This is partially a repost of my comment in the news megathread but not really.

OpenAI just announced Sora, a tool for creating video from text, and the results are really fucking good (especially compared to state-of-the-art AI video generation tools), and this has me thinking about job security again.

Generative AI is already displacing workers.

A study surveying 300 leaders across the entertainment industry reports that three-fourths of respondents indicated that AI tools supported the elimination, reduction or consolidation of jobs at their companies. Over the next three years, it estimates that nearly 204,000 positions will be adversely affected.

The Concept Art Assn. and the Animation Guild commissioned the report, which was conducted from Nov. 17 to Dec. 22 by consulting firm CVL Economics, amid concerns from members over the impact of AI on their work. Among the issues is that concept artists are increasingly being asked to “clean up” AI-generated works by studios, lowering their billed hours and the pool of available jobs, says Nicole Hendrix, founder of the advocacy group.

“We’re seeing a lot of role consolidation and reduction,” Hendrix says. “A lot of people are out of work right now.”

According to the report, nearly 77 percent of respondents use AI image generators enabling, for example, individuals to upload landscape photos to virtual productions screens or speed up rotoscoping in postproduction. They have applications in 3D modeling, storyboarding, animation and concept art, among other things.

Generative AI displacing workers isn't some future hypothetical, it's something that's already happening right now, and as someone working in a field which is vulnerable to automation by AI tools, I'm really worried that OpenAI (or some other company) is going to create a new tool that just completely puts me out of a job.

Is anyone else worried for their job? Is there anything that can be done?

  • wopazoo [he/him]
    hexagon
    hexbear
    10
    4 months ago

    I mean, "AI will crash eventually" is little relief when animators are getting put out of jobs right now. Everyone can talk all they want about how generative AI can't produce real art, but it's clear that AI is already good enough and getting way better each year. I'm probably not going to get put out of a job in 2024, but what about 2025 or 2026?

    • Dirt_Owl [comrade/them, they/them]
      hexbear
      6
      4 months ago

      Oh, totally. I didn't mean it wouldn't suck before it gets better. It's horrible.

      Like a part of me dies knowing video games that are lazy asset flips with AI-assisted character designs are being eaten up by consumers.

      Capitalism has spent decades convincing people not to value artists, writers and scientists and it's really fucking sad to see some people's attitudes being "Well writers have been making lazy shit lately so I don't care if they get replaced". Mother fucker those writers aren't lazy, they're working in terrible conditions and have to have their work butchered by marketing teams.

      People are going to notice though, people already hate Marvel movies, but with AI shit the bourgeoisie will have even more control over art, and the quality will be even worse than what people hate now. It's popular for now because it's new, but people are already kind of starting to dislike it for its repetitive nature and soullessness.

      • wopazoo [he/him]
        hexagon
        hexbear
        7
        edit-2
        4 months ago

        Capitalism has spent decades convincing people not to value artists, writers and scientists and it's really fucking sad to see some people's attitudes being "Well writers have been making lazy shit lately so I don't care if they get replaced". Mother fucker those writers aren't lazy, they're working in terrible conditions and have to have their work butchered by marketing teams.

        A few years ago, when artists were speaking out against generative AI, I laughed at them because I never thought that AI was going to be able to draw hands and that any artist so terrible they could be threatened by AI that can't draw hands deserved their misery.

        I was wrong to think that way, because a year later, AI figured out how to draw hands. And today, my own work is seriously threatened by generative AI.

        People are going to notice though, people already hate Marvel movies, but with AI shit the bourgeoisie will have even more control over art, and the quality will be even worse than what people hate now. It's popular for now because it's new, but people are already kind of starting to dislike it for its repetitive nature and soullessness.

        AI allows mediocre people to make an endless stream of mediocre, dull, aseptic, sterile content.