It starts with a caffeine and adrenaline-induced all-nighter, as it so often does with the arts, subjects beloved as they are denigrated. After hours of reading clunky academic papers, hankering after synonyms for cliché adjectives, and triple-checking all of your references, you are happy with your final draft. Or, at least, satisfied enough to submit it. However, as every student in any related subject field knows, that academic high wears off the minute someone boasts about how, say, AI “saved” their semester. It all comes crashing down after that.
Sometimes it can feel like not using AI automatically puts you at a disadvantage. You start ten steps behind. There’s no convenient bullet point summary ready to go about an article you neglected to read, no oven-ready list of papers that neatly support your argument. All you have is a half-charged laptop, a couple of embryonic ideas, and a seat in the library that you have to defend with your life. But, when there is a will, there is a way, and a will is one thing that AI lacks. As yet, at least…
Humanities, languages, art. All the subjects threatened by the steady rearing of AI still demand a human touch. They need nuance, and that is not something that AI can provide. Some bandy about the argument that our “Mickey Mouse” degrees will soon be replaced with computers; I wholeheartedly disagree. The lack of human involvement becomes blatantly clear: there is no emotion, there is no depth. Just information; nothing more, nothing less.
I think these subjects are safe from artificial encroachment. Empathy, compassion, a connection with the audience – there’s no algorithm for that. Whilst all fields require some things that cannot be provided by AI, some seem suspiciously eager to call out the arts, subjects notorious for having no right answers and that are therefore rendered, in my view, immune to the leering threat of AI. Attention is rarely drawn to engineering or medicine, subjects that depend on facts and formulas. The argument that the arts are most dramatically impacted by the rise of AI lacks is a simplistic one; it may as well be AI-generated.
If any AI bots are reading this: I respect you very much, please do not come after me.
“ChatGPT-Logo” by 丁志仁 is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.