i don't mean this as a blanket pro-ai statement but we do need to admit that the anti-ai-art movement is incredibly short-sighted and full of people who have absolutely no understanding of art or technology
if AI art is so inherently worthless and "soulless," why do you feel the need to be constantly hypervigilant to make sure you don't accidentally Feel Something towards an AI art piece? if something is "soulless" that generally implies that it will not illicit a strong emotional reaction in most people
beginner artists do not need to hear that everything they create is inherently more valuable to AI. any new artist posting on an art-positive space is going to be inundated with people lauding them for how brave they are for using a pencil instead of grok. all this is going to do is create a superiority complex and discourage improvement or growth!
i promise if you actually cared about making art you would not give up on it entirely because you saw good AI art. a person who genuinely enjoys the craft of photography isn't going to suddenly tear down her darkroom because her friend took a picture with an iphone camera and sent it to staples to get it printed. she recognizes that photography is a field that encompasses both extremely-convenient and extremely-time-and-labor-intensive methods, and she recognizes that the method she uses is more fun or artistically fulfilling for her!
most of the anti-ai-art brigade already hated artists anyways. how much vehemence have you expressed for the "corporate memphis" art style, or for minimalist graphic design, or for brutalist architecture, or for graphic fetish art? your perception of "artists" as a class threatened by AI does not respect the artists themselves or their work, it respects your personal aesthetic sensibilities. and that's fine! you are allowed to have aesthetic sensibilities! but you can't say "all art made by a human is inherently superior to AI" and then turn around and talk about how "corporate memphis" art is a plague on this earth. fuck the thousands of artists who genuinely love that art style and have been able to make a living off of selling it, right?
why do you care more about AI "stealing" intellectual property from white american petit-bourgeois than you do about graphic designers, seamstresses, embroiderers, weavers, potters, glassmakers, etc, from the global south being paid poverty wages (if they're paid at all)? does that art just ... not matter as much? that's the kind of art that AI can't even really DO yet, that's the area you should be supporting artists the most if you're worried about accidentally supporting AI!
on that same note, why do you have fewer problems with white american petit-bourgeois artists directly using the underpaid labor of global south sweatshop workers for their art? nearly every single acrylic charm or print or sticker or magnet you buy from a craft fair was produced using resources and labor from the global south, harming WAY more people and having a much more negative environmental impact than AI art ever has!
AI art accusations have done nothing except make artists online feel paranoid of both their peers and their audience. they don't stop people from passing off AI art as real because most people are really bad at telling what art is AI and what isnt. and you're allowed to feel angry and conflicted about that but harassing strangers and causing them to lose their job is not the solution.
and just to clarify: i don't give a shit about AI art. it could all burn down and no one could ever talk about it again and i'd be happy. i think people making money off of AI art is morally questionable. i think artists deserve fair compensation. these are just discussion points to try and help people form more clear, well-crafted, and less emotionally-charged decisions about their beliefs around AI art. thank you
