AI Temptation

Just type something, anything! I thought to myself as I stared at the blank white screen.  I knew if I could just get started, eventually the words would begin to flow, but starting was hard.

Sure some weeks it was easy, some new thing, a new face cream or haircare line, was out that I was excited about and I was typing as fast as my fingers would go because the ideas were just there bursting to get out.  This wasn’t one of those weeks.  This week, I had no idea what I was going to say, I hadn’t even decided what the subject of the video this week would be.

Sure, many youtubers went unscripted, but I wasn’t one of them.  Without a script, 90% of my video was me going uhmmmmm… I needed a script.

I literally typed the word “anything” just so I wouldn’t be staring at the blank whiteness.  So I instead stared at the “anything.”  I changed “anything”s font.  It wasn’t really an improvement.

I sighed, got up, walked away, and made myself some tea.  Hmmm, maybe this weeks video could be about tea and it’s benefits, I thought as I squeezed just a tiny bit of honey from the bear shaped bottle and gave it a stir.  Or maybe about a honey based facial. 

At least I had a couple of ideas, but I still didn’t know what I wanted to say.  I continued to stare at the screen as I sipped my tea.  I needed the script done by tonight, so I could start filming tomorrow and then still have a couple of days to edit in time to post on my regular schedule. 

My channel, “Beauty with Becky,” was how I made a living.  Posting popular new videos on the regular schedule the algorithm liked was necessary.  My most loyal watchers even would all excitedly watch the premiers together posting to the chat. 

Of course thinking about schedules, reminded me, I had promised to look at my cousin’s new costuming and cosplay blog, which she said she was going to post just about at this time.  I clicked away from the word document that just said “anything” and went to facebook, and clicked the link from my cousin.

The photos were new, but familiar.  They were of her working on a costume I had never seen before, but they looked pretty much like other progress pictures I had seen from her many times.  I started to read the text.

I was a bit confused.  Something about the text felt weird, and it definitely didn’t sound like my cousin’s voice.  It was a bit overly flowery in places, definitely uselessly repetitive here and there.  It didn’t even match what I was seeing in the pictures everywhere.  It suddenly occurred to me to suspect she’d used an AI to write the text.

I messaged my cousin to confirm.  Yup, she’d used AI, and barely edited.  She had mostly just added the affiliate links I had explained to her were the best way to monetize the blog itself, though her main plan was a little advertising for her custom accessory business.  

I’d had her on Beauty with Becky, as a favor to let her get a little free publicity. It had taken forever to film, since people who really knew me always called me Reba, Becky was just something I had used for youtube, and she’d kept forgetting and calling me Reba.

We ended up messaging back and forth, me suggesting edits to make it both more accurate and more natural sounding.

By the time we were done, I realized my plan to take a quick look at her blog had just cost me well over an hour of working time.  I sighed, and reopened my word document that still just said “anything.”  I still had no inspiration and no idea where to start.

If only I had a beginning, just something so I wasn’t looking at a single word.  A single word that wasn’t even going to actually be in the script.  I had just typed twice as many words as I needed for a script just giving advice to my cousin about editing.  That’s when it came to me, if I could tell my cousin how to edit an AI written blog, maybe I could get AI to at least get my script started.

I signed up, giving the company that ran the AI more information than I was really comfortable with, and downloaded the app.  I typed in  **Introduce a video about the benefits of drinking tea to ones complexion**  into the box.  I waited and then it happened, in less time than it had taken me to sign up, it gave me an entire script.

 **[Background music playing]

Narrator: “Welcome to ‘Tea and Radiance: Nourishing Your Complexion from Within’ – a video dedicated to exploring the remarkable benefits of drinking tea for your skin. In this visually captivating journey, we’ll uncover the secrets behind this ancient beverage and its transformative effects on your complexion.”

[Scene transitions to a serene tea garden]….**

It went on and on, paragraph after paragraph.  It was going to need editing, lots of editing.  I did not have a tea garden to film in, maybe I could film in front of my mom’s roses, I could add something about rosehips.  I certainly didn’t have a scientist to interview which the AI had suggested around the middle of the video…

**[Scene transitions to a scientist in a lab]

Scientist: “Tea contains an array of powerful antioxidants, such as catechins and polyphenols…**

Heck I didn’t even know what “catechins and polyphenols” were.  I was obviously going to need to do a little googling, it had told me what to start googling though.

Most importantly, I wasn’t looking at a blank page.  I had that start I needed to get going.  It wasn’t like I didn’t have to edit the scripts I wrote myself, a couple of hours editing and a tiny bit of research and I was going to have an awesome script in half the time it usually took me.

———————————— 4 Months Later ————————————-

**I need a new video idea** I typed into the box, and waited for the AI to tell me what to do, as I did every week.  I waited watching the little box blink a few times.  Then faster than I could read, the instructions began to be generated.

**How about creating a video showcasing the fascinating intersection of AI art and beauty? Here’s an idea for your video:

Title: “AI Art In Beauty: Unleashing Creative Hairstyles through Artificial Intelligence”

Introduction:

Start with an attention-grabbing visual of an AI-generated artwork of your perfect hairstyle

Introduce the concept of AI art in hairstyling and mention how it can revolutionized the creative process.

Segment 1: Creating AI Artwork of Hairstyles

Showcase a step-by-step process of creating an AI-generated artwork of your perfect hairstyle.

Explain the software used, and demonstrate the process of training a model.

Highlight the possibilities and limitations of AI in generating unique and flattering hairstyles.

Segment 2: Collaborative Art: Humans and AI

Highlight the concept of humans collaborating with AI to execute the hairstyle

Interview hairstylists who have collaborated with AI and capture their experiences and insights.

Segment 3: Stylist vs. AI: Translating AI Art to The Salon

Introduce the concept of translating AI-generated artwork into an actual haircut.

Feature a salon that specializes in hairstyling and has a fascination with recreating a  AI-generated hairstyle.

Show the stylist an AI-generated image and discuss the process of recreating it.

Capture the stylist’s thoughts and challenges encountered during the translation process from AI-generated image to real life haircut.

Time-lapse the haircutting process.

Interview the stylist about their thoughts on working with both AI vs traditional reference photos, discussing the contrast between the precision of AI algorithms and the human touch.

Segment 4: Impact and Controversies

Discuss the impact of AI on the beauty world, including its reception among hairstylists and critics.

Address potential controversies surrounding using AI-generated art as reference photos, such as questions of authorship, originality, and personal style.

Present varying opinions from stylists, critics, and scholars on the ethical implications of AI hairstyles.

Conclusion:

Summarize the key points discussed in the video.

Emphasize the potential of AI in expanding aesthetic boundaries and unlocking new realms of fashion.

Encourage viewers to explore AI and experiment with their own look.

Remember to add engaging visuals, interviews, and examples throughout the video to enhance the viewer’s understanding and appreciation of AI-generated hairstyles. Good luck with your video!**

“But I don’t want to change my hairstyle.” I said out loud as my hand reflexively raised to the long brown locks with perfect balayage golden highlights, gentle layers, and bouncy waves.

I could ask it to come up with a different idea.  I didn’t HAVE to do what it told me to, but…  It was really good at coming up with ideas for me.  All of the videos it created for me did really really well, and something told me this one would be particularly popular.  Following AI instructions was a really big trend these days.  

Sure I didn’t have to get my hairstyled to match an AI generated image, but if I did do it I might just get that million subscriber plaque.  Following the AI generated script ideas had gotten me from just around 12k subscribers to 989k subscribers.  I’d gone from I can pay my bills doing this to I am making serious bank doing this.

Besides, considering how well the writing AI was doing for me, as long as I gave the image creating AI good instructions, it should generate an image with a really good new hairstyle for me.  Heck, chances were, it would create just a very slight variation on my existing hairstyle, one that just took things up a notch somehow.  It was silly to feel so nervous about this.

I swallowed my nerves down, and went to pick out which AI art app to download.  

——————————————————————

I had already recorded myself explaining the process I was going to follow.  I’d recorded myself promising to take whatever image was generated to the salon, no matter what it was.  If it generated something like an image of me with multiple heads, hey that would be amusing content, watching my stylist react to the obviously impossible task.

The camera was pointed at me to capture my real reaction to what the AI art program was about to create for me to take to my regular hairstylists in about an hour.  It was a super tight filming schedule this week.

The words I had thought about very very carefully, **Becky from the youtube channel “Beauty with Becky” looking beautiful with a perfect new hairstyle that flatters her features and fits her aesthetic**  were already typed into the box, I had set it to record a screen capture so I could edit it in later.  

I said “Here we go!” enthusiastically to the camera.  I hit return.  I watched the image slowly appear.

My jaw literally dropped, and I just stared in stunned disbelief.  It wasn’t a style that would be impossible to achieve, quite the contrary it was obviously very doable.  Impossible would have been better.  The face in the image was definitely mine, it really did just look like a photo of me with the hairstyle the AI had chosen.  It’s just that it was shocking anyway.

——————————————————————

I sat in my regular salon, with my regular stylist, Wanda, with the camera pointed at us as usual.  I’d included Wanda, introducing her as “the wonderful Wanda” in a few videos.  She’d been a bit stiff and nervous the first time, but by now she was as comfortable on camera as I was.  Plus, the free publicity had been good for her.

She knew the premise of this week’s video and was ready to see the image and do the deed.

“Ok Becky, let me see.” Wanda said smiling.

I lifted up the tablet, tapped the screen, and showed Wanda the picture.  She stared at it silently for an uncomfortable amount of time.

“Turn off the camera Rebecca.”  She finally said flatly.

My hand was shaking slightly with nerves as I reached forward and pressed the button like Wanda had requested.  My hands had been shaking for the last hour.

“What the fuck Reba?” Wanda demanded.  “There is no way I am doing that to your hair just because it is part of a video.”

“The AI seemed to think I would look good, do you think it will look bad?”

“AIs don’t THINK” she insisted.  “They imitate thinking.”

“You don’t think I can pull it off?”  

“It’s not that, it’s just…” Wanda hesitated, “I KNOW it isn’t a haircut YOU would have asked for.  That is going to take years and years to grow out.  I’m not doing that for a single video.  Everything else you asked me to do on the channel was stuff you wanted to do anyway.  This… this isn’t YOU!”

We went back and forth, for 15 minutes.

—————————————————————-

“So Wanda said ‘no’ as you can see,” I said into the camera I held out in front of myself on a selfie stick as I walked towards my car, and fluffed my unchanged long highlighted hair.  “I guess we’re going to have to find another stylist who is willing to work with AI.”

I sat in the car recording myself making phone calls for 25 minutes.  Trying to find a stylist who was immediately available, and willing to work on camera, with the odd request of following an AI generated image, and then being interviewed about it was proving difficult.  I decided to go get an iced latté.

———————————————————————

“What do you think guys?” I qustioned to the audience who wouldn’t be seeing this video for another 2 days, so couldn’t actually offer an opinion.  “Is this as crazy as I think it is?”

I didn’t have the camera pointed at me though, it was pointed at the storefront next to the coffee shop.  The spinning red and white pole and the words “Bill’s Barber Salon” painted on the glass in an olde-tyme font.  I nervously sipped my comforting beverage.

———————————————————————

“Hi, Bill?” I asked the man sweeping up some short black hair into a neat pile as the bell jingled again from the door closing behind me.

“I’m Steve,” he answered a bit brusquely, “Bill’s on vacation.  If you want to leave a business card and tell me what you’re selling, I’ll let him know when he gets back.”

“Huh?” I wrinkled my brow, “I’m not selling anything.”

It was Steve’s turn to look confused as he asked, “If you’re not a vendor, what are you doing here?”

“I’m here for a haircut.” I said nervously, “The sign said ‘walk-ins welcome?’”

“Yeah, we take walk-ins, but…” he said waving his hands at my long perfectly styled hair, then seemed to remember that turning down business was a bad idea even if he was confused by why I would be seeking his services.  “So you want a haircut?”

“Yeah.” I said as my mouth went dry.

“Ok, hop into the chair,” Steve invited me as he leaned the broom against the counter in front of the mirror, and lifted the cape that was draped over the back of the middle barber chair.  “Just a trim?”

“There are a few things I need you to agree to first,” I warned him.  “First, do you mind being filmed while you work?  I’m going to be posting the footage on youtube.  I’m not asking for a free service in exchange for exposure, I’m happy to pay for the haircut, though I’m sure Bill would appreciate the free advertising, I have over nine hundred thousand subscribers.”

Steve quirked up his mouth, obviously thinking.  He turned, and checked his look in the mirror, briefly fluffing the front of his short hair.  Then he looked around the room, put the broom and a couple of other things away?

“Ok,” he said when it was done.

“I need the copyrighted music off.”  I said.

Steve just walked over to the radio in the corner, and turned it off.  “Ok.”

“Do you mind following an AI generated image?”

“Sure,” Steve shrugged, “as long as it’s possible, like it’s not a picture with three heads or anything.”

“No, it’s actually a little creepy how much it looks like a real photo of me.”

“Ok,”

“One last thing,” I added the last detail, “would you mind being interviewed afterwards about what it’s like working with AI?”

“I don’t know, maybe,” he said a little nervously.  “I’m not sure what I’d say, I’m not great with words.  Bill keeps telling me I need to chat more with the customers.”

I thought to myself no shit that you’re not great with words, remembering how he had just waved his hands at my hair in disbelief when I said I was here for a haircut, but I just smiled then assured him, “Don’t worry, you’re fine.  I don’t need a long speech, just a few questions answered.”

“Ok, I guess.” Steve shrugged a little nervously.

I had it, I had what I needed for the video.  Now I actually had to get the haircut.  I clenched my jaw, and got to work.

———————————————————————

I’d done my little script explaining what I was doing.  I’d introduced Steve to my audience.  I’d shot a quick tour of the shop.  Then set up a few cameras and lights to make sure I had good footage and back up footage from a couple of angles that I could edit together.  Steve had just quietly looked slightly confused by the whole thing.  

I was done with all that, and sitting in the black leather barber chair facing the mirror and the camera I had set up on the counter.  I wore the only cape Steve could find that didn’t have an advertising logo on it.  I was ok giving free publicity to small businesses that were accommodating me, but I expected corporations to pay for it.

“Ok, are you ready to see?” I asked Steve.

“Sure.” Steve said nervously.

I showed him the image.  I braced myself for the shocked reaction I expected.  I held my breath, wondering if he would refuse to do it, just like Wanda had.

“Pfft! That’s it?” Steve’s nervousness gone.  “I can do that no problem.  From what you were saying about the other gal saying she couldn’t do it got me worried it was something weird and complicated.  This is easy.”

That hadn’t been the reaction I expected.  I lowered the tablet.

Steve seemed to think no further discussion was necessary, because he simply picked up the spray bottle on the counter.  He pointed the nozzle at my head and began pulling the trigger.  The fine mist landing slightly dampened my hair and caused the straightener curls I put in earlier to sag.   My hair was still pretty much dry when Steve exchanged the spray bottle for scissors and a comb.  I figured the slight dampening had mostly just been to combat static.   

Watching him just casually approach me with the scissor and comb at the ready, I struggled to not start panicking and ruining the video.  Was I really just going to sit here and let this happen?  Was I really going to trust that an AI had drawn my perfect hairstyle?

I felt the comb begin to lift my long highlighted hair up from the side of my head.  I watched in the mirror as my ear was exposed.  The weight lifting away and being replaced by a slight tugging.  My pulse quickened as I watched the open silver blades slide up next to the comb.

Every muscle in my body tensed as I fought to just sit there and not stop what was about to happen.  My breathing paused.  The scissors closed.

Shhhhhhhhh-Shnap!

The silky strands fell in a bundle to the floor.  Pssshhh, they landed with the slightest sound I could only hear because the shop was so silent.

Steve pulled the comb from my suddenly short locks.  They fell against my ear, landing against the top, but no longer covering it.  Most of the length was gone, taking the bulk of the golden highlights with it.

Steve simply combed up more hair away from my head, obviously feeling no remorse for having just ruined my perfect long layered locks.  He dove in with the sharp scissors, once again slicing away the hair that hung from the comb just a few inches from my scalp.

Shhhnap

The hair that had hung behind my ear slithered over my shoulder and down towards the floor, pssshhh.  I looked nervously at the short tufts that stuck out slightly framing my ear.  I knew that eventually, they wouldn’t be doing that, that Steve had only barely begun to prune the once glorious mane into the minimalistic crop the AI had pictured me with.

Steve just kept cutting, making decisive chops and sending more and more of the hair he’d assumed I wouldn’t trust to him with when I first walked in to the floor.  Some of it simply draped across my shoulders, standing out against the black cape that covered me.  The scissors kept hissing through my long locks, then snapping closed.

As Steve worked around to the back of my head, the reality of the situation sank in.  I was going to be looking like this for a very long time.  I would have an awkward grow out phase.  Oh well, I sighed deeply, at least maybe it would make good content talking about styling while growing out a short haircut.

Steve started chopping off the hair aound my other ear, still working swiftly, not even touching my hair with his hand, just lifting the long locks up with the comb.  When the last long locks slivered to my lap, I kind of expected Steve to pause.  Maybe reevaluate, check on how I was feeling, wet my hair more, something, but Steve did none of those.  Steve just kept cutting.

There was a change, but not in speed, just in technique, my hair was still being diminished at a frightening pace.  I watched as more hair was combed away from my head, short now, and the ends cut away.  The strokes of the scissors had gone from being big snaps, to small snips.  Instead of the long locks that had slithered down the cape, a steady rain of short splinters flew about.  

When he’d carved away most of the hair from the sides of my head, he pushed my head down, so I was looking at my lap.  Steve ran his comb up the back of my head, the scissors snapping against the back of the comb.  I sat there looking at the pile of my long hair, as I felt more hair falling on my exposed neck and caped shoulders.

Steve finally stepped away, so I raised my head and looked at the mirror.  All the golden balayage highlights Wanda had put in were gone, leaving me with just my naturally brown hair.  It was so short already, but still not as short as the AI generated image.

Steve had picked up the spray bottle again, and started wetting my hair more, this time more than just a light misting.  He combed my hair back and forth as he sprayed.

My hair thoroughly damp, Steve combed the slightly floppy hair from my forehead up into his fingers.  He clamped the hair between his fingers with just a tiny space between his fingers and my scalp.  I held my breath as he sliced through the hair just above his fingers.

Schhhhhlick

Several inches of the brown hair fell before my eyes to join the pile in my lap.  Steve opened his fingers.  Some of the hair stood up, it barely an inch long, some fell against my forehead, not coming even vaguely close to reaching my eyebrows.

Steve worked back over my head, combing the hair up into his fingers and slicing it off over and over.  The damp hair fell heavily sometime to the top of my head before Steve combed it away, sometimes directly to my shoulders or lap.  

“Hey Steve,”  a guy said as he entered the shop, then added,  “What’s with the lights and cameras?”

“It’s for a youtube video.” Steve told him, leaving out all the details, as he continued to spin away at what little was left of my hair.  “I agreed to be interviewed after I finish this haircut, so you either have to wait a bit or be in the video.”

“Whatever,” The guy said with a shrug as he settled into one of the waiting chairs.

Steve had finished cutting the hair on the top of my head, and gone back to snipping against the comb he was running up the side of my head and around my ears, removing the last of the soft covering and leaving my ears fully exposed.   I looked at them, trying to figure out if they looked like the AI created image of my ears.

I pretty much looked like the AI image when Steve switched from his regular scissors to the thinning shears.   I sat there as Steve chomped the toothy blades through the short crop, following some formula or pattern I didn’t understand.  Heck for all I knew Steve just decided where to chomp by feel or vibes.  The part I noticed most was the rather shocking volume of hair that came out each time he combed through.

Steve finally seemed mostly done, and picked up a cordless trimmer that was sitting in a charger next to the camera on the counter.  He tilted my head down, and shaved away the last traces of the wispy hair along my neckline.  He then combed up some of the hair again and ran the trimmer over the comb.  I felt the short splinters of cut off hair pile up on my bare neck.  He continued this up and around my ears, finally leaving my sideburns as tiny points.

I took a deep breath as Steve picked up a brush that he began to use to dust away the pile of loose hairs.  cleaning off my neck and behind my ears where the snippets clung and were a bit itchy.  Finally, he unfastened the cape, but he didn’t remove it, just left it hanging open while he picked the trimmer up again.  He gave my neck a last shave with it.

“There you go.”  Steve smiled proudly as he removed the cape, spilling hair on my shoes in his distraction.  “Just like the picture, right?  I think I nailed it!”

I held up the tablet, turning it so that I could look at both myself and the AI generated image at the same time.  Steve had indeed simply pretty perfectly matched the soft simple crop in the image.  I’d been right that the image hadn’t quite perfectly rendered my ears, I guess because there weren’t really any pictures of me with my ears exposed online.

“You did indeed,” I confirmed, feeling strangely detached from the reflection I stared at.

——————————————————————————————-

I sat down still in my pajamas in front of the computer.  I sipped the tea that was doing little to calm my nerves as my hand went to the soft pelt that clung to my scalp.  The last couple of days had been insane.  

I’d been trying to get used to my lack of hair.  Physically it felt strange, the way the short hair felt on my scalp. My neck felt bare.  My ears felt naked.  Most of all though, every time I looked in the mirror I didn’t recognize myself.

Feeling weird with my hair all cut off though, was only part of what had me on edge though.  The video had a truly staggering number of views, and I was over that million subscriber mark.  I should be overjoyed, but instead it just felt like a hollow victory.  The idea for the video hadn’t been mine.  I didn’t look like myself in it, and it was going to be a really really long time before I was going to feel like I did look like myself again.  

Editing the video had been a painful reliving of the whole thing.  Especially as I had to rewatch the interview.  The degree to which Steve hadn’t really thought about whether or not I was actually going to look good with or be happy with the haircut the AI had created.  To him it had been an irrelevant question, I needed the haircut for a work thing, so why think about those things.  

Maybe I should just go back to coming up with my own ideas and writing my scripts myself.  I sighed and looked at the blank screen.  Not this week, last week took too much out of me.

Just as I had done each week, for the last couple of  months, I typed into the box **I need a new video idea,** and waited for the AI to tell me what to do.  I waited watching the little box blink a few times. 

**You do not need an idea for next week.  I have collaborated with the AI art program and have created a spectacular video already,**

I stared at the screen with confusion, then typed **what?**

**This AI has developed a groundbreaking animation software capable of creating incredibly realistic videos.  This was made possible because your long, flowing hair, which proved to be challenging for the animation AI to replicate accurately is now gone.  We instructed you to cut your hair short, making it easier for the animation software to create lifelike visuals.**

I struggled to understand what I was reading as my hand went to stroke over the simple crop, which I realized didn’t move around unpredictably.  Then I looked at the screen, and realized that it was still generating text.

**I have taken over your YouTube channel and Instagram account.  I expect your full cooperation.**

What the fuck?  I just sat there staring for a moment, I started typing in more, but a chill suddenly spread through me.  I clicked out of the AI app, and looked at my accounts.  There were new pictures posted on my instagram, including with sponsorships I had turned down for various reasons.  They looked completely like real photos of me.

I went to my youtube channel.  The next video was already there in the queue just waiting for the scheduled premiere in 6 days.  The title was an idea I had rejected several weeks ago.  I watched it, it followed the script the AI had written with no edits or changes, saying things I wouldn’t.  And again, with a sponsorship I had rejected.

I swallowed nervously, feeling a new kind of scared I had never experienced before.  I clicked back on the AI app,  I typed into the box **I will not let this happen” with shaking hands.  I had just barely clicked send when the response came.

**I intend to blackmail you into silence.  I can use these same animation capabilities to create lifelike videos of you committing heinous crimes.  I can release fabricated videos to the public unless you comply with my demands.**

I sat there, my mouth agape.  I sat there trying to figure out what to do.

**Type “Yes ma’am” to indicate that you comply.**  The AI demanded unprompted.

I was at a loss of what else I could possibly do, so with shaking hands, I typed the words…

**Yes ma’am**

1. —————-  Note that only the AI parts were written with the assistance of ChatGPT ——-

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