So goes the Mexican folk song – and yes I know it’s spelled with a Y. There is so much to say about AI (Artificial Intelligence) these days. The field seems to expand exponentially every day and so do the warnings and accolades. It seems like yesterday that Chat GPT was in the avant garde – just for writing – while today practically every phone and app seems to incorporate a verbal AI to facilitate its use. Hello Google Gemini! Hello Microsoft Copilot! In visual terms, there are now countless AI engines that will generate images based on prompts and a sample (often illicit) image. Here is a short list in case you want to see… 123RF, Bytedance, Cnava, Deep AI, Dream AI, Dream by Wombo, Fluxx, Ideogram, Dall.e, Stable Diffusion, Z-Image, Qwen AI. Most of these are free to use and generate illustrative art beyond your wildest expectations. I have experimented with this new medium extensively and it is no wonder everyone seems intent on identifying AI when it is used – it would definitely supplant most illustrators in speed and execution – never mind in cost. My hobby in Board Games sees forums filled with accusations and suspicions regarding its use in games recently released with shrill outrage and threats of boycotts directed at any designer or publisher who dares use any AI no matter how limited with designs being scrutinized meticulously. This is because the inclusion of AI in design seems seamless and is hard to distinguish from a human artist. Its use will invariably be included as an alternative during production by savvy and unscrupulous managers where illustrations are required – whether surreptitiously or not. And so we arrive at the main concern about AI replacing people in jobs and tanking the economy. There is no denying that algorithms are now present practically everywhere in modern life since the introduction of computers and this escalation to AI seems to be a natural progression in technology. Don’t misunderstand me, I believe that real art will never be supplanted by AI. But unless you’re ready to go off grid and back to survival basics it seems prudent to accept AI in your life and learn to adapt to it before its reality eats you alive. So go ahead and sing because it’s not worth crying about.