I saw a few headlines about some people being outraged that fake AI pictures and videos of Glen Hansard were being used to sell some crap or scam of some kind. Honestly I didn’t read the whole thing because like everyone I’m so dead done with this AI crap.
Yes, I get it. It’s incredible. It can write all our emails and two weeks from now it’ll make all our songs and movies for us and human creativity will be finished.
Except that’s not true.
Nothing that AI does will ever be as good as a Glen Hansard song.
I say this as I still - months later - grieve Hansard like I actually knew him. But that’s the whole point:
His music mattered. His performances stick in your head and heart and won’t let go. And now that he’s gone, you listen to his tracks in new ways. You find deeper truths. You find poignancy and you go to sleep knowing that music and art and film mean everything and your AI prompts mean absolutely nothing.
I’m hypocritical as I write this because I use AI for all sorts of things, it’s a useful tool.
But it’s not making creative things better. You’re not crying at night over some AI song that captures how you feel in your soul. You’re not watching AI vertical dramas and getting the same kick you got from Shawshank Redemption.
Art is more than the pieces of work. Yes, Glen Hansard has a legacy of music but he also has a legacy of how he lifted up other musicians, how he did so much for charity, who he was as a person. I may use ChatGPT for twenty years to spell check my articles and for finding a good place to get a curry but if it dies and goes away some day I won’t grieve it like I did Glen Hansard.
I’m reading a lot more recently. Putting my phone down and taking in words. And I’m listening to music - really listening - the way I did in my youth. I have AI to thank--- because its ubiquitousness, the way it’s blandified the internet and emails and fast food posters, it’s making me crave the human stuff more than ever before.
Maybe AI is good after all.