AI-generated art is bad for artists, but is it also bad for society itself? These are my words of caution.
Art has many functions. Fundamentally it’s a means for communicating the experience of life. Art is about meaning.
Nowadays we take in a tremendous amount of the world through our screens. We see the Northern Lights, a newborn baby, and the ravages of war all within an upward swipe of the thumb. For what we’ve gained in overall exposure, we’ve relinquished in overall significance. We’re fast becoming desensitized.
Up until recently we always knew that a piece of visual art was created by a human being. Whether aided by a camera obscura, like Vermeer and Caravaggio, or Photoshop, like myself, we didn’t have to think twice about art coming through the human heart and out of the hand. Art was born from those individuals who dedicated themselves to the challenges of communicating the stuff of life with images.
Enter the rise of AI-generated art; funded by entrepreneurs, built by engineers, and used by tech-savvy people who want something cool with zero effort. Quickly these images began saturating our screens. Viewers have an increasingly hard time being able to spot the difference between that which is “real” and that which is “simulated.”
When we are presented with artwork created by a person who has committed to the challenges of the craft, putting themselves into the work and infusing it with their experience of life, we feel a sense of connection. However, when we are presented with an assembled replication of art by a program, we lose the integrity of effort. We may be impressed with the rich details or chuckle at seeing the “style” of Van Gogh fused with Star Wars characters. But we are also less inclined to feel moved by these depictions. Generated images may look innocent enough, but they pave the way to eroding our trust in art. We lose out on art as an accomplishment, taking away with it the value we feel for beauty, connection, and meaning.
So what? Well, if we’re looking at “art” generated by AI and reading stories generated by AI and soon hearing music generated by AI, we reliquish our desire to care. In the core of our being we don’t resonate with a computer simulation of our lives.
What does a society look like that has no real art? I don’t know. Why? Because it’s never happened before. There has never been a culture without art in all of human history.
If all of our artforms pass the Turing Test, who wins? If art becomes indistinguishable from product, what does that make us? I think the AI-led path robs us of our most sincere means of discource. Humanity would become nothing more than consumers.
Laws don’t exist yet to address this technology. The only reason they ever will be enacted will come when people are informed enough about the problems and care enough about the issues to resist the synthetic craze.
Thank you for taking the time to hear my concerns. Learning and caring are the first steps for us to choose to reclaim our humanity.
All framed and ready to go! Now that they’re secure in their protective frames, they’re so sturdy and sheek they look like they belong in a museum! Please share with anyone you think may be interested. I’d love for them find a home as a complete set
The Regeneration series comes from a place of pure inspiration. Each piece was pulled from the light held deep within, serving to transcend the clutter of daily life. The source is vital energy, reverberating with renewal, with desire, and with enchantment. Made by the hands of one human being for another, these paintings are imbued with the most powerful of forces; intention.
Painted over a year ago as part of my Forest Spirit series, it just recently occurred to me to add leaves to the Green Maiden of Bailieborough. Now the lovely lady’s branches are lush with ivy 😊🌱
Curing the wintertime blues with vibrant greens. For sale on Etsy
Bookshelves are sacred spaces to me. I alone tend to my library. Yesterday though, my girlfriend surprised me with this miniature book nook she had secretly assembled and snuck onto the shelf. I have to admit, it’s pretty charming, capturing as it does the idea of books as passageways into other worlds. For now, I think we can leave it 📚
It’s rare that I reinterpret another artist’s work, but I’ve had my eye on Starry Night for a while. One of Van Gogh’s most well known paintings, Starry Night was made in the last year of his life, while he residing at an asylum. The landscape wasn’t a depiction of the area; it came entirely from his imagination.
I appreciate how Van Gogh treated every element, from the town and the trees, to the sky, clouds, and stars, with an equally attentive dab of paint. There is no empty space, as atmosphere itself blankets like a fabric. The central area is of particular interest to me, where he turns sky and clouds into a roiling wave or vortex. The ethereal quality is something I connect to, although all of his paintings are relatable. They carry the truthful touch of human experience.
Looking to the sky and stars feels especially fitting as we find ourselves on the cusp of entering a New Year and all the possibilities that it may bring 🌙✨☀️
AI and Art: Style, Simulation, and the Loss of Soul
Introduction
To really talk about the issues with AI generated “art” means going for a deep dive and reflecting on why art matters at all. Here’s a brief look at the pros and cons.
The positives: -Anyone who learns the terminology can have beautiful images created for them. -Skilled artists can use AI to augment their own work and ideas
The negatives: -Programs pull from existing artist’s work without their consent. -Work for artists and illustrators goes to cheaper, faster programs instead. -The richness of discovery that comes with the process of making art is gone. -Aspiring artists are discouraged from putting in the effort to find their own voice. -The overall integrity of the experience we have with art falls apart.
In general I’m much more aligned with being PRO something rather than ANTI something. What I have to say about AI and art falls into the ANTI camp because I’m PRO humanity.
There’s a lot of artists railing against AI from a moral place, saying that it has an unfair advantage. I get that, but sadly in a capitalist society “fair” is irrelevant. We go towards whatever’s easier to meet our needs in the moment. Unfortunately a lot of people will use these programs anyway.
Another major rallying point is that the programs “scrape” the internet for features found on existing artist’s work. These programs not create out of nothing. They swipe faces, places, feet, and fins without the original creator’s permission. Scraping is specific enough that laws can be passed in the future to mitigate it. I fully support those who are suiting up and heading to Washington to make legislation happen. The music industry figured their version of this out already, putting in place agreements and fees sampling. I don’t know if my work is used by these programs or not. But I see this as a bigger concern than whether or not my own paintings are being used.
I’m here to speak about art, humanity, and the balance we need to find with technology 🌟
Please share with anyone you think may be interested. I’d love for them find a home as a complete set 
