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Do AI Image generators create "Art"?
Posted: Sun Jul 06, 2025 12:49 pm
by Flannel Jesus
I've dabbled in illustration for the last few years, and in doing so, found myself becoming loosely involved in many art communities. About 3 years ago, ai image generators like midjourney started becoming... let's say, mildly appealing, but not convincing. At the time, most of the art community didn't really care. So a computer could generate a weird surreal painting with loads of mistakes, cool, who cares? That was the vibe back then.
And then it got better.
And better.
Now, we're at the point where it's not unusual for "AI artists" to accept art commission projects and get paid for the generated images. Some companies even get some of their projects' art needs met through ai image generation, allowing them to hire fewer human artists - in some cases, perhaps even NO human artists.
The art communities are paying attention and many of them are pretty upset about the whole thing. There's a term now, "AI slop", used to describe the flooding of the internet with low effort, easy access AI images, made by people who largely never cared to learn how to make art by hand.
So now there's a big tension within art communities right now, with the following questions becoming central:
- Can AI make art?
- If it does, is the person who prompted it the artist?
- What minimum amount of involvement does it take for an AI user to call himself "the artist" of an image
- What kinds of ethical considerations need to be made in regards to this technology displacing the jobs of human beings who would otherwise have been employed doing this work?
Re: Do AI Image generators create "Art"?
Posted: Sun Jul 06, 2025 5:30 pm
by Impenitent
Flannel Jesus wrote: ↑Sun Jul 06, 2025 12:49 pm
I've dabbled in illustration for the last few years, and in doing so, found myself becoming loosely involved in many art communities. About 3 years ago, ai image generators like midjourney started becoming... let's say, mildly appealing, but not convincing. At the time, most of the art community didn't really care. So a computer could generate a weird surreal painting with loads of mistakes, cool, who cares? That was the vibe back then.
And then it got better.
And better.
Now, we're at the point where it's not unusual for "AI artists" to accept art commission projects and get paid for the generated images. Some companies even get some of their projects' art needs met through ai image generation, allowing them to hire fewer human artists - in some cases, perhaps even NO human artists.
The art communities are paying attention and many of them are pretty upset about the whole thing. There's a term now, "AI slop", used to describe the flooding of the internet with low effort, easy access AI images, made by people who largely never cared to learn how to make art by hand.
So now there's a big tension within art communities right now, with the following questions becoming central:
- Can AI make art?
if the machine executes nothing but the program it was designed to preform, "AI" makes nothing outside of the programmer's intention
- If it does, is the person who prompted it the artist?
if it behaves outside the boundaries of it's programming, perhaps AI has made art, otherwise it is all the programmer's art
- What minimum amount of involvement does it take for an AI user to call himself "the artist" of an image
true AI has no user
- What kinds of ethical considerations need to be made in regards to this technology displacing the jobs of human beings who would otherwise have been employed doing this work?
machines have been doing the work of humans ever since humans have made machines
a thresher harvests wheat another harvests corn
displacing illegal aliens
-Imp
Re: Do AI Image generators create "Art"?
Posted: Sun Jul 06, 2025 5:50 pm
by LuckyR
The AI generator creates pictures (the physical item), but the person who types in the input creates the art (the label applied to the physical item). It's like a camera. The camera produces the picture (physical item), but the photographer produces the art. Of course, not every photograph is art, just as not every AI generated picture is art.
Re: Do AI Image generators create "Art"?
Posted: Sun Jul 06, 2025 7:08 pm
by Flannel Jesus
LuckyR wrote: ↑Sun Jul 06, 2025 5:50 pm
The AI generator creates pictures (the physical item), but the person who types in the input creates the art (the label applied to the physical item). It's like a camera. The camera produces the picture (physical item), but the photographer produces the art. Of course, not every photograph is art, just as not every AI generated picture is art.
So typing in the words "mona Lisa" into midjourney is enough to make me an artist now?
Re: Do AI Image generators create "Art"?
Posted: Sun Jul 06, 2025 7:27 pm
by accelafine
No, because art is a human concept and AI isn't human. Whatever it creates is always going to be an imitation of a human concept no matter how good it is, or how much 'better' it looks than anything a human has created.
i also don't think that humans who make 'computer art' are artists either, any more than DJs are musicians.
Re: Do AI Image generators create "Art"?
Posted: Sun Jul 06, 2025 7:46 pm
by Flannel Jesus
accelafine wrote: ↑Sun Jul 06, 2025 7:27 pm
i also don't think that humans who make 'computer art' are artists either, any more than DJs are musicians.
What do you class as "computer art"?
What about this?
https://www.instagram.com/p/CzH4WaGp6Op/?hl=en
This guy does everything by hand, on a computer.
How about this guys work?
https://www.instagram.com/p/BQLBSelgbYk/?hl=en
Or this?
https://www.instagram.com/p/Cr--PyixmOM ... mg_index=1
Re: Do AI Image generators create "Art"?
Posted: Sun Jul 06, 2025 7:58 pm
by accelafine
I don't know how that works. How can it be 'by hand' if it's done with a computer?
Re: Do AI Image generators create "Art"?
Posted: Sun Jul 06, 2025 8:05 pm
by accelafine
What about AI created cuisine? Is that real food when it's VR?
Re: Do AI Image generators create "Art"?
Posted: Sun Jul 06, 2025 8:10 pm
by Flannel Jesus
accelafine wrote: ↑Sun Jul 06, 2025 7:58 pm
I don't know how that works. How can it be 'by hand' if it's done with a computer?
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Wacom-Cintiq-F ... d217f&th=1
Tablet comes with a pen, you draw across the screen with the pen. Stuff like this happens:
https://youtu.be/zC3OxonJcXQ?si=8whiPNicBJjQzZIF&t=478
Re: Do AI Image generators create "Art"?
Posted: Sun Jul 06, 2025 10:30 pm
by accelafine
Ok. So the guy's obviously an artist to start with. He's just using a different tool.
Re: Do AI Image generators create "Art"?
Posted: Sun Jul 06, 2025 10:55 pm
by Flannel Jesus
accelafine wrote: ↑Sun Jul 06, 2025 10:30 pm
Ok. So the guy's obviously an artist to start with. He's just using a different tool.
Right, and that tool is a computer and some computer peripherals. That's why I wanted to clarify what you meant by "humans who make 'computer art'".
Re: Do AI Image generators create "Art"?
Posted: Sun Jul 06, 2025 11:42 pm
by accelafine
Flannel Jesus wrote: ↑Sun Jul 06, 2025 10:55 pm
accelafine wrote: ↑Sun Jul 06, 2025 10:30 pm
Ok. So the guy's obviously an artist to start with. He's just using a different tool.
Right, and that tool is a computer and some computer peripherals. That's why I wanted to clarify what you meant by "humans who make 'computer art'".
I didn't know how it worked. And you called it an 'AI image generator' in the title. Is that guy using AI?
Re: Do AI Image generators create "Art"?
Posted: Mon Jul 07, 2025 5:40 am
by LuckyR
Flannel Jesus wrote: ↑Sun Jul 06, 2025 7:08 pm
LuckyR wrote: ↑Sun Jul 06, 2025 5:50 pm
The AI generator creates pictures (the physical item), but the person who types in the input creates the art (the label applied to the physical item). It's like a camera. The camera produces the picture (physical item), but the photographer produces the art. Of course, not every photograph is art, just as not every AI generated picture is art.
So typing in the words "mona Lisa" into midjourney is enough to make me an artist now?
You did see my last sentence, right?
Re: Do AI Image generators create "Art"?
Posted: Mon Jul 07, 2025 6:22 am
by Flannel Jesus
accelafine wrote: ↑Sun Jul 06, 2025 11:42 pm
Flannel Jesus wrote: ↑Sun Jul 06, 2025 10:55 pm
accelafine wrote: ↑Sun Jul 06, 2025 10:30 pm
Ok. So the guy's obviously an artist to start with. He's just using a different tool.
Right, and that tool is a computer and some computer peripherals. That's why I wanted to clarify what you meant by "humans who make 'computer art'".
I didn't know how it worked. And you called it an 'AI image generator' in the title. Is that guy using AI?
No it's not ai. You said "I also don't think that humans who make 'computer art' are artists either".
I clearly didn't know what you meant by 'computer art', which is why my first response to that is 'What do you class as "computer art"?'
So you were using computer art as a synonym for ai generated images? That wasn't clear.
Re: Do AI Image generators create "Art"?
Posted: Mon Jul 07, 2025 6:27 am
by Flannel Jesus
LuckyR wrote: ↑Mon Jul 07, 2025 5:40 am
Flannel Jesus wrote: ↑Sun Jul 06, 2025 7:08 pm
LuckyR wrote: ↑Sun Jul 06, 2025 5:50 pm
The AI generator creates pictures (the physical item), but the person who types in the input creates the art (the label applied to the physical item). It's like a camera. The camera produces the picture (physical item), but the photographer produces the art. Of course, not every photograph is art, just as not every AI generated picture is art.
So typing in the words "mona Lisa" into midjourney is enough to make me an artist now?
You did see my last sentence, right?
Right but that's just details. You said "the person who types in the input creates the art", which means realistically it's possible for a human to "create art", based on what you said, by typing in very few words and getting something you count as art out of the machine. Now I don't have access to your brain so I'm not attempting to guess what you count as art, that's why it's "just details" - only you know what you count as art. That's your concern, not mine. Mine here is that someone can type a few words and immediately be an artist according to you. Whether those few words are "mona Lisa" or something else.