We are entering a period of extreme change in the world. Technology is set to revolutionize the way that people do work and consume. Artists are already feeling the brunt of this change as artificial intelligence has begun to proliferate through the creative community. Works of art created by artificial intelligence at an astounding rate using the databases of art created by artists on websites such as Artstation to generate a ridiculous amount of variation and iteration on prior human made works have flooded social media. This has caused a massive debate within the artistic community that has at times been extremely contentious.
What is happening to artists today is just a sample of the kinds of things that are going to happen to many professions in the next 10 to 20 years. This generation is going to see more non-linear technological change than any prior generation has had to cope with. Finding a place and a direction throughout these turbulent times will not be easy.
For me personally the question of how best to prepare and position myself in the new market has been extremely hard. Seeing computers generate art has made me question the whole purpose of why I make art in the first place. Something that felt very personal, human, and special can now be done by a machine. Though AI art does not have the degree of customizability that a human artist might have, it still presents a challenge. Nobody can be 100% certain how capable these artificial intelligence services are going to be. In a worst-case scenario situation where many of the low-level art tasks that many artists work on could be taken over by AI. Artists will have to either become power users of artificial intelligence or try to find a space in the extremely talented sector of art, which has never been easy to enter.
I considered several approaches to these changes, from abandoning art entirely and going into computer science or some other scientific field to doubling down on art and going for the highest quality possible. But I think the broader challenge of how we are going to adapt to this new world requires a shift in how we perceive ourselves. It makes sense to me that entrepreneurs, with their broader job description, ability to switch out what type of work they are focusing on, the markets they serve, and their broad view of the market and its trends stand to be in the best position to take advantage of the commodification of labor through artificial intelligence and other convergent technologies. In the future I suspect it will be much easier to start businesses even as it becomes harder to keep a job.
Therefore, for me personally, the best approach is to learn more about business, and to start thinking like an entrepreneur and opening up the kinds of projects I can do. Initially I was thinking I would pursue an MBA but after many recommendations, I think just jumping into entrepreneurial projects might be a better option. I hope that this reframing of how I think of myself will leave me in an advantageous position to handle massive change in the economy if it happens as experts predict. I still plan to make as much art as I can and am hoping to do both if possible. But I think will be thinking of myself primarily as an entrepreneur.
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