When I was around 8-10 or so, my mom bought a digital camera. This was in the early 2000s, and cheap digital cameras were first becoming widespread. Before that, I had not usually been allowed to take pictures, because, generally speaking, we would usually take photos while visiting family or doing something special. They would be taken on a cheap orange disposable Kodak film camera with a very limited number of photos available to take.

"Just Pushing a Button"

Antagonism, elitism, and pettiness are nothing new in the art community (/scene/industry/etc.). This is true of almost any community. When a particular issue galvanizes the community against a common enemy, nuance becomes unimportant in the face of the dominant narrative, even when that belief falls apart when looked at more closely. It's "just pushing a button". It's not "real art".

Opportunistic capitalists, and exploitive practices are also nothing new, though that does not make it acceptable. Let's name the real problem, instead of focusing on petty gatekeeping and elitism.

Intro

This is my manifesto on AI art, containing my thoughts on the ethical concerns involved in making AI art generators, and using them, as well as my reasons for loving AI art, and believing in its importance to my art, and art as a whole.

I decided to make this page because I think that the conversation around AI art (particularly on Twitter, which I have a lot of thoughts on, especially the way that Twitter encourages antagonism and seeing disagreement as personal attack, and the way that Twitter also encourages personal attack as disagreement) is often cruel, disrespectful, elitist, and petty.

The Discourse

I see "discourse" about AI art most frequently on Twitter, which is impressive given that I try to spend as little time as possible there. Although Twitter is not representative of the whole of the internet, it might be worth explaining the discourse as I see it, at least in a simplified way.

My primary exposure to it is through other artists, which makes sense since I follow mostly artists; some professional, some hobbyists (I am the latter). In fact, I have actively avoided searching for the sort of tech bros that get referenced so frequently by these artists, since I don't really feel like making myself angry. Still, I have seen a few pop up in the replies to artists who are talking about their very reasonable condcerns about the effects AI art will have on their industry.

Typically these "tech bros" (although some may not be in tech, I'm using this term for lack of another unifying characteristic) have come off as insensitive, and as people who have never considered where art comes from, who makes it, how they make it, or how artists make a living. They do not seem to have any respect for art or craft, and often seem to see AI art like the following as no different from the art an artist produces, ignoring the work, and time taken to improve their craft that goes into making art, and ignoring that automating industries like illustration, concept art, etc., would destroy the livelihoods of many people who make art that has their own artistic voice to it, not the lifeless mediocrity of the image below.

Screenshot of an AI generated art piece and the prompt. The prompt reads 'blonde woman with sunglasses', and the art shows a digital illustration of a blonde white conventionally attractive woman wearing sunglasses on a pale lavender background

That is not to say that this image is "ugly" but to say that it took essentially no input from me to make, and reflects nothing of who I am, or my specific artistic voice. It's empty, and although I technically "created" it, in that it would not exist if not for me, it does not feel like my art, because in both subject matter, and style, it has nothing in common with my work. One might also say that it took no effort to create, a common criticism I've seen from other artists, but I'll come back to that later.

My Art

It's worth bringing up my own art to give an idea of where I'm coming from this discussion from. For those familiar with, and against, AI art, I can't say for sure how much most actually know about the process of making AI art, but from what I've seen of people talking about it, they often seem to be picturing the Tech Bro sitting in his gamer chair, typing "dnd orc | trending on artstation" into an AI generator and maybe selecting that he wants the style to be "digital painting" before he hits A Button and receives in return a bland amalgamation of artists whose work is what the AI generator's AI was trained on.