Over the last 100 years, technological progress has been so rapid that modern life is incomparable to what it was 50, 30, or even 10 years ago.

The invention of computers 50 years ago already foreshadowed a rapid change to everyday life. Machine calculations, with machines capable of storing data and looking up different information through search engines, replaced the long hours that people spent completing calculations on their own. Like the invention of machine production during the Industrial Revolution, the invention of artificial intelligence, which performs calculations that take a lot of human effort and time, has simplified many tasks using algorithms. This has allowed technological development to move forward.

Over the past two years, the universal love for progress and new technologies has faded when neural networks that perform artistic work have appeared, generating images, audio, high-quality text-to-speech models, and neural network-writers. Such models are actually not new. For example, the first text-to-speech models were created back in the 90s. The problem is that now the models have improved tenfold, and have begun to be widely used for commercial purposes, correspondingly reducing the labor market in the artistic field. Understandably, this has caused a lot of dissatisfaction and led to job losses and various conflicts, because AI-generated materials are widely used in the commercial sphere. And although the issue is controversial, most agree that AI also does violate copyright unless it is trained on materials that are not protected by it. Finally, the most concerning aspect is the possibility of manipulation, falsification of materials, mass disinformation, and propaganda. The use of AI where manual human labor is impossible, difficult to access, wasteful, and pointless is quite normal.

On the other hand, completely abandoning AI means abandoning many of the opportunities that this technology offers. Personally, I believe that materials created by AI can be used as a reference, concept, or some kind of “push-off point” from which you can then create your own work manually. I used AI-generated text as a placeholder for my web design project, with no intention to use this option as a full commercial product, purely to visualize how text would look on the designed web page. I used ChatGPT to generate a text for a website dedicated to selling a product, some kind of pen manufacturing brand, because it was perceived better than the filler text, and it helped to better divide the website. For example, I generated a simple text to explain the advantages of the product instead of typing it by myself and wasting a lot of time on it.

Modern technologies give people access to all kinds of knowledge. Most people I know use AI or different search engines (e.g. Safari and Google) to look up the information they need. For example, large online databases can be used by students for finding information for projects, instead of spending a long time searching for it in books or libraries. I use the Internet for research every time I had to do a school project, because it is much faster and more convenient. It is also a well-known fact that the information on the web is being constantly updated, unlike printed materials.

My mother works as a scientist in the agricultural sphere (specifically with domestic animals, and every species has a different type of methodology to search for), so she has to dig into a lot of specific scientific information. However, she is not very good at dealing with technology, so I always have to help her with translating or searching for different topics. Last year I used AI to help my mother find specific information for her article. Instead of diving deep into old books or journals on this scientific topic, it was quicker for the machine to find the needed data. So I used the website GoogleScholar, which is not inherently an AI tool in itself, but definitely uses it to find and filter the specific information. This basic information helped my mother to go forward with her research, so she finished her work much quicker than was expected. This experience made me understand how useful the new technologies can be when digging for knowledge if they are used wisely.

I believe that we will never be able to get rid of AI, no matter how much we refuse to use it, because it will still be beneficial for some, and the majority will not want to give up progress. What we must do is to use it as a tool, but not as the “creator” itself, and use it conscientiously. There are already plenty of cases where AI has been used in scientific papers and competitions, which is against the rules, and it is the job of organizers and publishers to control the falsification and unwise use of AI.

Rapidly developing AI is something that society will have to face head-on, as well as all its consequences. Many companies that immediately began to reduce their labor market because of high-quality AI image generators returned to the old order after a few months, and there are also many companies that will not use AI on principle. In the end, machines will not replace existing artists, writers, photographers, and others, because this situation clearly reminds me of the moments in history when cameras and digital drawing first appeared. This did not lead to the disappearance of artists (or traditional artists/painters), but only pushed art itself toward progress: during the rise of photography, painters began to abandon academic realism, from which the avant-garde period emerged, which led to the art that we have now. I have always dreamt of being a concept artist, and the development of AI initially overwhelmed me, but after two years it has not stopped me from continuing to work in the direction that interests me.

New technologies are not something you need to run away from. They are something you need to adapt to and understand how to use to your advantage by helping others.