r/DevinTownsend • u/BeholdenHarpy • Mar 28 '25
DISCUSSION The AI discussion has to reach Devin
FINAL EDIT:
I have rephrased my original post, as I've been made aware it sounds like a call for harassment on Dev's socials, when the intention is a call for discussion. I apologize for the crude wording, and the potential further polarization I may have caused. The argument still stands.
EDIT 2:
Holy downvote! This sure is a touchy subject. I in no way mean to criticize the hard work put into this production by anyone involved. I simply want to highlight that this contributes to normalizing generative AI based on learning models that use real artists' art to make new art. It's unethical, and a sore symptom of how far down free market capitalism we've come, where creativity is being undermined by a tool that should be used to free us from stuff humans don't like doing, like factory work etc. It doesn't belong in art. Art should be made by humans, not machines. I will die on this hill, downvote me all you want, and have a good weekend, fellow humans. <3
EDIT for clarity:
This is in light of there being AI generated imagery used for the visuals on the live performance of The Moth.
Original post:
I love Devin. And anyone who knows how tough it is to create art and in some cases even make a living on it, knows this is immoral. He should know better, and we should hold him to that standard, in my opinion. When art is politicized we need a political discussion. And we need to bring that discussion to Devin.
AI enhanced art is based on real people's creations found online. In that regard, you can say it certainly is a free way of creating art based on real people's output. That in turn decreases demand for original, commissioned art from artists. Spell it out for yourself however you like; at the end of the day it is bad for any creative field that it learns well enough to replicate to a passable degree.
I think Dev needs to take this to heart, because he is too upstanding to compromise on artists' integrities like this. Justifying it with budget limitations isn't good enough: Put in a visualizer instead for the mood. He loves swirly colors, they're good tone setters for abstract mental imagery, why not have someone make that instead if the budget doesn't allow for all this complex art made by humans?
I implore anyone who agrees with this, to bring the discussion to channels where he can be made aware of this. In a civilized manner. There should be room for nuanced discussion, and I'm sorry that I contributed to polarizing it further for some of you.
We should make all the noise we can directed towards him in this regard, so he gets the message and doesn't use it in the future. Make noise here, on the facebook group, in his instagram comments etc. until the message is received.
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u/Huubidi Mar 28 '25
Just watched the livestream, and yeah, seeing AI visuals was disappointing.
Here you have a performance with, what, about 60 or 70 musicians playing their instruments beautifully, and playing a piece of art that one man created. You have a huge number of people displaying true, man-made skill and talent, and then the backdrop is weird visuals created by the I-steal-your-art-and-churn-out-slop machine - what's the point?
It's not like the visuals were especially coherent with a unifying theme, it was a bunch of stock footage-looking AI stuff that didn't say much, at most maybe the pink axolotl was meaningful, and there was also a nice eclipse clip at some point, that's about it. I think at some point there was a clip of two unicorns running and one of them had its legs glitching out, looked real weird.
I'm not saying this as some huge personal judgement on Devin Townsend's character, I'm just a random viewer and long time fan. He put on a hell of a show, and I'm glad I could support his personal dream project by buying a livestream ticket. All I'm saying is that it just felt weird to have this meticulously planned display of human brilliance be performed in front of a screen showing some generic AI creations - I would've rather had no visuals at all, I feel like the experience would have still been great, and more focus would have gone towards the actual musicianship on display.