The amount of hatred and verbal abuse I have received on the internet for usage of generative AI art for my music has made me pivot to abandoning its use.

Congratulations to the toxic crowd of Anti-AI. They have won. The abuse and fear from witnessing reactions towards me and others has taken a toll on my mental health, and I will now cease the usage of AI.

I am a musician who has made and produced music for over a decade now and used to ghost produce for a famous trance DJ. Suffice to say, I make professional sounding music from scratch and have the skills to back up my craft in music production, but also in graphic design as well. I designed my own visuals for my music projects as well, although I lack traditional drawing skills. It's not like I ever had no other choice but to use AI. But I started getting on the AI Art train a few years ago at its genesis along with a bunch of other artists, and began incorporating visuals out of the sense of novelty and the fact it could visualize concepts much easier than finding stock footage other people made. The other argument is, I'm not made of money and have yet to find a respective artist with the skill set I need to make the artwork for my projects that is affordable. If I had the money, I'd pay them. Sadly, most of the budget for my music went to the marketing budget, because I want followers, fans, and money. I understand it doesn't pay artists. And I totally get a lot of the points the Anti-AI crowd have. I take a somewhat neutral stance, slightly Pro on the AI issue, and decided to adapt to the times instead of stubbornly stand against it.

But I have received death threats and hatred, lost two friends (one of them was certifiably crazy so I am not too sad about him going away), and been treated as subhuman by coworkers and other internet dwellers because of the usage of generative AI.

I mainly used Adobe Firefly, which is ethically sourced on stock footage in the Adobe archives and not trained on other people's work without their permission (for those who care about that argument). But nobody would have ever known that.

Constantly being told that people hate you and think you are a POS just because you chose to cut a financial corner or thought the art looked cool, or don't see things their way takes a toll on your mental health.

I am now reuploading all YouTube videos for my music with stock footage for visuals. The result is, there won't be many options that fit my vision, and they may not be good (there is also a slight stigma against straight up using stock footage). But I'd rather live without the abuse than stand up as a pro-AI flagbearer for the acceptance of genAI usage in music.