Dec 19, 2025
wanna know something i've observed? every now and then there's a piece of art that has the Vibes of generative AI, like it has a certain quality to it - maybe the subject matter, or a glossiness, or just Something that pings your radar, and that of all the commenters asking if it's AI - but you cannot find any tells. it seems to be a piece crafted with skill and intention, and Yet.........
so you check the source, as i will always recommend doing when in doubt. there's a very high likeliness that you will find an artist that's been doing lots of similar work for many years and is making it clear that it's not AI, maybe even tagging it #noai. you know what else you might find if you keep digging? this guy used to do NFTs.
#every time!!!!!!#maybe not EVERY every time but enough that i find it worthwhile to point out#the genAI techbros and NFT techbros are a very overlapping demographic with very similar aesthetic sensibilities#and while most people remember the NFTs as ugly apes and pixel guys. i remember a lot of visually impressive and/or skilled art#but there was a VIBE to it#and sometimes that vibe is very well animated shrek characters at a rave#sometimes that is very well rendered hyperrealistic uncanny valley jessica rabbit#im so glad the NFT era is over because that truly drove me over a wall with the art suspicion it induced in me#i dont Enjoy being suspicious of art. but i also extremely did not want to ever share the works of nft artists#and i went way out of my way to avoid that and now i have all these honed instincts to recognize it
