Mark Amerika is a digital remix artist. What is your response to this kind of experimental writing with AI tools? How does Amerika understand the creative relationship with a GPT for creative writing or any kind of creative work?
Working with AI and AI tools may be relatively new, but I do think that it is where the future of not only art, but the general social standard is heading. Throughout history technology has changed and advanced art in certain ways. Before we could draw on iPad and had every brush and color to our disposal, artists had to learn how charcoal works, how to mix paint, how to decide what brush to use and what varnish would protect your art the best. However, due to these technological advancements, the iPad and programs like procreate allowed artists to not only make digital art, but to make art faster. I see working with AI tools the same. When looking for ideas or stuck in a rut, AI tools can make it easier to get inspiration by, what Mark Amerika calls, jamming with the language models, rifting ideas off the machine. AI tools like generative text can also act as an artist notebook where their ideas are not only kept, but also enhanced. Even if you don’t consider yourself a writer, like I do myself, you can still use these tools to your own benefit in this way. I do see that working with AI is the future, as scary as it is for most people, but so was the camera when it was first invented. Learning how to use these tools to your benefit will be most important, along with not abusing them just to make a quick buck or to just get by, but instead to enhance your own creative ability.
I believe that Amerika views AI and working with AI tools in a similar way, as well as viewing AI tools as a sort of inspiration for his work. Amerika talks about how he got into a flow that came from his unconscious neural mechanism while working on his poems. This flow of an unconscious neural mechanism can resemble an AI tool like GPT. Just spitting out words and information, and it is up to the individual, once they are conscious of their work or the work the AI gave, to make sense of it all and create a workout of it. This is what I think not only inspired Amerika but influenced him to explore the world of collaborating with AI tools to create art. Amerika is aware of these technological advancements and willing to explore the uncharted territories of these new creative AI tools. I believe that this is where the future is heading, and that it will get to the point where it will be hard to decipher what is human and what is AI. I do, however, think that the artists that are collaborating instead of abusing AI tools will stand out above the rest, and this is why it is important to start dipping your toes in the water now, in order to not get left behind.