, especially with programs like ChatGBT.

00:11All that requires is a simple prompt to generate answers to your burning questions,

00:16and it can even generate images. Some people argue that the widespread and somewhat

00:22normalized use of AI in today's world could disrupt creative industries, while others

00:28feel that AI is just a tool that helps bring their vision to life. I mean, recently, social media was

00:36filled with AI-generated images of people imagining themselves as Studio Ghibli characters, even though

00:43the co-founder of the studio had previously expressed that he felt like the use of AI was an insult to

00:49life itself. I'm a voice artist. But the thing is, right now, there are AI tools that only require

00:58seven seconds of my voice in order to replicate my voice for whatever people want me to say.

01:07That's pretty scary. And it's something that a lot of artists and creatives are worried about.

01:14So of course, I wanted to delve deeper into this topic, and I came across an art therapist

01:18who made use of generative AI while working with dementia patients. I'd love to find out a lot more

01:24about his work. So let's go have a chat with him.

01:32Hi, Tzu Jin.

01:33Hi, everyone.

01:34Thanks for taking the time to speak with us today.

01:36Okay, let's get started.

01:37Okay, okay. Sounds good.

01:39So there was this very fascinating project you worked on with dementia patients. Could you tell us about that?

01:45There was a conversation around arts in health, how the arts can kind of benefit health outcomes.

01:52One of the key things is really to keep the patients engaged, so that then their mood improves,

01:58well-being outcomes also improve. When we're in school, we're always graded for art. So I actually

02:03get a bit intimidated when people say, oh, you have to draw. So was that a bit like that for some of the

02:08patients? For the patients, I think a lot of times it's that, you know, so they have that fear of making

02:13art. In art therapy, a lot of times, the outcome isn't the most important. What's more important is

02:19like the therapeutic goals, you know, what we want to achieve for the patients. We want them to socialise,

02:24we want them to engage. In this case, you know, we said, you know, why not we use AI to help support

02:30them in their art making, so that it's less stressful for them to make art. With digital technology, it helps

02:37some of the patients who might otherwise, you know, find it very difficult to make art, partly because

02:42of maybe physical limitations. Asking them to hold the marker and exert pressure on paper can even be

02:49a struggle. A lot of times when I present to patients like that blank piece of paper, it's usually like

02:56maybe A4 size. You know, sometimes I might push for A3 size, but A3 size is very daunting. The flashbacks

03:01are like, oh, I don't know what to fill this space up with. So then I went smaller. So I went to like

03:07kind of this coaster size. Oh, wow. You know, I gave them prompts. So I think one of it was,

03:11what do you remember from your childhood that made you happy? It can be like a simple drawing,

03:16stick swigger, you know, I'm fine with it. Then we used that and we fed it into the AI. One of the

03:22patients talked about how he loved swimming. Oh, wow. And he would always jump into the river,

03:28right? The river. The river, my goodness. The river is kampong. I think he drew like coconut trees,

03:34you know, and then he drew like the water. And then I think a little figure of him jumping into

03:39the water. Yeah. So then we used that image to generate a few iterations of it. And then I offered

03:44them, okay, uncle, you know, like, so here are a few options, you know, what do you think best

03:49represents that memory of you? What was his response to that when you generated the images for him?

03:54I think it really helped them to connect back to that memory because a lot of them didn't have cameras

03:59back then, right? So they couldn't document all these memories. So we were actually using the AI to

04:04help them to relive some of these memories. And then a lot of times we also worked with patients'

04:08families. So then the families were very grateful to be able to talk about these stories with the

04:14patients. And I think we generally saw improvements in MOOC. That's incredible. This is a very positive use

04:21of generative AI. I want to hear your thoughts on some of the criticisms of generative AI with regards to

04:27its commercial use. What about in the cases where people feel that their art has been misused or

04:33taken from them? I tried to look through, you know, articles, you know, to kind of see like maybe which

04:40companies were doing it more ethically. I don't want to infringe on artists whose works have been

04:45misappropriated or like they haven't given approval for their artwork to be used. I don't know if you're

04:50familiar with like collage art making, but a lot of times in collage art making, we are also using like

04:55magazines or like found objects and then repurposing them. And this is of course other people's work,

05:01graphic designers, photographers. That's right, that's right. I will always kind of think of

05:06how I'm going to edit it a little bit more to enhance it, to give it my own personal take.

05:12It's very heartening to me that you're using AI in a way that's really changing people's lives for

05:17the better. Thank you. Okay, thanks Edward.

05:23So those were some really interesting perspectives from Xu Xin. Now we're going to go talk to Dr.

05:28Wolfgang from LaSalle College of the Arts for his thoughts on generative AI.

05:36Professor, thank you so much for taking the time to speak with us today.

05:39Thank you very much for coming, please. Thank you.

05:41The first thing I want to ask you as someone who has worked with art through your life,

05:48what has Gen AI done to art? It hasn't changed artistic practice,

05:55but it has changed the environment of artistic practice. They're still getting dirty, they're still

06:01getting sweaty, and they still have all of their anxieties on stage and all that.

06:07I'd like to sort of zoom in on one part of this. So any human being can, with the right prompts,

06:15within seconds, create an image. What do you think of this?

06:20The outcome of that is amazing. I believe I'm constantly surprised about that. I'm excited about

06:28that. To some degree I'm a bit devastated about that. But it is not the painting that comes out of the

06:38engagement with materiality, with the canvas and the colors and the whole environment of a studio.

06:44These systems don't have any embodiment. They don't feel. They don't have desires. They don't feel

06:50hunger. That's still a human domain. Of course we have the opportunity to don't use that, right?

06:57But if we don't do that, because the systems are coming anyway, there are two possibilities for us.

07:02Other people will shape it for us, or we shape it. I'm going for reshaping them. It is to a certain

07:09degree not entirely comparable, but related to a discussion that we had when photography came,

07:16right? Okay, that's the end of painting, or that is not art in the first place. So when film came and

07:23television came and that was the end of theater, it was the end of whatever. It was always the end of

07:28that. But we started to coexist, right? The paintings are still existing and photography is actually then

07:34challenged by digital systems, by Photoshop. I don't believe that it's the end of anything. I believe

07:40it will be one more form. And I'm not entirely sure whether art needs to be making your fingers dirty.

07:50It might still be art, right? So we should be very careful to exclude one of these kind of

07:55engagements with the technical systems and saying that it can't be art because it is based on

08:00whatever kind of technical process. There was recently, for two weeks, my social media was filled

08:09with people just wanting pictures of themselves looking like Hayao Miyazaki's characters. There was a

08:16lot of criticism of that. They felt that. Rightfully, yeah. Because he himself had very much been

08:23against digital replication. What's your take on this? It was in disrespect to Studio Ghibli and the

08:30founder of that and he made it very clear and rightfully made it clear there was a lot of

08:35discussions coming out of that. That was very helpful because all of a sudden we had a discourse about

08:40these kind of things. It is an embarrassment to human intelligence. I'm not entirely sure why everybody

08:48did it. We should not simply do that. I believe all the works that Studio Ghibli is doing now

08:57is valued much higher because we see the difference between the soulless Ghibliization and the very,

09:06very soulful animations that are coming out from Studio Ghibli. There is a difference and it is notable.

09:13Thank you. That's fascinating. Thank you for sharing your thoughts. Really appreciate it.

09:17Thank you for coming and thank you for having me here in an interview. Thank you.

09:24Before we started this episode, I was quite negative about Gen.AI. But after speaking to

09:30Zizian and to Dr. Wolfgang, here's the thing. The tide is rising and we all have choices.

09:38And I think the critical thing here is that we make sure we use AI responsibly. And that's

09:47going to make the difference for everyone.

09:58things that we are seeing.

10:00And I want to see you here.

10:01Here we go.

10:02Here we go.

10:04Here we go.

10:06Let's see.

10:09Let's see.

Should we stop using generative AI? | The Current State

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