What will it look like when AI comes for your job? How will it happen? Will it happen at all? These are the questions on so many minds in the age of OpenAI and Google's Bard, of the suddenly ubiquitous text and image generators such as ChatGPT and Midjourney.
The maddening thing is that, at least at first, it's probably not going to look like much of anything. There will be no cybernetic android that lumbers over to your desk and takes over your work duties, no disembodied robot voice that suddenly assumes command over your department. It might just look like routine layoffs, or a freelancer having more trouble finding work.
A friend of mine, a veteran artist and prolific freelance illustrator, told me it's been a "really weak year," and believes the rise of AI image generation is to blame. He's spoken to art directors at ad agencies, where he's made much of his past income, who told him they've begun using Midjourney internally; the work isn't published publicly, so there are fewer concerns about copyright and no working illustrators who might see the material and shame them.
