Some of the biggest objections (legal and otherwise) to the advancement of AI has come from the creative community. There’s a big question that revolves around the material AI uses to learn and regurgitate being copyrighted material.

So you can see how someone with a very distinct creative style – like, say, Tim Burton – might be less than thrilled to see “his style” repurposed by AI.

Burton specifically took issue with a website using AI to combine his gothic style with popular Disney characters.

“I can’t describe the feeling it gives you,” he told The Independent. “It reminded me of when other cultures say ‘Don’t take my picture because it is taking away your soul.”

Tim Burton says he saw a Buzzfeed article that used AI to combine his characters with Disney characters and it made him feel like his soul was taken

“It’s like a robot taking your humanity" pic.twitter.com/uZRfBOfM2U

— Culture Crave 🍿 (@CultureCrave) September 10, 2023

Burton joins many other creatives who feel as if AI has no right to use their words, style, or anything else.

“What it does it sucks something from you. It takes something from your soul or psyche; that is very disturbing, especially if it has to do with you. It’s like a robot taking your humanity, your soul.”

Which sounds a little bit dramatic, but what else would you expect from Tim Burton?

To be fair, though, art is a spiritual experience for many. It’s something they use to explore their deepest emotions, hardest memory or trauma, or to take a look into the darkest places inside of our souls.

And there is something insulting about assuming a robot could do any of that with any kind of authenticity.

Fellow artist Nick Cave has written about similar feelings on his blog.

“ChatGPT rejects any notions of creative struggle, that our endeavours animate and nurture our lives giving them depth and meaning. It rejects that there is a collective, essential and unconscious human spirit underpinning our existence, connecting us all through our mutual striving.”

Artists like these two are asking us to step back and ask whether or not something that looks cool is worth stripping away parts of someone else’s soul.

And I mean…can you really look them in the eye and say that it is?

If you enjoyed that story, check out what happened when a guy gave ChatGPT $100 to make as money as possible, and it turned out exactly how you would expect.