Diotima: The Marist Undergraduate Philosophy Journal
4. Is using AI to make art problematic? What makes a given act or practice unethical is a considerable question and not a problem this paper aims to solve. Instead, this paper will address the ethical concerns about the use of artificial intelligence to generate art and why the author believes these concerns are unwarranted and their arguments invalid. 4.1. Artificial intelligence takes jobs? An objection of singular importance is that AI-generated art will displace artists, leaving them unemployed. Certainly, this is a fear with which any could sympathize, and it is a looming threat over other industries as automation replaces human labor. 19 However, this has regularly occurred as the United States has developed. An excellent example is telegram operators. When was the last time you asked someone what they do for a living, and they responded, “I’m a telegram operator”? One could reasonably assume never. In economics, the concept is called creative destruction , in which old methods or processes are overthrown in favor of, theoretically, more efficient or satisfactory methods or processes. 20 While this may sound callous, creative destruction allows for innovation and new opportunities. Perhaps you find this entire concept of creative destruction repulsive and believe it is a mechanism that must be curtailed or halted. You may think that, but if we are to treat art in this way, if we shield art from innovation to bulwark the prospects of artists, then we must also surely apply these same protections to all other vocations, if only in the name of fairness. If we were to take such action, if we were to freeze innovation in favor of reactionary protectionism, however, would that not also halt innovation in all
19 Steven Greenhouse, “US Experts Warn AI Likely to Kill off Jobs – and Widen Wealth Inequality,” The Guardian , February 8, 2023, https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/feb/08/ai-chatgpt- jobs-economy-inequality. 20 Sohvi Leih and David J. Teece, “Creative Destruction,” in Palgrave Macmillan UK eBooks , 2018, 370–75, https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-00772-8_59.
Volume VII (2024) 9
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