Freelance artist Beth Spencer had a brilliant idea that went viral. She suggested that artists hand draw their own version of a “created with human intelligence” badge to put on their work to distinguish it from AI-generated art. The idea caught fire among other designers presumably also looking for a way to separate their art from the wave of generated content online. It’s a great thought, and one that we might hope succeeds … but it won’t.
The reason I say that, though, isn’t because of some doomsday plot from AI to create its own version. That could happen, of course, but the problem is the way any of us would define the idea of human intelligence itself. When someone uses an AI tool and meticulously crafts a complex initial prompt, followed by a dozen additional prompts in order to end up with a result they like – who’s to say that isn’t “human intelligence” even though AI was used? A better badge would be something inspired by food labeling that tells you what isn’t inside. “Nut-free” means the product has no nuts. “AI-free” could be used to indicate the same thing about AI.
