What you can use Instead of
AI What you can use Instead of
AI Large Language Models and other generative AI (GenAI) tech have become seemingly pervasive in the last few years. They have been developed to write just about anything and generate images and video. While this may seem like a convenience and a productivity tool, they have shown themselves to not really be worth it. Artists, writers, and programmers have largely found these frustrating because they have led to layoffs, fewer sales, or theft of their work.
Besides using much more power than conventional methods to do tasks, at best GenAI just makes slop. The outputs are often not good and need clean up work to make ready for publishing. But even if it was consistently making publishable things, the biggest issue still stands:
Why should I bother reading something that nobody could be bothered to write?
Making stuff is fun and rewarding, but also often tedious and difficult. The second part is especially true when making things for a living. In those cases, commissioning an expert or finding a ready-to-use element can accomplish the goal of helping finish the task with less work. Hiring someone can be expensive and even stock photos cost some money, but it also means someone gets paid for the work they did to help you finish yours.
When you're working on a personal project or just making something because you want it to exist, then the fun and rewarding feeling will likely justify the tedium and difficulty. Putting in the work and practice is very often worth the effort. Let's go over what you can do instead of AI:
Stock images and video libraries are a great source, but this resource will focus on free public resources. Each source has its own policy on use and reuse, and should especially be reviewed for commercial uses.
If you need something specific and can't find it in the above sources, making it yourself is a great option. This option can mean learning or honing a skill, but that is almost always worth it. There are certainly other tools (sometimes with better user experience), but this resource will focus on free tools.
There are loads of people who are offering services for drawing, painting, photography, video editing, copywriting, and just about anything you need to complete your project. These workers have different styles and skill levels, so you should certainly review their previous work to ensure it will be the right fit.
There are quite a few platforms to connect artists and writers to those who want to commission them. Some are certainly better than others and you should try a few. Even if you find a good plaform, try to be aware of others since platforms decay and other users may move on to other platforms when they do.
And pay them what they ask and on time. They helped you finish your project. They deserve to be paid for that work. Your project not making money is no excuse. If it's your project, you take on the risk. Pay your vendors.
No it's not. Anyone can make art at (almost) any time with a littany of different media and materials. Artists are not hoarding art, they just practiced a lot and want to be paid for their work. Also with all the public domain and creative commons work available, art is already very available to the people.
This is fair actually. There is a limit to what is in the public domain for sure, though more is added all the time. Remixing elements from different works can sometimes lead to the aesthetic you may be looking for. But if you don't want to remix something, you can always commission someone.
Yes, it often is, but it is also often well worth it. Artists and writers typically dramatically undercharge for their services and are still told they're too expensive. There are times when it is worth your time and money to hire an expert who can deliver what you need much faster (and likely better) than if you did it yourself. If you can't or don't want to pay for a commission, you can certainly make it yourself.
That's okay. Typically, no one is good at any skill if they aren't practicing regularly. The above tools have strong communities with many tutorials on how to use them, tips on procuring better tools, and discussions on how to improve your skills. If you're making something you want to publish, it helps to practice by doing it small and in low detail a few times before making the actual piece.
That is the rub. Being less practiced at something often means you will take longer to make the same thing as someone who is well-practiced. This is very normal. If you have a deadline, great! That will set some limits on how you finish your project. Limits make us make choices about what is vital to the project and often the project benefits from this. Sometimes these limits mean we need to hire an expert.
If you want something to exist, you may need to make it yourself. If you don't want to make something, that may be a sign you don't really want it to exist. That's okay. Not all of our ideas are worth pursuing. It's better to start something and learn this early in the process.
GenAI is not the future. It will likely fade like other tech fads like NFTs, the Metaverse, many JavaScript frameworks, and 3D televisions. Even in the world of AI, there are many things we've called AI in the past that we don't consider AI anymore, and GenAI will likely join them. There are also arguments to say that GenAI is not really getting that much better for the effort being put in.