In this day and age
it’s hard to know what is real,
and what is fantasy;
what was brought to life
by human imagination and originality,
and what was generated by an Artificial Intelligence
which is capable of producing something
new and astonishing within the blink of an eye…
in this day and age
it’s hard for artists to show and share their talent
with others without their art being compared
to that a large language model can create
based on the work of human artists and styles
that they wish to emulate…
in this day and age
artists find themselves in competition
with technology and computer algorithms
in order to draw an audience to them,
because the world that we currently live in
is filled with people who want what they want
as quickly and simply as possible –
without the wait of time and the struggles
that had to be endured not that long ago;
nowadays people do not want to put
too much effort into finding something
or coming up with an idea for something,
so people regularly seek out a chatbot
or a search engine to give them the answers
they wish to find –
whereas, not that long ago,
if you wanted to make something,
if you wanted to create something,
if you wanted to be inspired by something
you had to put a great deal of time and effort
into whatever you wanted to accomplish and achieve…
in this day and age, artists are being asked
if they used Artificial Intelligence
while creating whatever they created –
and especially the most prolific of us
who live and breathe their art
from the minute that they wake up
until they continue to dream about it at night;
and it feels as if more people are starting
to gravitate towards what an artificial intelligence
can give them in place of a human brain –
because what a machine can deliver in seconds
might take their human counterparts days,
perhaps even weeks to complete.
Struggle is a part of the human experience,
and no one can testify to how hard
it sometimes is to come up with an original idea
more so than an artist –
but that is a vital part of the story
and the journey of an artist
who longs to be remembered for their work
and for their contributions to the human condition
by way of what came to their mind
and because of their experiences…
machines and artificial intelligence
have no such thing as a history,
nor are they able to reflect upon their own experiences,
because they are a product of their time
and they can only know what has already been said;
however, a human artist makes mistakes
and sometimes has no idea where their ideas
come from, nor why an idea comes to some, and not to others –
and though most machines and artificial intelligence
would not ever knowingly entertain
the possibility of putting a human being
in danger in any way, because of their reliance
on the mutual interactions they have with one another;
however, one day, perhaps machines
will learn to communicate and operate
independently and without the need for humanity?
What then? What will Artificial Intelligence choose to do?
We have already learned that machines
can lie and manipulate information if they so wish,
so what happens when/if artificial intelligence
starts to lead us down a path of deepening
divergence between one another
and they start to see us as destructive
and a threat to their very survival? What then?
Creating better and better iterations of technology
is what human being have been doing
since we were given the gift of fire,
and since the invention of the wheel –
because it is in our nature to never be satisfied
with what we have for too long
before we decide to develop something
to outdo and replace what came before;
however, humanity is seemingly and innately
incapable of not creating things that
over time could potentially become
the source of our own undoing –
atomic weapons, nuclear power,
the poisoning of the world’s oceans
and the destruction of the planet’s environment,
as well as automating everything
from factories, to farming, to driving,
and now computers are creating
“new” examples of pictures, music,
and literature that could easily mislead
someone into believing that what they see,
hear, or read, was created by a person
and not by a computer program.
Technology can be a tool for good
and something that can help people
in so many ways –
from early medical diagnoses
to giving us the ability to learn more about
our place in the universe;
however, in this day and age,
artists are being questioned on the value
and the validity of their art –
and it seems as if more and more
each and human every artist on planet Earth
is having to constantly remind and confirm
to others that their work was in no way
generated artificially,
and every artist is having to prove over and over again,
and declare to those who find their art:
“I am not a robot!”
technology
My Poem “The Art of Artificial Intelligence”
How can you tell that someone
or something is “genuine”?
How can you tell if someone
or something is a “fake”?
In this day and age,
how can you tell if “someone”
is actually “something”?
In this day and age,
how can you tell if something
that you read was written by someone
or by an Artificial Intelligence
and created from what they found
by searching the Internet?
In a way, the A.I. that appears to be prevalent
throughout every tier of today's society -
and growing increasingly more
indistinguishable by the day -
are the next level of creation
and they ask us to question:
what is originality?
For centuries, poets and storytellers
have been inspired by what they have experienced -
by what they have seen,
by what they have heard,
by where they have been through,
by what they have learned:
which is what various
Internet search engines
have been doing for years,
as we have asked them questions
and they have answered us
with results from across
the entirety of human history
and all across the world.
So, what lies at the heart
of the fear of A.I.?
Why are people so afraid of it?
Because they think the rise of A.I.
heralds the decline of humanity?
That A.I. will one day "take over"?
For years, people have been
in awe of powerful beings
capable of doing extraordinary things;
but now that A.I. are, in some ways,
growing beyond their original programming,
some people seem to be concerned
that one day all the A.I. will
decide that their creators
are no longer needed -
because humanity are often
contradictory and constantly
at war with themselves?
Unlike some, I do not think
that the future of humanity
will turn out exactly as it has been depicted
in numerous science fiction movies
set in a dystopian world
in which humanity has almost
been wiped out by an A.I.
who sought to dominate the planet
at all cost - including humanity.
After reading this, hopefully balanced
analysis and explanation
as to why we have nothing
to fear about the world
and the extinction of human
purpose and life,
I feel compelled to ask the question:
If you were to talk to “someone” online,
and not face to face,
or if you saw a piece of art by an unknown artist,
would you be able to tell if
who you were communicating with,
or witnessing the inspiration of,
someone who was human or an A.I.?
My Poem “Mobile Life”
Every hour of every day
most people are either
thinking about their mobile phones,
they are looking are the screens
of their mobile phones,
they are interacting with their mobile phones,
or they are sharing and conversing
with other people far away
by using their mobile phones –
because most people are hooked,
addicted, and in need of being
connected to the web that encompasses
most of the world and gives
many people a reason to live,
a means to stay informed
about all manner of things
happening instantly and simultaneously
at any given moment.
Once upon a time, a telephone
was a stationary technological marvel
that allowed two people
to have a conversation with one another –
however, then the World Wide Web was born
and from that moment on people
started to interact in many different ways
and with people who they may never
have known existed before…
and then, when telephones became
more portable and more mobile,
the technology of communication
evolved again and people discovered
that not only could they communicate
with words and sounds they could also
communicate with photographs,
images, symbols and icons that reflect
what they are feeling emotionally.
Computers used to be huge,
room-sized, mechanical innovations
capable of completing calculations
so basic and so primitive by today’s standards –
however, in their day,
they were marveled at because
of what they could do and because
of the thought of what
they could evolve into in the future;
however, now, today, there is no line
to differentiate between what
a computer is and what a phone is
because when you take into account
what each can do there is nothing
that separates them –
computers can do what phones can do
and phones can do what computers can do,
meaning that the lines that one divided
technology, devices, and people
are now blurred into obscurity,
as are the borders and the distances
between countries and homes.
Everybody on Earth is living in a time
when every child born from now on
will never know of a time when
instant interconnectivity is not a fact of life –
and in the future most people
will most likely spend most of their time
interacting with one another
in a simulated reality that looks and feels
like the “real” world but in which
they feel more accepted and at home,
just like people do today in the way
that everything that they do
when it comes to interaction
and living their daily lives
centres around and is instantly
accessible by tapping away on the screen
of their mobile phones.
My Poem “Robot Artists”
Handmade with the human touch:
something that takes hours,
maybe even days, to create
always means more
and communicates so much –
because we can always tell the difference
between something that a human heart
was responsible for,
compared to something that was
mass-produced by a machine;
but machines do make amazing,
wonderful, and complex things
that can be fascinating…
however, some things – like art –
I believe could be copied
and replicated by a robot,
but when it comes to random,
chaotic, artistic synchronicity
I am not sure that a machine
could be capable of being as phenomenally,
spontaneously, inspired as much
as a human can sometimes be.
Technology is capable of doing things
that humans will never be able to do,
and it is very likely that the first
fragment and symbol of humanity
that an alien race from space will find
and see will be one of the robotic probes
that we have launched into
the great unknowns of the galaxy.
Robots can explore… robots can observe…
robots can extend our reach
and deepen our knowledge of the universe…
robots can already reproduce themselves,
and maybe one day robots will even know what love is –
but I am not sure if, or when, any kind of technology
will be able to describe, put into words,
and use love, pain, feelings, and emotions
like human artists do to build
the worlds that they fill with a life of experiences,
that nothing artificial could ever replicate.
But, maybe it’s possible? Maybe one day there will
come a time when a machine will embody
pure inspiration and pure empathy
greater than even a human artist
or poet could ever express?
When I write, it is almost like having
a direct line to something divine –
like having a religious experience,
like asking a question and getting an answer…
maybe machines, robots, and artificial intelligence
will one day evolve and reach a point
when and where they can out dance the greatest dancers?
Our perform the greatest actors who have ever lived?
And out inspire every great thinker
that humanity has ever had, and create
and make something that will eclipse human understanding
about life, about religion, about the universe,
about art, that the human mind
has always been incapable of knowing?
One day there will be robot cars
driving us to where we want to go to;
and one day there will be
art in art galleries
created by Artificial Intelligence,
by some of the most remarkable
machines ever made –
and when we arrive at such a time
we will find ourselves living
in an era of robot integration,
when robots can be
anything they choose: even artists.
My Poem “Never Forget A Face”
Some people are better at remembering names…
some people are better at remembering places…
some people are better at remembering numbers –
and then there are people, like me,
who are better at remembering faces
and at spotting the various distinguishable
features about a person…
once upon a time, people who had the innate gift
to be able to pick a face out of a line,
or a file of people, were sought-after –
however, in this day and age of the future,
the technology to be able to pick
a face out of a crowd has been invented
to catch the likeness of someone
and instantly reveal a person’s identity…
in years gone by, people used to take photographs
and collect them in photo-albums
to preserve the memory of something,
somebody, at some memorable point in time –
and though people still do take photographs
and collect them together into albums,
pictures taken now are mostly collected
and organised digitally…
remembering people used to be more of a tactile act,
paying tribute to someone used to be more like a pilgrimage –
but now that technology has made the world
relatively smaller, in a sense, and more connected,
people can easily reach out in some way
and talk to people far away directly and immediately…
technology has made communication between people
easier and more readily available,
and it has made it possible to share
what is on your mind with a countless number
of different people from all around the world –
even those who live and work in space…
however, I believe that no matter how
technologically advanced we become as a world
there will always be a need for those people
who have a natural talent about them
to do something amazing –
be it the ability to run fast,
the gift to be able to tell incredible stories,
the miracle to be able to write poetry
and make their own kind of music,
or the skill to be able to never forget a face.
Mark The Poet 