11 Comments
User's avatar
Tom White's avatar

"[I]t is still amateurs who obsess over tools, pros over mastery." Amen. As has been said, an Indian never blames his arrows.

Expand full comment
Monette Satterfield's avatar

And this is why I keep making things in the real, living world. Regardless of who, if anyone at all, sees them or if it's even "good" or not. The creating IS the joy!

"Because at the end of the day, no AI will ever replace what happens when a living, breathing, imperfect human wrestles with their craft and makes something worth remembering."

Expand full comment
James Pember's avatar

Good read

Expand full comment
erg art ink's avatar

Well said

Expand full comment
Scott Monty's avatar

Well said. Although I take issue with the title, as you conflate Luddites with Philistines. Being a Luddite has nothing to do with taste; Luddites were anti-technology.

Philistines are those who don't appreciate art, beauty, spirituality, and intellect.

The two concepts are related and probably part of another Venn diagram, but aren't the same.

Expand full comment
Adam Singer's avatar

Yes it's a good point - note I said it this way as these people are calling creatives "luddites" (thus, it is put in quotes, and here as well)

Expand full comment
AJDeiboldt-The High Notes's avatar

Brian Merchant posted this thing in the last week or so about how Luddites weren't anti-technology as much as they were anti-technology as a means of crushing the working class.

And the thing about tech people is, as you said, they almost can't understand the artistic process because most tech is designed to find ways around processes like that. So anymore it's no surprise to me when people online say things like "But that's all artists do, just copy the things they like in a slightly different way" and think that's what the artistic process is.

Expand full comment
Sean Byrnes's avatar

I'm not sure it's fair to say creatives have always been early adopters of technology, the reality is more of a mixed bag.

We've seen similar resistance to photography, Photoshop, Autotune and countless other technologies. And then, when they aren't new anymore, the resistance dies down and the technology is accepted. AI is no different.

Expand full comment
Adam Singer's avatar

Maybe growing up with them I have a biased view of the millennial cohort (we happily adopted all of this). I'm sure there was *some* resistance by certain people though, fair point - in older cohorts. I do think most artists now though are not tech phobic at all (all grew up with digital tools).

Expand full comment
Sean Byrnes's avatar

Autotune was only a 10-15 years ago and the ones leading the charge against it were millennials: https://www.complex.com/music/a/kyle-kramer/the-t-pain-efffect-how-auto-tune-ruined-music-and-saved-hip-hop

Expand full comment
Adam Singer's avatar

I don't have a problem with this one personally, I use pitch-bend on synths and samples all the time, why not vocals

Expand full comment