Some of our most watched and revered science fiction movies and television programs of yesteryear highlight the dangers and conveniences of AI. As it is with any new technology, there has been reluctance to embrace AI. It happened with music many times over the decades.

When Miles Davis embraced electronics over acoustics, music lovers and purist labeled it blasphemy and declared his career over. The advent and embracing of the compact disc caused the sales of vinyl records to come to a near halt, and directly affected Hip-Hop DJ's.

The internet itself, which is the engine of AI was met with much reluctance and criticism, and streaming services such as Napster are still blamed for the death of the music industry. Social media was hailed as one of the worst advancements of our lifetime by its critics, and Red Box killed Blockbuster, and was then killed by Netflix.

Are the fears concerning AI legitimate, or did movies such as Terminator warp our thinking, and create paranoia? Is it simply human nature to fear and reject change, or is AI a cause for concern? Are there levels to the potential dangers of AI, such a using ChatGPT to write a paper versus replicating the voice of your favorite music artist dead or alive?

Are robotics being used in the medical field, law enforcement, and the military comparable to the self checkout at your local grocer, or the software that animates your favorite family photos? In this segment of Artificial Intelligence and Hip Hop, we will explore how AI has aided graphic illustrators and the future of AI in the graphic arts.

Marvel and Bitter Root Illustrator Sanford Greene, Chicago illustrator Docmananoff, and producer and film maker Ron Lawrence sit down with Rock The Bells to share their thoughts on AI and its future in graphic design.

Artificial Intelligence has made its way into Hip-Hop. Whether its the holographic images of slain performers, the technology to remove instruments from our favorite break beats, or the ability to mimic the voices and flows of our favorite MC's, AI is here and it appears that its here to stay.

"Whenever there's a new technology, there's backlash," Ron 'Amen Ra' Lawrence explained. "It's mostly from the older generation because we don't understand it. It even goes back to Hip-Hop coming into play when we were kids doing it, our parents thought that we were destroying everything, scratching records, and it just didn't make sense. It took awhile before they saw what it could be."

Docmananoff shares a similar sentiment regarding the reluctance of a generation to embrace AI. "Hip-Hop, and Black people specifically have been jerked over so much, with stuff the Tuskegee Experiment and things like that, when something new pops up we expect the worst, because we've been getting the worst for so long.

Ron Lawrence is a producer who was a member of Bad Boy Records' Hitmen production team, one half of the duo Two Kings In A Cipher, and the producer of the Hip-Hop documentary, Founding Fathers. Lawrence has recently launched a series of AI powered pieces called Backspin Chronicles, which highlights the legendary Disco Fever and Latin Quarters night clubs, and Legendary Sleeves which brings legendary album covers to life.

He explains the reason for launching these well received pieces. "I saw a lot of things online that I didn't like, they looked cheap to me," he said. "I said, 'How can I make this look better?' There wasn't enough representation of Hip-Hop and urban life. It's so early with this AI thing, and a lot of us aren't really jumping on it. I tapped into it to give the people what I felt was missing, which was story telling and information from a Hip-Hop perspective, because pretty soon I believe that its gong to be over saturated."

Doc embraces AI, and he explains that he incorporates it into the backgrounds of his animations. "It's much easier to use AI for the backgrounds. I don't wanna be like Hanna Barbara, with static backgrounds. I'm a fan of Looney Tunes with moving dynamic backgrounds. As far as AI, you can be the caveman who is afraid of fire, or the one who realizes that it can cook your food and heat your house."

Ron Lawrence spoke to the fears that many hold that AI may take their jobs. "People tend to get scared, because they can't put their finger on it and understand it. They feel that AI may take over their jobs, but what we are seeing right now is a microcosm of the wave of the future. This thing is going to affect our lives in all aspects, like when the cell phone arrived.

We had no idea how big a role it would play in our lives, not just because we could make a call away from home. This thing has our calculator, camera, notepad, you don't have to sit in front of a computer. When I leave the house and I forget my phone, I turn around to get it because my GPS, contacts and everything are there. Even that had backlash with people fearing exposure to radiation, cancer, and brain tumors.

Doc says that he tries to see the glass as half full concerning AI. "I believe that AI can help us, and of course it can go wrong, but until that happens lets master it," he says. "I could kick myself for not going harder during the pandemic.

People became millionaires, and new jobs were created. That window was wide open then. I did master animation during that time. I could always draw, but I always wanted to learn how to animate my still work."

Sanford Greene says that he doesn't fear being replaced by AI, and says that we've been here before. "Photoshop caused fear in my industry when it became a thing," he says. There were rumblings that this would be the end of artists, and that the software would take over and take artists jobs.

You still have to have the skill set to make it work in a unique way. You have to understand lines, colors and perspective, and know all the rules, so that you're using technology as a tool, and its not doing the work for you. You have to know these things to be effective. Right now its like the wild west and people with no skills are using it.

There are folks with skill who are using it as a tool and not an end. That's gonna be the big difference, and you'll see those creatives rise to the top. Those who are skilled will use it to a high level, and those who aren't will be at the bottom in the cess pool. That's where we are right now, in the cess pool of it all, just like it was when Photoshop debuted."