Generative A.I. and Art: Johnny 5 is NOT Alive. – R.O.I. Content Writing & Copywriting

Johnny 5, the "lovable" caricature of artificial intelligence from the Short Circuit franchise, is sometimes used as a pejorative term for generative A.I. While this author believes that generative A.I. has the potential to benefit the world in numerous ways, he also recognizes that it has the potential of debasing the value of artistry. Credit: Sony — Johnny 5, the lovable caricature of artificial intelligence from the *Short Circuit* franchise, is sometimes used as a pejorative term for generative A.I. While this author believes that generative A.I. has the potential to benefit society in numerous ways, he also recognizes that it has the potential of debasing the value of artistry like so many bandana-wearing robots. *Credit: Sony*

I believe that the following shot, which I took on Folly Beach, SC in the early 2010s and which I call “The Burning Bush”, speaks to the fact that generative artificial intelligence will never completely replace human artistry. I can think of two fundamental reasons off of the top of my head…

Incredibly, this non-copywriting-related image has somehow made it onto the R.O.I. Content Writing & Copywriting website more than once. The author must like it or something…

1) Many great creative works are accidents. For example, I never expected the bush depicted in the above photo to appear as if it were on fire, and if I had been “designing” the photo using A.I., I wouldn’t have thought to tell the robot to make it look like it were on fire. (And, if I did, the results likely wouldn’t be as subtle or natural-looking, as generative A.I. would almost certainly use images of flames–perhaps ones taken from religious texts–as a reference.)

2) Many great creative works are the results of feelings, which, unlike Steve Guttenberg’s metal companion, generative A.I. lacks. When I emerged from the dunes and cast my eyes on the glowing scrub, I grabbed my camera as fast as I could because I FELT something…profoundly. The Johnny 5 of generative A.I. doesn’t possess the capacity to feel; it lacks the intellectual capacity of being captivated. It fact, it perceives beauty like a dog:

Meta’s Yann LeCun recently compared generative A.I. with the intelligence of a dog. Low IQ aside, “canine units” aren’t capable of appreciating scenes like the Burning Bush. They may instinctively react to some of the elements featured the photo (jumping in the water to cool off on a hot July day, squinting their eyes to protect themselves from the intense summer sun, etc.), but they’re incapable of appreciating the beauty of scenes like this one…or the beauty of any artistic medium for that matter.

I’ll go out on a limb by saying that there’s a very slim probability of something that’s incapable of appreciating what makes art art becoming a great artist. Like, Short Circuit franchise comeback slim.

Generative A.I. will never be capable of stumbling on happy accidents like the “Burning Bush” scene, and it will never feel. It will therefore always lack two of the fundamental building blocks of artistry. Not unlike some scifi-comedy knockoffs…

Johnny 5 may not be alive, but the R.O.I. Content Writing & Copywriting blog is…this was my inaugural post! (Full disclosure: Although I enjoy blogging, the idea is to continue to not have enough time to spend on unpaid work like this. 😉)