the good, the bad, and the ugly of AI

"I'm sorry, Dave. I’m afraid I can’t do that."

In the grand tapestry of technological advancement, few innovations have sparked as much fascination, controversy, and awe as Artificial Intelligence (AI). A remarkable fusion of human ingenuity and cutting-edge computing, AI has woven itself into the fabric of our daily lives in ways both conspicuous and inconspicuous. Join us as we embark on a journey through the landscapes of the good, the bad, and the ugly of AI, exploring its profound impacts on society, work, and the very essence of what it means to be human.

If you thought that the opening paragraph sounded a little…off…congratulations! Your AI radar is on and tuned in! This spooky season, we’re discussing artificial intelligence, because what’s more uncanny valley than a computer trying to act human? Although AI has been around and theorized about for decades, ChatGPT (GPT = generative pre-trained transformer) was introduced to the public almost a year ago, which really opened the floodgates for applications of AI and resulting conversations. When all the AI news and think pieces popped up in the spring of 2023, we knew we needed to take a closer look and decide what we as a company defined as ethical and unethical usages of AI. We wanted to create an internal policy for AI before the issue came up with a client. These are our findings.

For CVWmedia, the language-generating technologies are not as relevant as the visual-generating technologies, like DALL-E. In the past, we have used AI to generate images solely for inspiration or as a brainstorm sesh for hard-to-imagine things—like the Witch’s candy cottage in Hansel and Gretel—prior to production. We also use AI as a technical aid, like enhancing low-resolution images and video. In 2019, we tested a new feature in Adobe After Effects that removes moving objects. It’s called Content-Aware Fill, but around here, we refer to it as “Crustacean Removal” because we used a video of a slow-moving lobster to test it out. Now Photoshop has a new AI-powered version, Generative Fill. We use that and other time-savers that simplify or eliminate tedious, manual processes.

We never use AI-generated art as our primary work. We know creative work must be authentic and true for it to be impactful. Generative AI work is no substitute for human expertise; humans are still more intuitive. Sometimes a client doesn’t know what they want specifically, or they just don’t have the words to describe it, but part of our service is figuring out what our client wants. A client can give AI a prompt, but it won’t result in the same tailor-made, quality work as CVWmedia. For AI to be effective, it must be given detailed, clear instructions. Case in point, for your viewing pleasure: Hotpot, a free AI image generator, made these images when given the prompt: “a blog post graphic about the good, the bad, and the ugly of AI.”

Happy Halloween!