Thoughts on AI

Here is an article that elucidates a lot of the thoughts and opinions I’ve had on all this.
My main issues with the AI/LLM scheme boil down to:

• Environmental impact: the energy and water usage of this technology is beyond irresponsible. As it’s used more often by more and more people, I want those people to consider their impact and reconsider if there isn’t already a better way to do what they’re trying to do (there is.)
  More info

• Scraping of human artists’ work without their consent or credit. Generating images, music, text that copies an existing artist’s style and directly competes with the artist for attention. The overall effect this has of reducing art to nothing but pieces of regurgitated content ultimately demeans the human experience in a serious way.

• The megacorporations pushing this into every facet of our lives act without regard to copyright or environmental rules, without regard to basic ethical guidelines or any respect for human creativity. Their intentions are far from benign.

As an aside, I hate hearing it referred to as AI. There are better, more accurate, less emotionally charged terms for it: LLM (Large Language Models,) machine generated content, etc. For the purposes of this post, I would like everyone to at least know what I’m referring to, so I’ll leave the title as is. I hate hearing about how this technology will double in efficiency or power every year or reach AGI (“Artificial General Intelligence,” basically independent thought) within our lifetimes. If that’s going to happen, it won’t with these current models. I get the feeling these technologies have reached their peak and everything else is just marketing. For more on this

If you’re reading this and have thoughts that clash with what I’m asserting, write down your thoughts. Don’t go to ChatGPT. Write them down. Send them to me. I’m here, breathing, writing, making art, and this technology causes me and the artists I love grave harm at an alarming pace. Having a conversation will illuminate things for both of us as long as your intentions are good. All this is to say, if you use LLMs, please consider your impact. If your primary output is LLM images or music or something that takes away from human creators and I’m following you, that’s a mistake I hope soon to rectify. If you’re following me, there’s the door, but I’d welcome you back if you change your mind and/or things change drastically for the better.

6/4/25
-PGB

Website published

Just putting a post up here to note that this website is now public. However, it’s not finished. I still need to reduce the filesize on all the images across the site to reduce loading time. And I’m working on fleshing out the print store. Finally, I’ll get everything up on the Other Works page so I can publish that, too. Ooh! And, if the formatting appears weird on your phone screen, let me know. I’m working on that too.

My art-only Instagram page is up now, and I’m planning my first few posts. My handle there is @patrickgbarrow_art.
I’d like to be able to offer prints for every piece on this site, and originals eventually too, but that will also take some time. If you are interested in something that’s not yet listed in the store, please fill out the contact form and I’ll get on it. Don’t be shy, I’m eager to start fulfilling orders to help support my family.

5/29/25

-PGB