What does AI mean for a UK craft business like Black Fox Metalcraft?

When we set up in Black Fox Metalcraft in 2012, the internet seemed like a great way to reach more people. It has become the main way people shop, and small businesses have become reliant on it. It feels as though the world was changed almost overnight with the public launch of ChatGPT at the end of 2022. One thing is for sure is that it’s here to stay, leaving many creative businesses concerned for their futures and fighting for survival.

I’m by no means anti AI; I can see massive benefits of its use in medical advances; picking up discrepancies in data that the human eye would miss etc. However I cannot see how it can do anything other than harm in the creative industries. AI cannot itself be creative, it is just using a form of advanced plagiarism to scour every corner of the internet and come up with the content required of it, at the expense of the artists & craftspeople who bothered to use their skills to create original work in the first place. 

What does AI mean for a UK craft business like Black Fox Metalcraft?

Theft of intellectual Property

In theory someone could ask AI to ‘create a weathervane design featuring xyz in the style of Black Fox Metalcraft'. The technology is there for someone to effectively in seconds steal the designs I have spent hours creating – it’s a genuine concern for the future of businesses like ours. We have in the past 13 years been the victims of plagiarism, however when it is one company stealing a couple of designs, it is easier to deal with than the prospect of literally anyone being able to take all of it including our unique style in a matter of seconds.

Battling with AI generated website content

For us personally, running a craft business in the UK; we have seen unscrupulous companies, some  over here but particularly abroad using AI generated images and AI generated content in order to fool potential customers into buying very cheap products purporting to be handcrafted items that are, to my trained eye, about as mass produced as it is possible to be. They cut costs further by not having to employ someone to take good product photos, or to write original, engaging content. I could, for example ask ai to write an article about how AI is affecting the craft industry – technically it would make sense but basically just be a summary of what is written elsewhere online, and feel utterly devoid of personality and originality. And what is the point in that?! AI is writing content to make faceless corporations appear as artisans to effectively market mass produced products as crafts and therefore sell them at a huge profit. It is making money for people with no skills; at Black Fox Metalcraft we would rather earn significantly less but be highly skilled and honest.

As websites that are updated regularly tend come up higher in google searches, now that you can have an article written for you in seconds by AI, it means that business like ours who genuinely write every word, are having to spend longer on this too just to not get lost. Meaning we have less time to do what we set out to do, which is create beautiful things! Google should be prioritising websites that bother to write original content over those who use ai to generate their text due to either laziness or a lack of skill. Currently, this is not the case.

Competing against AI generated images

Everything you find on this website is original and created by a human who loves what they do, from the text and photography to the products themselves.

Anyone can take a very average photo using a smartphone and AI will, in a matter of seconds, add whatever background is desired, turning it immediately into a professional looking lifestyle image that makes even the lowest quality product look like a saleable craft item. It means that we as makers need to put more time into taking better photographs to be noticed online and therefore survive as a business. As mentioned above, meaning we have less time to design and make our weathervanes and hanging signs!

A Legal Issue

It’s rapid rise and roll out in every industry I think has taken a lot of people by surprise and legislation from governments world wide is yet to catch up. AI is in so many instances breaching intellectual property rights with no repercussions simply because the law has not caught up with the technology yet. Companies like ours do not have the time or the budget to go to court and fight it especially when it is such a grey area. There has been a fairly high profile backlash in the music industry, but this has not yet been the catalyst needed in forcing governments to act in rolling out laws to protect all creative industries.

AI is making billions for its very small number of owners and developers, increasing the rapidly growing income inequality between tech billionaires and the rest of us. There cannot be anyone (other than the tech billionaires themselves) that think this is a good thing.

Why would I bother to read something that someone couldn’t be bothered to write? 

It's an extremely good question asked in this BBC article. There are a growing number of businesses, including Black Fox Metalcraft who refuse to use AI.  Perhaps one day companies can get some kind of AI-free certification, to make it clear for those customers who prefer to support genuine artisans/crafts people. If consumers start to show a preference for genuine content and AI free websites, google will have to respond in prioritising them, meaning genuine businesses will become easier to find and therefore thrive. So please do! If you’re on a website and the content feels generic and impersonal or the images seem a little too perfect, perhaps consider that if the people who own the site cannot be bothered to write their own content or take their own photos, why should you bother to give them any of your time or money?