AI can't replace a real donkey, or art made with love.

 It's the 13th, the new date for my post, and I apologise for missing my previous ones. As I have just remembered, I am rushing to write something. The birds are singing outside my window - I can hear wood pigeons and crows and a blackbird nearer me, and traffic, and very soon I will get washed and dressed and walk five minutes to the local primary school, where there will be a donkey. It is the Christian feast of Palm Sunday, when traditionally Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey, and every year, in our village, one of the parishioners of the local Anglican church brings her gentle donkey and we walk from the school to the church singing hymns and waving Palms. I absolutely love donkeys, and it is really the only time every year I get to see one up close and pat it. I am so excited! This year, because I am trying to improve my drawing skills, I am going to bring a sketch book, and will try to draw it too. 

Two of my books were used by META to develop their AI , and I have signed petitions and contacted my MP about how wrong and unfair it has been that artists and writers and other creative people have effectively had their work stolen and copyright laws ignored. It was already very hard to be a creative - our income is already very unpredictable and we are increasingly competing with celebrities for contracts. Smaller publishers are struggling and it can feel like AI is the last nail in the coffin, and I definitely think big publishers need to step up and treat their writers and illustrators better, and their shareholders should respect and care equally, if not more, about the writers and illustrators and publishing staff, who create the books, than their profits. There are days when I feel really bleak about it all. But, maybe it is the thought of seeing a real donkey in less than an hour, but today I feel more hopeful.

I may have to think about different ways to earn money in the short term, but I don't think AI can ever replace our human need to create and encounter human art, and I don't think you can ever stop creatives creating, and I have hope that this is not going to be the end, but perhaps heralds a change. I have been watching the BBC programme 'Make it at Market' and have felt heartened by the number of creatives who are making things and selling them, and how the actual act of creating by one person, rather than AI, empowers both them and others.  I don't want to buy AI generated art. I have ordered an embroidery kit from one person on the programme, and I am looking forward to using it. I am looking forward to actually getting a pencil and sketchbook and trying to draw the donkey today, and although it won't be in any way as accurate as a photo or an AI generated image, I hope that it will communicate something about how much I love it, and I know that just looking carefully at it as I draw it will do me good, however embarrassing the result. When I go to a school soon, or do a workshop at a festival, I want to communicate the joy of creating. When I read a book, I want to read something written and drawn by a real person. When I express what I really feel I change myself, I grow as a person.   I think people will always care more and long more for human-sized art, which really comes from the heart, and the people who make it. It's good for humans to tell and listen to stories, and no computer programme (which apparently is terrible for the environment in itself) can ever compete to art made with love, or with the sound of real birds singing outside my window, or a real little donkey in a school playground, or hopefully, an imperfect drawing which will attempt to show how beautiful it is.