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Culture War Roundup for the week of October 3, 2022

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I think there are two distinct divisions here that are worried or not worried about AI art.

(1) The 'fine artists', producing the likes of Basquiat painting in that story further down about the Guggenheim. The very top ones won't be affected, hell they may even get into using AI to produce art, because it's all about the concept and not the actual work. Damien Hirst did not cast himself works like this, he does the design then hands it off to a foundry to make it. So AI art is not a threat to art which is about concept, notoriety, ethnicity, who is the latest hot property taken up by the galleries and rich collectors, etc.

(2) The commercial artists, who very well may find themselves out of a job if AI can churn out made-to-measure works for posters (like that awful German Green Party one), magazine and online article illustrations in this style called Alegria or Corporate Memphis, advertising and product art, and the rest of it. Some of them can adopt it as one more tool, like the software they already use, but if a big corporation can create its own in-house art by purchasing an AI program to do it, then that cuts out freelancers and those who rely on commissions. Amateur artists are a sub-set of this, all the artists doing fan-art for commission may be priced out if you can instead get to use an AI who will do exactly what you want the way you want it.

So there is definitely a panic about "the AI is taking our jobs!" and that isn't completely mockery, because there will be people who can no longer make a living doing commercial art. How that shakes out remains to be seen, and we really won't know until AI art is widely used. Maybe people will go back to having a Real Human Drew This piece of work, to stand out from all the mass-produced AI art, especially for things like fashion magazines that want to sell themselves as being creative and different and unique.

And there are real concerns about art as art, from people who enjoy creating art and don't like the implication that this is just one more human activity that can be mechanised and turned into extruded product. You say that the value is in the product, not the process, but for most of us our experience of mass-market mechanised production of, for instance, food products has not been "oh wow, this cheesecake is so delicious and gorgeous, just like a pastry chef made it!", it has been "replace ingredients with cheapest substitute, lots of artificial flavouring and colouring, and a process that is economically convenient for the manufacturer" ending up in bland, processed, 'not as good as the real thing' goods (see the furore over how Cadbury chocolate has changed since Mondelez bought it).

If the experience of mechanisation was "wow, gorgeous!" instead of "yeah, now it's gonna be cheap, bad-tasting gunk", then people would be less alarmed about AI art (as distinct from the financial element). You say "More people can enjoy great food for cheap. And to be honest my tongue doesn't care, if it did, its priorities are not in order" but would you really not care if it tasted different? Why is that bakery your favourite bakery, if not for the very reason that it pleases your tongue? "Okay, now the cheesecake tastes like chalk and mouse-droppings and gives me diarrhoea after I eat it, but shut up tongue! The process is more efficient and cheaper and productive, who cares about the quality of the end product?"

If the experience of mechanisation was "wow, gorgeous!" instead of "yeah, now it's gonna be cheap, bad-tasting gunk", then people would be less alarmed about AI art (as distinct from the financial element). You say "More people can enjoy great food for cheap. And to be honest my tongue doesn't care, if it did, its priorities are not in order" but would you really not care if it tasted different? Why is that bakery your favourite bakery, if not for the very reason that it pleases your tongue? "Okay, now the cheesecake tastes like chalk and mouse-droppings and gives me diarrhoea after I eat it, but shut up tongue! The process is more efficient and cheaper and productive, who cares about the quality of the end product?"

So artists are losing people without taste who were being overcharged for what they were experiencing, people with taste will stick to real artists. What's the problem here? I can still get and do still get fancy hand crafted artisanal food, it costs as much as it always has. But now the poor can get at least an approximation for cheap enough for them to afford. I imagine high profile publications and AAA game titles will still have humans doing their art for them, but suddenly indie publications and indie games can afford as many art assets as they can productively use. This is a pure win for expression.