PLEASE READ I KNOW IT'S LONG I'M SORRY BUT IT'S IMPORTANT
The problem isn't with your imagination, it's with the fact that ai generated images aren't original, not truly. They pick and choose creations from other people without their knowledge or consent (and often against their wishes), then collages them together, then mislabels it as "original art," when it's actually plagiarism and theft. There are dozens of other ways for you to express your imagined scene or character that don't involve theft and actually encourage human artists rather than soulless machines (for characters, you can use picrew, gacha, etc).
The main reason artists are in an uproar is because we're basically powerless to stop these algorithms and machines from taking our hard work (that often takes hours, days, weeks, and sometimes months or years to complete), desecrating it and making it into something it was never intended to be, and then claiming that this fake brain machine made an original creation.
You can come up with a beautiful idea in your mind, but in the end it's not you or the machine who made it, it's the people who did actual art before that point in time. You can tell the website or app how to change details on the work to fit your ideas better, but you can never claim that you made it all on your own and that it's 100% an original work. It will always be influenced by the hands of those who did the work and then had it stolen from them. The algorithm ai uses can't actually create something like a human can; it can only ever use what it finds online and then twist it to squish it into the mold of your prompt. Ultimately, no matter how involved in the process you are, you're still reliant upon someone else to do it for you. There's nothing wrong with not being an artist or designer with the ability to create this perfect art of your dreams. The problem comes when, instead of asking someone with those skills to do it for you and then giving them credit, you tell a machine to cut and paste fragments of stolen art that people poured their souls into, and then say it's just as good, just as thought out, just as meaningful, just as skilled, as people who have spend years, even decades, learning and improving those skills.
Not to mention, generative AI is TERRIBLE for the environment and is actively causing problems with the water supply in the poorer neighborhoods where these ai plants are being built. Instead of endorsing an actual artist, ai not only steals work and credit, but also the basic human right to water. Ai is poisoning our planet. We've lived this long without it, we absolutely can and should continue to survive without it.
Beethoven went deaf before he wrote one of his best known symphonies. Monet was color blind. Van Gogh had mental health issues and addiction problems. John Bramblitt is blind and still creates gorgeous paintings that sell around the world today. Frida Khalo was bed bound and had chronic pain. Sarah Biffin HAD NO ARMS and had only vestigial legs, lived in the 17th century, AND SHE PAINTED WITH HER MOUTH INSTEAD OF GIVING UP. BECAUSE THAT'S WHAT THE HUMAN SPIRIT IS - DETERMINATION TO DO IT OURSELVES AND TEACH OURSELVES WHATEVER SKILLS WE NEED TO ACHIEVE OUR GOALS AND DREAMS. Often the biggest obstacle to not being able to do some skill or have some specific talent is your own belief that you can't do it, and thus won't actually give the time, patience, blood, sweat, and tears it takes to gain that skill. Our technology has made us so impatient that we often won't bother learning or doing something if it'll take more than an hour or two.
1) generative AI is theft, it steals art and credit
2) it demeans artists who have spent years honking their skill and cheapens their blood, sweat, & tears
3) it's soulless and can't ever be truly original
4) it's horrible for the environment and for the people who live near the plants for these servers and machines
5) ART CAN BE LEARNED, YES IT TAKES A LONG TIME, BUT EVEN A STICK FIGURE IS BETTER THAN WHATEVER MOCKERY OF HUMAN CREATIVITY A MACHINE SLAPS TOGETHER IN AN INSTANT
Final note - if I see someone advertising a product with ai, I immediately assume it's cheap and not worth my time. If a business can't bother to hire an actual graphic designer, then they can't afford to make a good quality product, and I will not even consider buying it.
AI GENERATED IMAGES CHEAPEN HUMAN CREATIVITY AND SOUL.
thank you for coming to my TedTalk, here is a really good skit made by a real person named Miranda Mars that really helps: https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8DKuYeC/
@icarusthepilot18 @hiimgin @illu-sarah @bardicwatercolorist @gooseworx @glitchproductions what do y'all think?