I don’t know about you, but it seems like everywhere I turn I see stories about AI and its impact on the world – from the impact that it may have on the creative arts with the Writers’ Guild Strikes in the USA, the replacement of actors with AI-generated humans which is currently happening in the field of voice-acting, and the use of AI to take jobs currently performed by humans as appears to be taking place within BT in the UK. It all seems scary, doesn’t it? But how is AI affecting the world of crochet? Is it having a negative or a positive impact?
Well, it’s complicated. Isn’t it always?!
Picture the scene if you will- you’re scrolling through your favourite social media platform.
When your eyes fall upon a truly magnificent sight.
A GIANT CROCHET HORSE!
Your eyes light up, your heart beats faster, and you wonder where you can possibly buy this majestic item.
But, I’ll come back to that later.
Artificial Intelligence & Crochet
I don’t know about you, but I seem to see stories everywhere about AI and how wonderful it is, especially as a small business owner. I seem to be bombarded with articles and newsletters revolving around AI and the immeasurable ways that it can help my life, my business, and my social media. Et cetera. Et cetera.
Until recently, I hadn’t really had any opinion on it one way or the other.
And then 2 separate stories crossed my path.
The first was an article in the Guardian looking at the use of AI, in particular ChatGPT, in the world of crochet. In this story, designers have used the AI platform to create crochet patterns. And the outcomes have been pleasingly hilarious, especially the narwhal that looks more like a cross between a fish and an old-fashioned bi-plane.
Brilliant.
And in this context, I heartily approve of the use of AI in crochet.
However, I don’t agree with the use of AI (or anything else for that matter) when it is used to hoodwink (what a great word!) the person looking at it.
And, here we return to the giant crochet horse.
Have a closer look at the photo.
Go on. A really close look.
Can you see all of the distortions? Look around the woman – she looks super-imposed on to the photo.
And when you look even closer, what on earth is happening with the ‘stitches’ on the horse and her hand on her leg?
Giant crochet horse super close up
Giant crochet horse close up
When you look at these photos, there is clearly something ‘off’ about them.
Trust that feeling – these are very ‘off’. I won’t link to them, but there are others on there that are even worse examples.
Where is the problem?
Well, there is none if it is made absolutely clear that they are AI-generated images.
But there is definitely a problem if this is not stated AND money is being made from it, which in this case it is in several ways, the first being advertising from the traffic going to their website. The second, and more troubling, is the people behind this set up a GoFundMe with the aim of raising $80,000. Happily, this has been removed by GoFundMe as it was reported to them as being fake.
So, please be careful – do your research, ask around and if it looks too good to be true, it probably is.
Of one thing you can be absolutely sure – WoollyWondersByJo is authentically real and always will be.
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