AI: GRIOT VS THE MACHINE

So, AI. The giant elephant in the room, the one yelling “ADDRESS ME!” with every video you watch that looks a bit suspicious or that one song that feels too perfect…

Where does INVERMON stand with it?

I want to make this article now before people start looking at me funny in the future, especially since all the other GOATs (hehe) are being compromised and so many unknowns are flooding TikTok and Spotify with AI-generated content and trying to pass it off as their own.

It started as simple photo generation technology. Sure, would save us time, right? Okay, how about making videos that sound like your favourite celebrities? Oooohhh, fun! I think people really started having issues with AI when it hit the commercial market. Suddenly, big names attached themselves to AI and started selling it as “the future”, and it started raising all three eyebrows.

There’s Timbaland creating an AI artist to compete in an industry already packed with upcoming and established artists. Then Mr. P uses Suno and suddenly you’re questioning why the pidgin sounds like it’s being learnt for the first time, forcing words where they don’t fit. And who the fuck cleared Tyga’s album to air on streaming?! He’s a Hip-Hop artist! Why did he need AI to sound like some 90s funk… punk… whatever?! Then he compared AI to Auto-Tune. Please. The lyrics are rhyming thicker with quicker and bigger. We’ve come too far in Hip-Hop to be stuck in the nursery school rhymebook. No offence to the OGs.

I understand there’s a big divide between those who use AI and those who don’t, those who are SPONSORED to be pro-AI and those who suffer losses because of it, whether financially, creatively or through its environmental cost. Then there are people quick to call out AI while actual consumers are happily watching AI-generated stories on YouTube and TikTok, listening to AI-generated music, or putting AI-generated flyers on every block party and community programme imaginable. This shit has to be regulated at some point.

And that’s before we even get into deepfakes, impersonation, consent and AI-generated sexual abuse material. That conversation gets dark very fucking quickly.

Okay.

This is a hard topic to go through.

Back to the original question, "Where does NV stand with AI?"

I’m a 70/30 guy.

I’m not going to fully condemn it, but at the same time, there need to be regulations concerning this.

I use AI to tackle business problems and curate certain bits of knowledge that would benefit me. I tried writing a song with AI once but then realised I could do a whole lot better on my own and so, I did.

I’m still anti-AI in the creative space, especially where humanity is supposed to shine through. Why would I subscribe to see a programme that took you three minutes to generate when I can take that money and invest in something somebody took days to draw, animate or digitally compose? Why would I listen to AI-created music when I can listen to someone sing their heart out on a microphone?

Even Auto-Tune has more grace. At least I know a human is behind it.

And most of you would compare AI to Auto-Tune. Don’t ever make that mistake in your life. Auto-Tune manipulates a human performance; generative AI can replace the performance entirely. With Auto-Tune, we got T-Pain. LEGEND. With AI, we got little Ms “What’s Her Face?” that Timbo has been pushing like a valedictorian.

Shame on you, Timbo!

Anyway, to summarise, INVERMON believes AI should be a tool to support humanity, not a replacement for communicating the human experience. There is no Pro or Anti here. I’ll happily use technology to solve a problem. I just don’t need it to tell you how I feel.

That part is my job.

I believe that covers it.