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Can you think any situation where it is ethical to use AI in the creative process? (sh.itjust.works)
submitted 2 months ago by to c/writing@sh.itjust.works
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Let me assure you that the idea of AI disgusts me. Not just because it debates the quality of work and is a "cheat" to get past the word target, but because it stripey the writer themselves of their accomplishments.

However, it does strike me that people might want to write about subjects that they don't know a lot about. Scientific knowledge, crime, historical stuff. Could that be an ethical place to use AI - not to write it, but to ask "what would confectionary in the 1300s look like?" (For instance). Just niche questions.

Or is there a much better, easier way to look up niche real-world details like that?

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[–] 2 points 2 months ago (1 child)

If you're really wanting to evaluate the impact/benefits of CGI en toto, watch that first video. I think it points to there being some things CGI is really good for--cost effective and invisible--and things it is bad for.

I think it's about figuring out where that uncanny valley is. Re-watching LOTR, pretty much anything to do with people and people's movement is really hard to get right. Like the shots of them crossing the bridge at Moria were composited live-action shots syncing cameras between the miniature set and the live actors. But lots of Legolas' CGI action sequences are comically bad.

But let's keep in mind that a lot of great classics, like The Mummy (Fraser) and T2 and The Abyss all were made with primitive CGI and still look fantastic, so it really is about approach.

There is also a new thing that directors have to worry about--whether their carefully planned, all-day-setup-single-take practical effect will be dismissed as CGI. There are practical stunts that are not worth doing anymore because people will assume it's CGI.

But, all in all, between the bad CGI and the oppressive color grading, this most recent era of movies is not going to age well at all.

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  • [–] 2 points 2 months ago

    Agreed. I think part of the creative choice you have to make with practical effects is, if you're going to do practical effects, do something so crazy people would assume was CGI and then brag about how it wasn't.

    Fury Road used CGI to great effect because of how intelligently it was used, like you say - invisible. Putting the real-life subjects right up close, having them do something insane with practical effects, and then CGI all around it, zoomed out. The CGI becomes window dressing for an already-impressive spectacle. That's a film that will always be worth revisiting because of it. So I can be swayed on CGI. It's just that tools will never be so good that you can use them unintelligently and still do good work. Legolas is a regrettable example of that.

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