A.I. Art is Not Real Art, Sorry

You’re not “just as good of an artist” because you fed prompts into an A.I

With new software such as DALL-E and Stable Diffusion, the open-ended question of what a “real artist” is has come into play. I give my thoughts on what “real” art is, and why I am wary of those in the tech discipline discounting “human-made” art.

Visual Art as a Form of Self Expression

Visual art is one of the oldest forms of self-expression. Given that a lot of language is just characters, we could even say that it predates written language. Art at its core is and always will be: the expression of the artist’s inner world (whether that is their intention or not).

Art comes in many forms: music, poetry, instrumentals, beats, clothes, hair, makeup… the list goes on and on. But in this writing, I will focus on visual art. A visual artist often uses this medium as a way to express their inner world: happiness, love, and strife are the most common elements in any visual art. And now that software that can produce the same visual effect in a matter of seconds has come; the question of what “real” art is has come with it.

As a disclaimer: I am a huge fan of these new software provisions. I intersect between the worlds of art and tech as I can both code and create art. The programmer in me is amazed by the technological advances in these software; however, the takes from very obviously non-artist tech people have me wary and standoffish.

Discounting the Skills of Artists

Art is the same as any other skill. It takes practice and experimentation to get good at. Any artist you can think of that has a signature style has taken influence from other artists, implemented that influence, and refined their style. And the loop continues until they get their preferred style, and keep implementing it into new pieces.

This takes two major things: technical skills and commitment.

Technical Skills: Artists spend years formally or informally studying many technical aspects of what makes art what it is. These technical aspects include but are not limited to anatomy, color theory, typography, perspective, and more.

Commitment: All of the above-listed skills cannot be mastered overnight. It takes hours and hours of practice to hone. Artists who have a recognized style of congruency have practiced this style and perfected it for years. This is a great sacrifice. These are years the artist will never get back. It shows true love and commitment to the art itself.

Any lay person who enjoys art recognizes this but cannot understand it beyond an abstract level. So when non-artists see good art they just think “that looks good!” In the same way, someone who doesn’t understand software development can appreciate the simplicity of their email being delivered, or their Amazon order being placed within seconds.

Now that DALL-E and Stable Diffusion exist, I have seen some, frankly, abysmal opinions that discount what makes people think certain art is good in the first place.

@verigayo makes a rebuttal to @ilex_ulumus’s claim that artists use art to express their narcissism

DALL-E and other A.I. art generators take the works of human artists, feed them to their software, and from there, mash images together of said styles to create a piece with the given prompt.

This is all fine and well in my opinion. Take your A.I. generated piece, print it on shirts, hang it on the wall, and use it for your adverts. Whatever you want.

However, when it becomes a problem is when you discount the proverbial “blood, sweat, and tears” that have gone into producing this art by hand. To discount the very people that make it possible for you to produce your prepackaged art is a slap in the face.

Anyone being able to feed a prompt into software and produce something that looks similar in seconds will not garner the same respect as someone who did it by hand, because a good portion of why people give artist accolades in the first place is because of the sheer number of years the skill takes to develop. And that goes for any skill!

Elite marathon runners, elite chefs, elite musicians, and elite programmers: all of these are revered because we instinctively know it takes such a huge amount of dedication and practice. The idea that visual artists are any different is disrespectful.

You may call your art that was produced via A.I. art all you like; however, to expect the same accolades as a human artist is not only detached from the art world, but detached from global human concepts like time, dedication, and commitment that are a given of any other skill.