Reluu

A few months back, I was telling my partner how the AI-generated art at this moment in time reminds me of the works of the Surrealists. The Surrealists were big on drawing from dreams and the subconscious, and came up with a bunch of games and exercises designed to stimulate creativity by divorcing your conscious mind from the artistic process. I said that so far humanity hadn't created a conscious AI, but I wondered aloud if we hadn't created a subconscious AI. I guess that's why some of these programs have names like "Deep Dream" and "Dall-E".

My partner said, "You're so high right now." And I was. But I still think that we created something, and it's dreaming. And it's very much listening to what we're whispering in its ear.

The problem some people have with AI-generated art is that it steals art from actual living and dead human artists in order to create its works. It's considered poor taste among humans to steal someone's artwork and present it as your own. But we are allowed to collage and to nip around the edges of copyrights until we can find something we're actually allowed to do. So it seems like a grey area.

The real problem though, is that it absolutely will steal your jorb. And my jorb. I can definitely see a not-too-distant future where anyone will be able to sit down and spend a couple of days crafting their own full-length motion picture with AI assistance, and have it look as good as or better than anything we've got today. Not everyone is a storyteller, but I think it'll really open up the field for almost anyone to try. The next Stephen Spielberg could be just some sixteen year old kid on the internet, and I think that scares a lot of employed artists. Because even employed artists are just sort of barely employed.

In the end, it just sort of seems like one of those things (there are so many!) that you just can't do anything about. Studios are always looking to pinch pennies, and there's no way the biggies aren't funding research into this stuff. The really dark times will be when the studios have the tech and the public hasn't gotten its hands on it yet. Things are gonna get weird.

Artists are going to have to deal with AI the same way so many other industries will. More and more, I think it's the changes coming for society at large that people dread. We humans certainly don't seem to be very good at preparing for the inevitable.

In the short term, let it inspire you if you want. The way you might let a dream inspire you. Definitely don't claim it as your own work. Maybe every once in a while type in, "Thanks for all of the inspiration, AI. You're really cool." And then hope it remembers your kind words on Judgment Day.