I Want AI to Do My Taxes, Not Design F1 Trophies

In partnership with Amazon Web Services, Formula 1 has announced that the trophy for this weekend’s Canadian Grand Prix will sport a design generated by AI. Because satisfying business deals with vaguely villain-esque corporations and contributing to the death of art in lieu of paying local, human artists is exactly the sort of thing that makes Formula 1 Formula 1. Making things even funnier is this line in F1’s press release, emphasis mine: “As an example of that increased creativity, AWS, the Title Partner of this weekend’s FORMULA 1 AWS GRAND PRIX DU CANADA 2024, will debut the first-ever generative AI-inspired F1 trophy.” In other words, it is exactly the sort of tone-deaf move we’ve come to expect from the dweebs that create this sort of tech and define creativity not as actual creativity but as creative uses of technology to circumvent the pesky challenge of possessing or, at the very least, sourcing actual creativity. F1 has turned to AI to help design this year's Canadian Grand Prix trophy pic.twitter.com/nph2hr6hXm— ESPN F1 (@ESPNF1) June 5, 2024 As for the trophy itself, it seems we’ll have to wait until the race to see what it looks like because F1’s official announcement posts did not include any pictures of one. The only trophy image circulating on the matter seems to have originated from ESPN F1, and it’s unclear whether this is the actual trophy or not. To be fair, modern F1 trophies not dreamt up by AI haven’t always been beacons of beauty, but no matter what the 2024 Canadian GP trophy’s design actually looks like, the whole thing is arguably bad and dystopian on principle alone. It brings to mind this X post by author Joanna Maciejewska which says, “I want AI to do my laundry and dishes so that I can do art and writing, not for AI to do my art and writing so that I can do my laundry and dishes.” You know what the biggest problem with pushing all-things-AI is? Wrong direction.I want AI to do my laundry and dishes so that I can do art and writing, not for AI to do my art and writing so that I can do my laundry and dishes.— Joanna Maciejewska—Myth-Touched is here! (@AuthorJMac) March 29, 2024 And it looks like most people share my disdain. The official announcement tweet from F1 Media, for example, currently has its replies restricted, which is a totally normal move for an organization that didn’t just post irredeemable, indefensible cringe. @F1Media on X Even discounting the slightly gross premise of having AI design something that’s given out as a reward for objectively one of the most prestigious automotive accomplishments a human being can achieve, it kind of sucks on behalf of the trophy case of whichever driver is going to win this Sunday. (Will it be Max? It’ll probably be Max.) Got a tip or question for the author? You can reach him here: chris.tsui@thedrive.com