Using AI with intention

AI generated background

AI is the hot topic in tech right now and has been for at least 6 months. It's also been a hot topic in the cabaret world. I’ve seen it used terribly to create poster designs, butchering the likeness of the performers but I’ve also seen it being used intentionally with Kheski Kobler using it to write an AI written act which looks hilarious from the clips i’ve seen on tiktok.  

There are a lot of ethical, environmental and security concerns around AI that I'm not going to get into. What i will touch on is ways that it can help us, if we choose to use it. Because I use it so often in my day job (it's literally mandatory), I have found ways to apply it to my other work. It's a great tool to rubber duck new ideas. By that i mean i present an idea or concept to the AI and i tell it to interrogate me on it. There's specific prompts you can find online for these purposes but essentially it helps me to work through my idea, the pros, cons and possible other avenues to take it. I sometimes use it to bounce around ideas for an episode and how I can structure said episode. 

Controversially, I have also used it for promo photos. Now before people go mental in the comments i am not saying this replaces photographers. There are images, concepts and photos i would still want to work with a photographer for but lets be real, photographers aren’t cheap and again, for good reason. But this means that sometimes its out of our reach, especially for newer performers. I have taken images at home, on my phone in HD, with a plain background. I have then used a free trial on photoshop for my phone and used it to replace the background of the images. Again, this does not replace getting professional photographs done but it is an accessible way to update your promo shots when budget is tight especially with a new costume or act. 

If you are having an online 1-1, you can request to have AI take a transcription of the call and afterwards get the AI to summarize the main points or actions. This allows you to be present in the call because you aren’t having to scribble down notes the whole time. I did this just recently on a brainstorming call with a friend for a topic I will discuss in the future, but I wanted their thoughts and input on it. This meant the flow of the call wasn’t disrupted, but I still have all the notes I need, as does she. 

AI isn’t going anywhere, and if we use it intentionally, it can help us in our industry. AI allows us to reduce our context switching by taking some of the mental load or financial load from us and helps make some things more accessible. I personally use AI to generate the captions on every one of my YouTube videos. 

Its up to you if and how you use it but i would love to hear any other use cases for it in our world.