I had this whole thing written out about how ethical sourcing is the one issue with Gen AI and that was my whole point, because Gen AI does not work without artists making content for it to train off of and how art isn’t going anywhere, capitalism just doesn’t think that it’s a skill worth paying for.
But I realized that you’re one of those people who has missed one of the key components to art that has been lost as part of the century-long campaign to devalue the arts, and there’s no real conversation to be had without that component.
Art is more than just the product. Creating something is part of how humanity processes our experiences and the world around us. That’s why art therapy exists. The act of creating art is as much a part of the human experience as discussions about things like philosophy. Doesn’t matter what your skill level is or what you use to make art. It could be AI or a burnt stick. It’s the process of creation that we like.
Nobody wants to spend their days toiling away to make some soulless corporate art for an ad. If artists were free to make art for themselves all day, every day, you’d be able to hear the cheering from all over the world. But they can’t regardless, because they need to make money to put food on the table. So they leverage those passions and skills into a job.
This isn’t a “photography will ruin oil painting” situation. It’s a situation where the demand for artists is very much still there (and probably increasing as these programs demand an endless stream of non-AI art to learn from so they don’t eat themselves and become useless), but nobody is willing to pay to meet the demand. People are demanding artisan level products at hobbyist level wages - if that - and in the meantime, outright stealing the labor to meet the demand.
TL;DR: Pay artists to create training data and stop stealing it. That is the one and only issue anybody with at least half a braincell cares about. Everything else is just AI assholes thinking their generative programs make them better than other people.
I had this whole thing written out about how ethical sourcing is the one issue with Gen AI and that was my whole point, because Gen AI does not work without artists making content for it to train off of and how art isn’t going anywhere, capitalism just doesn’t think that it’s a skill worth paying for.
But I realized that you’re one of those people who has missed one of the key components to art that has been lost as part of the century-long campaign to devalue the arts, and there’s no real conversation to be had without that component.
Art is more than just the product. Creating something is part of how humanity processes our experiences and the world around us. That’s why art therapy exists. The act of creating art is as much a part of the human experience as discussions about things like philosophy. Doesn’t matter what your skill level is or what you use to make art. It could be AI or a burnt stick. It’s the process of creation that we like.
Nobody wants to spend their days toiling away to make some soulless corporate art for an ad. If artists were free to make art for themselves all day, every day, you’d be able to hear the cheering from all over the world. But they can’t regardless, because they need to make money to put food on the table. So they leverage those passions and skills into a job.
This isn’t a “photography will ruin oil painting” situation. It’s a situation where the demand for artists is very much still there (and probably increasing as these programs demand an endless stream of non-AI art to learn from so they don’t eat themselves and become useless), but nobody is willing to pay to meet the demand. People are demanding artisan level products at hobbyist level wages - if that - and in the meantime, outright stealing the labor to meet the demand.
TL;DR: Pay artists to create training data and stop stealing it. That is the one and only issue anybody with at least half a braincell cares about. Everything else is just AI assholes thinking their generative programs make them better than other people.