Video: In Defense of AI Art
Article: Art Made With Artificial Intelligence Wins at State Fair
Art has always been a mystery to non-creatives for some reason,
and obvious to creatives. The creative process is just imagination. (maybe you can’t picture things in your
mind, aphantasia)
There is the romantic “tortured artist” idea. I never resonated with that. Being depressed in your room and expressing it through art. (Although I enjoy writing alone with minimal human input) Good art doesn’t need trauma, although the famous art pieces like The Scream by Van Gogh, or Kronos Devouring His Children by Francisco Goya are made from internal trauma. Good art does invoke emotions. Half the time, I fool around on a canvas without thinking, just enjoying the feeling of painting or drawing. All the time, my art never comes out like it looks in my head. This leads to insecurity and crippling perfectionism. The art world is extremely pretentious and competitive.
Art is seen as a God-like talent, an innate quality that is for the overall good of humanity, when art is just natural human creation like farting. Art is not a selfless medium. Creation is a human power. We construct skyscrapers yet don't call that art. Is a human baby considered art? If I draw a smiley face in the mud, is that art? Is all of it art? AI is a human creation. AI art would not exist without the human input.
A lot of artists or hobbyists say they get depressed/sad when they see AI art. But why? People talk about creativity as if it is an ephemeral thing, a moral concept in an apathetic society. Maybe I’m cynical but only artists can understand other artists. Only an artist cares about their own work and can understand the physical process and thinking of creating art. The uncreative mind does not care about the meaning. Why does it matter that an art piece was created with AI? Don’t say “human soul” because you cannot sense that shit. A human did not make the night sky or sunsets but you marvel at them anyway.
The environmental impact may have some merit. But everything causes impact to the environment. Planes, cars, plastic, even getting your medicine manufactured and shipped to you from India on a giant cargo boat/plane causes damage. Your internet use and AC in the summer also cause environmental damage. Streaming your shows and Instagram and cloud storage and everything else fuels data centers. You buy mass produced cups and plates when it used to be made by hand. You buy mass produced coffee and clothing from abused children in developing countries, but that is okay right?
There has been a push, especially because of Insta, to have “marketable” art. Polished, pretty, and instantly sellable. There has been a commodification of hobbies as well. Whether it’s cozy gaming, knitting, reading, or even skincare. Everyone has an opinion on what to buy and why and everyone wants to influence you. There are too many holier-than-thou people who want to make a living off of art alone. (passion jobs are not realistic guys) The almighty algorithm uses the finished product. AI gives an aesthetically pleasing look and honestly better than a lot of newbie digital artists.
Art has always been a commodity.
Michelangelo was commissioned by the Church to paint non-stop.
Did he actually want to paint for the Church? We won’t know. Van Gogh was poor
and depressed and committed suicide and unsuccessful in life, only to be glorified
after death. Van Gogh’s personality is now the iconic angsty, no-one-can-understand-me,
Tumblr teen who thinks posting on social media is helping society.
“Good art” is subjective, just like good writing. Some
people love 50 Shades of Gray and Twilight. Some people hate Fantasy and only
read non-fiction. But one thing seems to have united and divided the art world across all mediums whether its music, video, art, or writing and that is AI.
People want results and AI delivers. The value of art is subjective. AI makes art and creativity accessible to the masses. What was once a mysterious and laborious process can be done in minutes.
Do you want recognition for your art? You want someone to clap that you spend 100+ hours on an art piece? Why does we need to struggle and consume time to create art? Just because you spend 100 hours on it, doesn’t make it good. Art is subjective. Artists charge for material and time, but everyone wants free art. No one wants to spend $100 on a painting. They want an aesthetically pleasing, somewhat meaningful, possibly abstract artwork.
When you go to a gallery and someone says they can “feel the artists emotions” that is complete bullshit. They are projecting. I’ve had my own art be misinterpreted for lack of a better word. I created a portrait and it was just that, a portrait. No deep meaning. I had actually messed up my original idea and ended up covering it with a portrait. Some woman came to my house and told me it was amazing and meant something about yin and yang and light and dark and I told her no it doesn’t. She was baffled and disappointed and insisted it must be. Humans are narcissists, we project our own feelings onto art. People that say AI art is meaningless are wrong. I can create AI art that means a lot to me if I put the intention behind it. Can you sense intention? No, you cannot. Art may be meaningful to me and to no one else. Just like how perfumes smell different to everyone.
People that say “just practice” are also wrong. There is talent to art and practice can refine it. I’ve always been terrible at certain forms of art and no amount of practice will make it better. Trust me, I’ve spent decades. Art needs time. Time is the most valuable resource on the planet. Art takes time and AI can create art in minutes. AI art is good and fast. I don’t want to spend 3 years creating a painting. AI can do in 3 minutes. No one cares that you spent 3 years creating a piece unless its hanging in a museum somewhere. Art is a commodity. There’s AI to help you. There are ghost writers and nobody seems to get mad about that. There are books made from fanfic and no one gets mad about that either. We have used AI since Microsoft word spell check. Grammarly is all AI. Even AI Chess was a thing in the 90's. AI is old and just entered the public vernacular. The first AI chatbot was made in 1964 called ELIZA. AI art can get the results you want without the frustration of the art process. Any artist will tell you they get mad at the canvas. Why not have good results without the friction of physicality?
Artists consume and are influenced by other artists. People copyright and steal all the time. You pirate music and movies because you don’t want to pay the corporate overlords. You are stealing. You want art for free right? Because you deserve it? Because you are a “better” person right?
The model is exposed to huge numbers of images, often paired with text descriptions. During training, it learns statistical relationships between concepts: “golden retriever,” “oil painting,” “sunset,” “cinematic lighting,” etc. It isn’t normally storing a searchable album of the training images and then assembling pieces of them like a collage. Instead, training adjusts billions of numerical parameters (“weights”) that encode patterns the model has learned. The AI is given enormous numbers of images, often with associated text. After doing this millions/billions of times, it learns statistical patterns such as what edges, colors, textures, shapes, objects, and compositions tend to look like. The AI uses numbers. It's not conscious. It doesn’t understand.
Here is my hot take: Generative AI gets hates because creators are jealous. Why would I commission a book cover artist when AI is way cheaper and I get unlimited redoes? The book cover artist is normally $200-500 for only 3 renditions and takes months. I may not like any of the outputs. The kicker is that AI art is now good, especially for writing and digital art. AI is a tool, another medium. I remember when Photoshop and Procreate came out and everyone said you were not a real artist for using those tools. Its now the same with AI. What is art? If anything can be art, then AI art is "real" art. Its great for disabled people, or people that can't afford art supplies, or people with arthritis, or don't have the apartment space. For writing, it's great for getting ideas, worldbuilding, chapter outlines, etc.
The art world has forgeries, thieves, and high level of pretentiousness. Physical art will always have the 3D medium and texture that humans love. AI art really just affects the digital world. Then again do does photography and Photoshop. Its a new medium under the Digital Art category. AI art is not taking away physical mediums like canvas, pottery, glass blowing, or anything else. AI art is only a threat to digital artists. but no one hangs digital art of your OC or furries on the walls of their home, they buy physical art or photography. So, what's the problem? If I use AI writing to supplement or give ideas, it's no different than a writers room or getting advice from another human. In this day and age, everything is made by machines. The iPhone you use is made by child slaves in Asia, yet using AI is somehow a moral failing. Get a reality check. AI cannot think. It is the same as autofill words on your phone. I would say AI is letting more people dive into creativity. It has made art accessible to all for the first time. Now anyone can truly be an artist/writer.
AI needs human input to function. Adapt and refine with basic human curiosity. Its great and easy. It makes art and writing with less friction. Its an interesting experiment. Its a new medium. It can help spark creativity. I can create an AI image and then write a corresponding story. Human writing advice is contradictory; Mark Twaine says "Write what you know" and Toni Morrison says "You don't know anything". If I have a story to tell, AI can help me achieve it.
Art will always be made no matter the medium. AI art is not taking away from you creating art in your own personal notebook. If you enjoy art, you will find a way to make it whether its AI-assisted or not. Whether you make money or not. Personally, I think it's fine to call it art. To hang it in galleries as a new genre. Now, the time, effort, and skill of physical art cannot be denied and there is way more skill, effort, time, and training in physical art. Physical vs digital art. Different mediums, different ways to articulate your story. AI art is the emerging new genre of art, a blend of writing and human ingenuity.