If you are on social media on any platform from Facebook to Instagram you will have noticed a trend.
This trend is the rising use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to create posters promoting events, this is everything from the local golf club to any fundraising events of any kind. It seems that literally every event has some form of AI Slop (this is the proper term and a great descriptor).
There is any number of reasons why this is bad and not just the whole notion of AI Data Centres, which is also a large part.
The first reason is that it is not creative, it is letting a machine be creative for you. Now it might look great, but the machines seem to want every poster to have way too much happening in the posters. People enter the concepts into ChatGPT or another AI generator and the idea comes out the other end and is too busy. In general, the posters capture the spirit of the event that is being promoted but they also all generally look the same.
The poster can be promoting something like a concert or a fundraiser and there is inevitably a human, but they do not appear to be a person who is involved in the event directly. The posters have too much happening in them and generally show all the pertinent information in such a way that it almost turns me off the event. I understand the notion that you want to be creative, but you can be creative using older forms of creation like Canva or any number of creative apps. The idea seems to be that everyone wants to be different but inevitably the posters end up looking the same.
The AI issue is not just a lack of creativity but also the whole idea of AI Data Centres and what they are and what they do. Governments, including the Government of Saskatchewan have over the last several years become invested in investment from companies like Meta for the creation of these Data Centres.
The RM of Sherwood near Regina had a mass resignation of Councillors after an AI Data Centre was announced. There has been protests in Saskatoon and at the RM of Sherwood office over the creation of Data Centres. The issue of Data Centres also shows some common ground on the left and right over what they do to operate. Environmentalists do not like the water usage for Data Centres and at the same time Libertarians do not like Governments superseding rights in order to create the Data Centres on land operated by Rural Municipalities.
Last week the Government of Saskatchewan released its Data Centre Framework. According to the release it was to help guide future investment opportunities, support economic growth and ensure Saskatchewan remains a competitive destination for private sector investment and development.
The Government said that it was following feedback from business, labour, industry, Indigenous partners and the public. One wonders of this was the also because of the previously mentioned protests. The Government also said it considered Indigenous participation important and pointed to George Gordon First Nation being involved in the Bell Data Centre in the RM of Sherwood.
They said the framework ensures any new project delivers meaningful benefits to Saskatchewan residents and businesses. One wonders if this is all of this because of the negative pushback from across the political spectrum.
The people who create these posters using AI are probably aware of all of these negative aspects but also need a creative outlet to create these posters.
Now to be fair to myself I do use AI in creating my work but that is through an auto transcriber for interviews, so I am not an innocent person on the matter of AI.
Another example of a stance on this issue is Prince Albert concert producer Clay Cottingham of Threadbare Production has stated that he will not use AI generated posters to promote any of his local shows. People are standing up against the idea of AI, but it is now embedded in seemingly everything that people do on a day-to-day basis.
What it comes down to for me is do you want to be creative or do you want a machine to be creative, almost a case of ‘Whose side are you on?”
Michael Oleksyn is a reporter for the Prince Albert Daily Herald who clearly spends too much time on social media.
