Thoughts on A.I Art

The A.I helping us “explore our passions” by exploring our passions for us, so we don’t even have to. Isn’t it all wonderful!?

With all the A.I generated art out there now, it is so easy to get dismayed when you still draw and color your own work. If you take your eye off the goal of creating a really great deck of cards which still reads really well and instead get pessimistic that you're going to be left in the dust, it doesn't help at all lol.

Like many artists, I taught myself from books, starting off with pencils and inks but over time made the transition to digital. A.I art is something different entirely

So I try not to look at all the chaos in the A.I art sphere while I am in the process of drawing/coloring new cards. It's not that I am trying to be willfully ignorant of it though, but it's so easy to negatively compare yourself to a machine that creates artwork infinitely faster, and infinitely with more precision (depending of course on the model of A.I, some of it is terrible and I don't feel threatened lol). I tell myself though, and I think it is somewhat true, that what is happening with a lot of these models is it is taking the decades of dedicated time and energy that the most talented of artists have sacrificed just to be able to create in their style, building up a repertoire, only to have it repurposed, packed up and sold to someone who has never moved past stick figures (and I don't mean that in a snobby way, nor is there anything wrong with stick figures)

But It's a bit like pitting me against Boris Vallejo, Julie Bell, or the Hildebrandt brothers. I am not ignorant enough to think my work can hold a candle to theirs. I am not blind lol. I have no sense of grand delusions, and recognize there are categories, hierarchies within everything. Within the broader world of art, however, I think my art is still enjoyed by a lot of people. It doesn't have to be a Hildebrandt to still hold value, and I think at times we forget  that idea, not just in the world of art, but generally.

It's probably a bit like how Holywood is feeling about Tilly Norwood. While I imagine the stories of Holywood freaking out about A.I "actress" Norwood is a bit of (ok, a lot of) hype from the company that made her, there's still a bit of pessimism surrounding the prospect of being replaced.

I don't know about you, but setting aside my obvious bias for traditional human made art, and speaking more generally of A.I generated "content" (ugh, that word lol), I am so over and done with all the relentless A.I slop out there. It's got to the point where if it's soo shiny, too sleak, too "perfect", i usually skip it. I especially am bored of all those "could almost be true except it isn't" stories and videos portraying themselves to be actual events until you read the small disclaimer about it being completely a.i generated.

I think to myself...if I am bored of it by now, surely this will all fade away, and we'll get back to "normal"....while we still have memories of what normal is...or was? Or perhaps it is too late. Would love to hear your thoughts!