There has been a lot of talk recently about generative AI, especially in terms of “writing” and “making art.” There have been people proudly saying they used AI to work on a book, to paint an image, and to generate many other kinds of “creations.” And not so long ago I read about AI generated spells and rituals.
The question is, is this a right thing to do?
AI ethics
First of all, why the quotation marks at the beginning? Because I don’t think that anyone that uses AI can call themselves a writer or an artist. It has been proven that AI steals others’ art to create its images and texts. In addition, the texts tend to be emotionless, mechanical, lacking the human touch that no machine can replicate.
Retro computers [Pixabay]
Are there exceptions to the rule? Sure. There’s nothing wrong with Instagram filters or spelling and grammar software – tools that can help with the technical aspects, not the creating itself. There is a difference between using AI to fix typos or repetitive phrases of a text and using AI to create the text itself, based on what other writers already wrote.
If you ask me, this should be a world where robots and machines take care of the work people don’t want to do, so people can create art, not people working so machines create images and texts. Even Merriam-Webster defines art as “skill acquired by experience, study, or observation” and “the conscious use of skill and creative imagination especially in the production of aesthetic objects.” Generative AI cannot ever get experience, study, creativity, or observe.
AI in spellwork
Now, with all this, you might guess where I stand regarding our topic for today. I’m totally against it. And you should be too. Here’s why: AI doesn’t have a personal, intimate relationship to the elements around it/us. It doesn’t have a connection to the Divine.
A machine is not grateful for things that have happened in your life. A machine doesn’t know, or feel in sync with, the seasons. A machine does not care about what will happen tomorrow. A machine can only replicate based on others’ experiences.
Also, just as with books, there’s a question of effort. If you didn’t bother to write it, why should someone bother to read it? Why would the Divine bother to pay any attention?
Ritual implements – a cow skull, old books with pentagrams, a spell jar, arrayed on a red carpet [Pixabay]
It’s tempting to turn to generative AI, because we might feel like it can generate something more beautiful or evocative than we could ourselves. But even for people who don’t think of themselves as skilled writers,there is beauty in integrity, in effort, in genuineness. No magical work has to be elaborate and detailed in order to be meaningful or deep.
There’s this artificial expectation that social media can create within us about what our Craft has to look, sound, smell, sound, even feel like. But it’s not necessary, though. Our Craft is ours, first and foremost. We don’t need to impress anything or anyone.
My magical works are almost completely intuitive, created at the heat of the moment. There are things I consider before, but most of it is decided as I go, and sometimes a whole ritual is just me listening to music. And they are just as effective as other peoples’ rituals.
Our Craft should be an extension of who we are, what we feel, what resonates with us, and a machine can never ever replicate that. It can guide us, for sure. It can give us ideas, maybe a structure or a starting point, but it will never ever be as effective as something that we craft ourselves.
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