Okay. So, I’ve given this more thought, and i think I can present better arguments. Artists are worried that their work will be cheapened, that it will destroy their livelihood, that all the work and effort they put into learning how to create heuristic, human art, will be cheapened.
I acknowledge all of that. Depending on your search terms, one can easily violate IP. If AI art, which can be mass produced cheaply and easily, some people will choose to purchase, appreciate, and invest in AI art. We’re kind of talking about industrialization of art, aren’t we? The diference between buying the glass pitcher from the glassblower versus a cheaper, inferior pitcher from the glass shop around the corner of the factory that creates glass pitchers. And here’s where I assert Imago Dei. There is something that is human, that is divine, in making art, that a machine cannot do. I may not have enough evidence at this moment, when the art is relatively new.
But I do have evidence. Children paint, sing, play, and dance. And as they grow up, these creative urges are stifled, suppressed, and stunted. Some grow to become artists, singers, musicians, dancers, or creatives. The traits that we idolize in children we do not appreciate as adults, but that’s a topic for another time. AI is good at doing specific tasks in a specific way. Medicine, heals specific things in specific ways. Science, looks at the world, creates marvels, in specific ways. There is something about a human creating art that is fundamentally different than a machine could ever hope to do. One: humans can fail. And not the same way as machines. They can learn more easily, discern good art from bad, and be inspired, be in awe. As further evidence, I’m watching Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile, and it reinforces a lot of the point through narrative I cannot through argument.
AI can deliver polished style, imitate periods of art, and understand, obey certain commands. I don’t think that it can do what humans can do. We go,”Oh, it’s pretty, it’s beautiful,” But I’ve never seen AI art that makes me go “Wow, creation is awesome,” “I see the fingerprints of God,”
Art is skill, but art is much more. It’s a worldview. It’s a way of life.
As I watch this movie, I think about wanting to use AI art on my own for my purposes, to make my goals more obtainable. But I know that taking the easy way out might look good now, and it might be shiny and fool us. But in the long term we will find that doing the hard work prepares the path for better things.
Will there be fame and fortune? No. Because the internet is already past that. We might have small success in our fields, People who made AI art have created algorithms that garner people’s money and attention.
Now we have AI art, this flavor of the month. Now we have Tik Tok. But there will always be the next new thing. And personally, I don’t like TikTok. I’m older though. But the primary goal of art isn’t to make money or get famous. Unlike the model for most of the web. The primary goal of art, if we remember, is play. A computer cannot play. It can entertain, it can inform, it can produce data. But there is no joy in what it does. And that’s the difference.
The child cares very little about making money from art (unless there’s a need or a powerful want). The child cares very little about being famous. She might like applause, but she may have stage fright. Computers can “play” videogames, but they can’t get their fingers dirty playing in the yard. It can make music, perhaps it can create original music, perform, as Miku does. But it cannot channel its emotion and passion into the music. You could make a robot or model dance across the stage or screen. But it cannot get “into the spirit” of the dance.
On the outside the result looks the same. But on the inside is a fundamental difference that cannot be inherited. I spent my college years writing academic papers that prepared me for this blog. Now a machine can “write” a paper similar, or perhaps better to mine. But it cannot be moved by an argument, or rally personal experience to make a point. Were those years wasted? No, because they taught me how to think. And there is something in me that artificial intelligence cannot replicate, no matter what and how much it “reads.”
And, there will be programs, services, and algorithms that will somehow be able to distinguish the difference between the flesh and the steel. Papers will be dismantled, pixels atomized, and the professors and audience will go,”Ahh, AI, well.. <that student gets an F> or <I want art by real people>. And that is only a matter of time.
Tremilian