There’s an old joke; 99% say they look at porn, 1% are liars. I’m not sure about the truth of those numbers, but whatever they are, online porn has made accessing this content far easier than it was in previous generations. There’s content for all sorts of tastes and sexual persuasions, apparently ;).

Why am I talking about porn on a professional audio production website? For one reason, I think there is a profound similarity between sexual porn, in all its forms, and generative AI. In this article I explain my thinking and the concerns I have for us as humans if we rely on it as a creative tool and also as consumers. It’s not a treatise about morality and ethics, but what makes us human.

“I Want It Now!”

Someone once said; “There’s nothing more attractive than something you can’t have.” There’s a lot of truth in that statement; be it a person, a plug-in, or anything else that seems out of our reach. Marketing professionals know this and use all sorts of techniques to try and get us to spend money for fear of missing out.

Generative AI falls squarely in that camp. It offers something that for many, especially aspiring creatives, is hard to get, a creative result, but generative AI can deliver something with very little human effort. There’s little commitment required, certainly little creative talent, it means that anyone can have what it normally takes a lot of work to get at the click of a button. I’ve talked in detail about the benefits of AI to reduce tedious tasks so we can be more creative, I use ChatGPT to help me get past blank page syndrome and the sketch out an idea.

However, prompt, set and forget generative AI has little to do with creativity that expresses the human condition. I’m not suggesting that generative AI should be avoided at all costs, but it’s important to know where to draw the line and the cost of not doing so.

The Human Connection

AI-generated content, much like pornography, tends to prioritise superficiality over substance. It might look, or in our case, sound the same, but that’s where it ends.

While these AI tools excel at mimicking patterns and replicating existing content, they often lack the depth and authenticity inherent in human creativity. Just as pornography offers a shallow imitation of intimacy, generative AI produces content that may be visually or audibly appealing but lacks the emotional resonance and originality of human-generated art.

As a songwriter, I gain no greater satisfaction than someone telling me that one of my songs was used at the birth of their baby, their wedding, or a funeral. For me, it’s a moment when I feel that my humanity has connected with them on a deeply visceral level. Sometimes I’m told that my song has helped connect with an experience they are going through, as if I knew exactly how they were feeling. If this is a moment when someone is contemplating suicide or something equally tragic, and it has meant them not doing it, then I can think of no greater gift to give to another human.

In its most basic form, generative AI is a digital parrot, it mimics what it learns, but as in the case of a parrot, the parrot is not really telling you to ‘piss off’ or whatever funny phrase it spouts. Human creativity is found in our expression of very personal and complex emotions, it finds its basis in the uniqueness of each person on the planet. There will never be another Monet, not because of the medium, the colours, or the subjects he chose to paint, but because of his unique perspective on life. Science can actually prove this with DNA, which tells us that between 1.5 and 7 percent of DNA is unique, enough to make the difference. There will never be another Monet, Lennon, Mozart, Shakespeare, Eminem, or more importantly, another you. Only you have your take on life.

Furthermore, the process of the creative endeavour is what gives meaning to writers, composers and others working in the arts. The way we receive immortality is by leaving something behind. Why on earth would we want to give the joy of creation over to something else? For a creative, if we cheat anyone by using generative AI, it’s ourselves.

People With Skin On

I’ve told this story before, but it bears repeating. A father is woken in the middle of the night by a huge storm, thunder and lightening raging all around. He runs to the room of his young daughter to check she is OK. He finds her standing at the window looking out at the storm. He holds her and says; “Don’t worry honey, God is with you.” She replies; “But Daddy, I want someone with skin on.”

Human creativity puts the skin on creative ideas, it takes something from being a mere concept, to being a deeper reality. It is here that we find a real connection, be that a pop song about being happy, or a symphony that stirs us deeply. Even if generative AI can interrogate a million songs about heartbreak and create a new one, it can’t feel it. Generative AI doesn’t breathe, cry, or bleed.

Take a line as profoundly simple as; “Yesterday, all my troubles felt so far away.” An algorithm will never know what it is to feel troubled, it certainly won’t know what it was like to live through them. Furthermore it won’t know that ‘yesterday’ in this context isn’t the day before today, but a metaphor of a better time. ‘Far away’ in this context isn’t a measurement of distance, but the absence of pain.

Creating a simple line like the opening from ‘Yesterday’ is far more than stringing together some words so they make grammatical sense, or so they rhyme. And this is before the melody has been created to match the authors feeling. Yes, you can prompt generative AI to make you a pop song about ice cream in the style of Taylor Swift, but it’s neither original or human.

It is suggested that some of the greatest technical advances in the creative sector were driven by the porn industry, things like HD and 4K and video streaming. I’m not sure how true that is, but even if it were true, there’s no denying that there’s a lot of high quality online porn if one wishes to consume it. However, ubiquity isn’t a measure of craftsmanship, far from it, it’s the sign of industrialisation, which by its very nature is the antithesis of art. At its heart generative AI seeks to industrialise the human condition.

The parallels between porn and generative AI are profound when it comes to what makes us truly human. It might be fascinating, fun, and even give us the illusion of human expression, but it’s not the same.