AI is a ubiquitous term in today's world, permeating almost every aspect of our lives. While companies invest heavily in AI, the question remains: Is it genuinely profitable, or are we on the brink of an AI winter, a period of reduced funding and interest in AI research that could lead to potential negative impacts on creativity and business?
Remember Web 3.0 or the Metaverse? These technologies were supposed to set the world on fire, promising a new era of internet and virtual reality, but like the dodo bird, they went to the wayside due to various factors, such as lack of user adoption and technical limitations. Will AI have the same demise?
So, how does this all come together? A startup conceives an idea, secures investment, and hopes for success. Meanwhile, with their deep pockets, tech giants like Apple, Microsoft, and Meta are keen to prevent the next big thing from slipping through their fingers, so they pour in billions.
Despite the apparent free usage of many AI apps, the cost is more complex. Your data is the fuel that powers these AI systems. Whether through internet scouring or client data mining, these practices raise significant ethical concerns, such as privacy violations and potential misuse of personal information.
Did you know that nuclear energy is being considered to fuel the resources to run AI since we feel it isn't sustainable right now? Language models like GPT-3, for example, are estimated to use just under 1,300 megawatt hours (MWh) of electricity, about as much power as is consumed annually by 130 US homes. In context, streaming an hour of Netflix requires around 0.8 kWh (0.0008 MWh) of electricity. That means you'd have to watch 1,625,000 hours to consume the same power to train GPT-3.
Imagine taking all your class notes while in school and training a computer to read, learn, and understand them, answering questions based on what you fed into it. These are large language models (LLMs), which is what AI is.
How does AI affect me, what I do, and what you hire me to do for you? I use AI on almost all of my projects today. AI, in the way I use it, will only go away if some legislation closes it down due to copyright or once the funding stops and they need to start making money, charging more than I am willing to pay. How do I use it? I use it subtly, and some might not notice it. I spend much time with the best assets money can buy and painstakingly build my scenes. AI allows me to add more detail to what is already very good. It takes me more time, and the change is minor but worth it.
Here is the problem. You can create realistic scenes in seconds, for free, and try to sell your services using those images, images you can never reproduce for an actual project. Go to portfolios, and you'll see some stunning work, all 100% AI, and this is how they get your attention. You drop a deposit, and either you'll never hear back from them again, or you will receive a deliverable that looks different from their portfolio work. Social media is saturated with these AI images, trying to sell a service. Instead of stealing others' pictures and trying to sell a service, these are AI images, so they can't get into trouble. I have to send removal notices to websites using my renderings to sell their services several times a year. This will be less and less of an issue for me with AI. But the potential for misuse is high, and we must be vigilant.
How else can this be an issue? When you use AI, there needs to be consistency between images. Let's say I create a scene and replace parts with AI, which is random, and then a second or more views are requested. I can use AI on the images, but the results will be random each time.
Plants and vegetation are where AI shines for me. I already have very realistic 3D models specific to my scenes, and I use masks to replace those assets with actual photos that perfectly blend into my scene.
Below are three renderings that I recently created, all using AI to enhance my trees and buhes. Can you tell where I used AI? If another view is needed, all of these renderings had multiple views, and I can maintain consistency because the AI is so subtle. It doesn't affect the image much, but enough to be effective.
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