The mindset which sees technology, engineering, mathematics and science as one kind of serious, disciplined, intelligent, valuable activity and the arts as frivolous, emotional, as some kind of peripheral, infantile activity could not be more wrong.

Origen: AI vs ARTISTS: A Dangerous Cultural Misunderstanding
vía: Mind Tricks (Hugo Sáez) 

 

The government consultation proposes three options:

  • Doing nothing
  • Strengthening copyright, requiring licenses in all cases
  • Allowing artists’ to opt out of their work being used for AI

…the argument is being framed by an inflammatory false binary: Either give the AI titans what they demand or the U.K. will lose the AI race.

… look at the most recent World Economic Forum Future of Jobs Report: Analytical thinking and creative thinking remained the most important skills for workers in 2023.

In 2024, employers told Forbes that creative thinking is the most in-demand skill.

The National Foundation for Educational Research studying the need for skills in 2035: “The six most vital ‘essential employment skills’, anticipated to be most in-demand by employers in the future, are;

(1) communication,

(2) collaboration,

(3) problem-solving,

(4) organising, planning & prioritising work,

(5) creative thinking and

(6) ‘information literacy’ (skills related to gathering, processing, and using information).”

…

‘We hire well credentialed people, who had gone to good schools and universities and they are good at doing what they are told. Following instructions. But when we turn to them for creative thinking, they’re lost. It isn’t what they’ve learned. I’m not sure what we will be able to do with them when they’re 35.’

Everywhere I go the cry is for people who can think for themselves, come up with novel solutions, imagine different, better ways to get work done.

This is what happens when you cut the arts and humanities out of the education system. When you denigrate it as ‘emotional’, discretionary, soft, indulgent. When you instigate multiple choice exams and criterion-based assessment, which grades an essay according to how closely it approximates to the ‘model’ answer.

And art is good for all of us. For young people, daily reading reduces hyperactivity and inattention and develops empathy. The same is true of dance, music or art lessons. For adults, frequent participation in the arts associated with less mental distress and happier lives—independent of background, income, medical history, demographics or personality. For the elderly, the arts seems to kick off, or perpetuate, a virtuous cycle. More involvement in the arts makes older people feel better, so they participate more. The consequence is fewer long and chronic diseases, a lower rate of depressive symptoms and obesity.

And if all that is too emotional to be taken seriously, in the year September 2021-22, while the British economy grew at the rate of just 1.2%, the creative industries grew 6.9%. Imagine: an industry loved by buyers and sellers alike, that grows and benefits all other industries as well as society as a whole.