We all have our bias towards the current day Artificial Intelligence (AI) whether its Google Gemini, ChatGPT, Deepseek, or Sora. Yet in our world today AI has so many uses in so many different industries that are harming workers and hobbyists, but are also helping the same people. It’s important to understand how AI is working its way into aspects of our world before generalizing how it’s bad or good for society. AI being Generative or Chatbot isn’t so black and white. 

Many people in tech are seeing how AI in chatbots is being used to help people but things like Generative AI are being used to replace artists and cut corners. Rocklin High School’s Computer teacher Paul Werner said “I think that Chatbot AI is a way to potentially tutor you or students in subjects if they’re struggling have that kind of individualized instruction is so helpful” AI in this way is giving the teachers more time to help those students who are really struggling instead of answering mundane questions of students who are not paying attention or need a refresher. 

It’s also hard to accept AI, especially generative AI which is a form of AI that samples Artwork and Photos from real people and can create something new. The new art sadly has the issue of being based upon the original artist’s work in a sense stealing it. Werner found it hard to accept this type of AI as he said, “it really infringes upon artists, because most people are immediately using it in the capacity of supplying art for projects or for backgrounds or using it for actual photographs, like if you want to create a new photograph with a person. So it’s cutting out the digital artists. It’s cutting out traditional artists. It’s cutting out even like photography.”

Werner is an avid gamer and game designer who felt that the Artistry of games should be kept to humans and not to AI to make a quick buck. He said “It was like a very small team, like they poured their heart and soul, like blood, sweat and tears into this game. But at the same time, I think that it doesn’t have to be just because generative allows us to make these things that look real or look like they’re so detailed, doesn’t mean that that’s good. It’s all in the creative outlets.” This shows a way that AI not only helps Paul but also can hurt something he holds dear. 

Daniel Nieto is a Senior at RHS who is passionate about film being in Video Production VI who wants to pursue film in the future. However Nieto fears AI as it has begun to take the magic away from the movies in place of cheap tricks and unfulfilled creativity. He said “filmmaking or painting, drawing or music, I think the AI at any given point, if it’s producing the work for them, that’s wrong. That’s just wrong.” One overlooked area of filmmaking that Nieto shines light on is Visual Effects (VFX) Nieto said “recently I’ve just been on like YouTube, watching some filmmaking stuff, and I’ll see a couple people use generative AI to do VFX for their work. And when I see that, I just, at first, I’m just not impressed. I think that’s actually kind of a disgrace, especially to VFX artists, because there’s a whole art behind that.” This underlooked art form is already being replaced with many films using AI VFX like Avatar series.

One teacher currently uses AI in their daily class transforming his class into a more engaging and fun learning environment. Ryan O’Donnell is the RHS film teacher who loves the addition of AI while understanding how it harms Artists and other Creative outlets. His approach is unique and something that many enjoy. O’Donnell said “I believe, and hired this person and said, Hey, here’s four screenshots. Can you give me a nice black line, clean, thick lines to be able to use for coloring pages. I paid this person, right? I forget how much I paid them. More than I would normally pay for something, but it was kind of a novelty to see how this thing would work. And I think I paid, like, 40 bucks for it. And I mean, and then she delivered me back some four images that were done from there. And I’m like, oh, it’s really cool.” 

However something like this isn’t something teachers can do every time out of pocket so he turns to AI at times to produce coloring pages for his class which he wouldn’t have otherwise. However this is where AI hits a deep debate about what is ethical for this production as this type of work does steal potential customers from Artists similar to the Fiverr one hired by O’Donnell. Donnell expresses the dangers of using AI in this way. He said “Of what this is, in terms of we have this thing that can generate things for us, but we also can’t give up our ability to generate only to the machine.” O’Donnell highlights how AI is mostly a novelty right now for generative AI lacking the passion to actually make the real love behind art. 

To sum it up He said “Yeah, for good is the right word, because it is a parlor trick. It’s a novelty. It’s I teach movies over here, and a lot of what we do is we talk about movie magic, and that’s what it is. It’s magic. And so tricking viewers. And so it’s a simple extent, like, that’s what this generative AI is.” 

All in All Artificial Intelligence is still in its infancy yet it is already making waves in the world. The fear of replacing real Artists, Film creators, Graphic Designers, and more is real but it’s not something we have to let happen. Sourcing AI using consenting artists who allow their work to be used to train AI is a good start to stopping this theft.