A friend created this lovely AI picture to wish me a happy birthday.
I’ve titled this post “Crochet and AI,” but it could be just “Life and AI.” I believe AI can be, in the right hands (doctors, researchers,…) a very useful tool. However, I find the casual, mundane version of it—the one that seems to have driven half the world mad—absolutely disgusting.
We have all seen how harmful it can be in any artistic field. When it comes to crochet, I have nightmares about the thousands upon thousands of AI-generated images of impossible-to-make objects, and the scams around stolen or fake patterns.
That is why the whole situation involving AI-generated images in the Scheepjes CAL Facebook group left me truly dumbfounded.
In this video, the project’s designer explains her entire creative process. She describes how she created six color combinations to inspire each design: a picnic on the mountain, at the park, the seaside, at sunrise, sunset, and under theNorthern Lights. She made six different blankets—real blankets—and introduced them proudly, satisfied with her creative work.
In every CAL, there are always people who choose their own colors or even different yarn brands; this is normal, as they might be using yarn from their stash or picking their prefered colors.
But then there is another group of “oh-so-creative” people whose color choices go beyond all the creativity in the universe.
There were so many, so many people who started generating color palettes using AI. Ooh la la, the creativity. That’s when I started to grow dissapointed. One person generated an AI image showing yarn balls displaying the AI-generated color palette, which was ok. But then, dozens of images started appearing—identical to those published by the designer—featuring blankets that don’t actually exist, complete with artificial color combinations (each one more hideous and boring than the other, I dare to add).
Of course some people, including myself, started to complain. I find it baffling that people don’t understand that this stuff has no place in our community. I repeat: they were images of blankets that do not exist. In my opinion, that completely undervalues the designer’s work. It is also quite ironic—all this AI “creativity”.
Fortunately, the Scheepjes team decided to ban the posting of these types of images, although they still allow the publication of AI generated color schemes.
I guess expressing this opinion has already made me a few enemies, but that is just how I feel. We shouldn’t give AI any place around here. I have unfollowed many accounts as soom as I see them using AI. It is the antithesis of everything that should drive our creative work. Our craft is human and personal.
Leave a Reply