This is the part 1 of a 4-part series about AI, writing, art, and the future of creativity. Oh, and it’ll also be about me, since I’m too vain to resist.
This first part will be mostly limited to stage-setting for the other three posts. Before I get into the meat of my opinions, I want to establish some context: Why do I even care about AI? What things am I actually gonna talk about? What does any of this have to do with art? Or Writing? Or, in other words: What to make of AI?
To be transparent, I don’t care about most of the things that are usually deemed interesting about AI. Or, at least, I don’t care about them in the context of this blog series. Things like technological improvements, logistics, artificial consciousness, offloading jobs to automated workers, none of that. I’m here to talk about a limited version of AI in a limited context: The intersection of Large Language Models and artistic creation.
In my time online – of which I spend far too much – I continue hearing two particular sentiments around AI generated images, essays, videos, and really anything else that could be considered art. One, AI art isn’t art. Two, AI generated “content” (in lieu of the word art) is stealing. I’ll dedicate the next post in this series to the second sentiment, since it’s closely tied to my normal IP-abolition stuff. The first sentiment, on the other hand, is the whole reason I’m making this series.
In my view, the question “is AI generated art actually art,” boils down to what you believe that the point of art is. Is the point of art the process of creating? Or is it the fact that something has been created? In other words, is the point of art to compose or to consume?
This is all well and good, and I’m excited to get into it, but it is missing a crucial component. Me. What do I, as a writer, think about AI? Is it an affront to artistry? A novelty that people spend too much time arguing about? A useful tool? We’ll get there in due time, but as a not-so-surprising spoiler, my view isn’t strictly positive.
One Comment
I agree that AI art is not true art and it is stealing. I think that AI generated images does have some use in its own area, maybe with simple projects or ideas, but should not be used in a professional setting. AI just is not good enough to replace actual creative people because it has no personality.