AI might be the best thing that could have happened to art
Thoughts
〰️
Thoughts 〰️
WAIT. HEAR ME OUT BEFORE GETTING THE PITCHFORKS.
Is AI terrible for the environment? Yes.
Is it turning people’s brain into mush? Absolutely.
Is it knee kicking our job market in the guts repeatedly? Unfortunately yes.
Is AI good at answering questions accurately? HAHAHAHAHAHA, nope.
AI generated « art » —whether it be images or videos— is complete garbage. Most of us can agree on this (glaring at you AI bros). BUT.
the boomerang effect
“In social psychology, the boomerang effect, also known as “reactance“, refers to […] a situation where people tend to pick the opposite of what something or someone is saying or doing because of how it is presented to them. Typically, the more aggressively a position is presented to someone, the more likely they are to adopt an opposing view.”
the push for Artificial Intelligence
AI appeared a few years ago, quite innocently. People were generating landscapes based off of memes during a phone background trend on TikTok, then people were generating videos of Will Smith eating spaghetti and laughing at the weirdness and inaccuracy of the AI, apps like c.ai started being launched. It mostly seemed innocent at first, but since its apparition, AI has gotten more and more prominent and has quite literally started being thrown in our faces.
The premise of it was never legal, but as long as it remained used for memes and “What would I look like as a [show] character?” people were mainly okay with it. But then, AI made an entry on the job market. Every app added AI as a non-negotiable feature. Data started being taken with dubious consent from users who were never made aware it was taken in the first place–the toggle to turn it off being perfectly hidden deep in your settings, if at all present. Every brand was selling AI to us as this wonderful thing, and ignoring all of the bad stuff that went with it. That is what they are good at, isn’t it? Something terrible happens, they throw a few sparkles in our faces and we stop thinking about it. Ironically, the symbol massively used to represent AI is sparkles. De la poudre de perlimpinpin as we say where I come from.
Except this time, it doesn’t seem to work. We keep hearing AI is inevitable and we need to just accept it, but the response to this is not quiet compliance. It is a roar of people actively refusing it.
the witch AI artists hunt
Amongst all of this, AI “artists” showed up. Some claiming proudly to use AI. Unfortunately for them, by then people were already pretty mad. Anyone using AI and calling it art was getting severe backlash (now while that backlash is justified, I wouldn’t go as far as saying that the death threats were okay, like we really need to chill on the cancel culture guys–but that’s another topic).
Then the horror happened. People hid the fact that they were using AI. This launched a witch hunt, everyone is looking for signs of AI anywhere they can find (speaking of, AI can take the em dash out of my cold dead hands, it does not exist in French punctuation and became my favourite punctuation to use when I studied English so I won’t stop using it just because people are calling it a sign of AI).
Artists have to prove they actually drew what they post, so they release videos, but then these videos are fed to AI who is then able to reproduce them and it keeps getting more confusing.
But in a way, this isn’t surprising. The mindset of these people is in itself confusing and absurd.
“AI is so great that I am going to hide the fact I used it.” They know AI is terrible. They are ashamed of using it.
All and all, we have reached a point where it becomes practically impossible to tell who has used AI. Some illustrations are going to feel off, but that may simply be that the artist is still struggling with proportions and perspectives, others are going to feel genuine but it is simply because the AI was prompted to give it that sketch/authentic feeling.
walking away
Overall, the consensus is clear. People want to avoid AI. The fact is that it is becoming more and more complicated to do so online. Therefore, people are moving away from it.
With the rise of AI amongst the techbros and greedy CEO of the entertainment industry, there has been a rapidly increasing desire of the public for something human and real. Something imperfect.
More and more people are taking interest into supporting indie artists, discovering mixed media, going back to physical zines, trying out new crafty hobbies themselves as a form of rebellion.
Let’s face it, the current art industry is in shambles and it keeps getting harder to get a job because of AI. But we have to look at the silver lining here. Whenever something is made independently, whenever an art style or form breaks the norm, it blows up. The people are loving it, sharing it.
AI was the wake-up call humanity needed to start yearning again for something true. LAIKA recently released a trailer for their stop motion film Wildwoods, and it is stunning. Smaller studios like Cartoon Saloon are starting to get more and more recognition. People are turning to local artists and businesses.
The world and history work like the learning curve. AI has just been introduced into the ecosystem of our society and we need to learn what to do with it (and by we, I mean that our reaction and behaviour will change the statistics that the people actually in charge follow religiously with complete disregard for empathy or any human emotion) Right now we are into the discouragingly realistic part where everything is horrible.
But everything is horrible because we are transitioning. They brought us AI and are trying to shove it everywhere, that model is not sustainable, people hate it and are walking away from it. If we give it time, it will balance itself out. And in the midst of it, we will see a resurgence of the appreciation for human-made art. It has already started, we just need to let it stabilise and have faith in ourselves.
If we give up, it will never get better. This is a war and your best weapon will be your pencil. So go and create, make mistakes, mess up and share it. Show everyone the beauty of trying. Art is the process. And if you don’t feel like making something, then treat yourself to the creation of an indie or local artist–whether it be an amateur play in your local theatre, an indie book bought at a book fair, a small exhibit at your community centre, an independent short film on YouTube, etc, etc.
The horrific consequences of AI forced us to face the fact that most of the corporate art industry is no longer after telling stories and only after making money. But humanity isn’t that stupid (although the use of AI sure is trying to make us so).
This reality-check brought people back to art pieces made with soul–no matter the art form.
And for that, ironically, AI might be the best thing that could have happened to art.
want these landing in your inbox before anyone else sees them?
subscribing to the newsletter on substack gets you every article 3 days early,
and you can choose to only hear about book updates if that's more your thing.
there's also a paid tier if you ever feel like supporting the work directly — but it doesn't unlock anything extra, the free version gets you everything. purely a "buy me a coffee" option, no pressure