I agree, Walter. Artificial art from an artificial place. Art made by humans does not derive from randomly selected images and, what, ideas gathered by a computer "intelligence."? Sounds like meatballs.
I agree, Walter. They're coming for us all, LOL. This year, for the first time in my 74 years of Christmas's I bought an artificial tree. But it's a REAL artificial tree. It doesn't smell like a fresh cut pine, but you can buy Pine Forest Fragrance in a spray can for that, I'm told. I still don't have an artificial, knee or hip, but I suppose like many of my friends, that might be in my future as well. At least I don't have any artificial friends, though I'm certain many other folks do. I often find myself saying I'm glad I'm closer to the end than the beginning.
Words make for a crude paint brush do they not? Most art lives somewhere beyond words, even poetry. AI art is the ultimate expression of design by committee, statistically calibrated, as dull and inoffensive as the new Minnesota State flag. Most people can’t see real magic anyways, art is what they are told is art. They are being told this is art. And why should we care about the herds or their farmers? Their music is awful, and I’ve stopped listening.
I have been an artist (draughtsman, painter, sculptor, architect, songwriter, novelist, memoirist, non-fictionist) for decades. 100% of the Ai-generated art I've seen is crapola - no exceptions so far. Ai reduces the quality of human life, therefore it will soon become omnipresent in our lives like so many things that save capitalists time / money.
It's Searle's Chinese Room with a somewhat more sophisticated set of rules for fetching replies. True understanding and creativity come from taking something outside of yourself and incorporating it into your own being, becoming more than what you were before. It requires interface with reality, as opposed to rehashing established conceptual structures. It's no coincidence that LLMs have difficulty telling the difference between truth and confabulation.
Salsa was the best choice, wasn’t it? A passionless computer playing bongos and maracas was just a little more fun. Love the last line of this one. Merry Christmas.
Taken to the extreme, AI would be so prolific that it would flood the internet with more AI works than human creations. At some point it would be incestuously seeding itself.
I doubt that AI will be much more than a passing fad, similar to Y2K.
After reading this I'm reminded of the old statistics story that if 1,000 monkeys were given 1,000 typewriters and allowed to bang away for 1,000 years they'd produce all of the works of William Shakespeare. That was the foreshadowing of AI art.
Beautiful piece, Walter. It reminds me of McD's and its ilk. In the '70s my family thought they were a wonderful sign of progress. Reliable! Predictable! The same everywhere! Maybe it was true for a while; maybe a disturbing proportion local diners had unsafe food. But now we have mass outbreaks of e coli or whatever, and unsafe obesity food at scale.
As an artist who has “messed around” with AI image creation, I can perhaps (certainly not in the most excellent style of Walter Kirn) explain what I think is the potential of AI image generators as related to art and photography. I agree with the idea that words and phrases creating an image that is then viewed as art falls short of true art and indeed lacks the vitality of human life. What it does offer visual artists and photographers is the ability to try out ideas, scenes, points of view. It can provide images to be used in collage, photoshop artistry, and as the basis for study in various ways. I see it as another way of rolling around ideas, sparking inspiration and a jumping off point for further human exploration. I’m using AI in these ways in my own art; taking results and modifying them, manipulating them or simply using them to spark more of my own ideas.
I found this essay quite depressing. The use of AI impacts the humanity and originality manifested in the arts. People will come to accept art created by AI, devoid of emotion and life experience. It will also economically affect the true artist: if art can be generated by AI, why pay the person who spent a lifetime honing their craft? Unfortunately, the genie is out of the bottle, and you can't put it back in.
Money can’t buy love, but it can purchase a reasonable facsimile. AI can’t make art, but it can make a digital simulacrum.
I suspect this will all get sorted out and everything will take its place. A Bach cello sonata played by YoYo Ma experienced in person versus a digital sampler spun by a DJ at a rave. Both have their audiences.
The problem with AI isn’t fake art or fake fashion or fake copywriting. It’s wars and drugs and fraud.
Have a Merry Christmas. Illegitimus non carborundum, as I like to say in fake, non-AI Latin.
Somehow you always capture the exact mixture of disquiet and disdain I feel about what is being presented to us as brilliant progress.
I agree, Walter. Artificial art from an artificial place. Art made by humans does not derive from randomly selected images and, what, ideas gathered by a computer "intelligence."? Sounds like meatballs.
I agree, Walter. They're coming for us all, LOL. This year, for the first time in my 74 years of Christmas's I bought an artificial tree. But it's a REAL artificial tree. It doesn't smell like a fresh cut pine, but you can buy Pine Forest Fragrance in a spray can for that, I'm told. I still don't have an artificial, knee or hip, but I suppose like many of my friends, that might be in my future as well. At least I don't have any artificial friends, though I'm certain many other folks do. I often find myself saying I'm glad I'm closer to the end than the beginning.
AI is just automated plagiarism.
Like your last two essays the world has gone from disposable to artificial. The only real question left is what's next.
Words make for a crude paint brush do they not? Most art lives somewhere beyond words, even poetry. AI art is the ultimate expression of design by committee, statistically calibrated, as dull and inoffensive as the new Minnesota State flag. Most people can’t see real magic anyways, art is what they are told is art. They are being told this is art. And why should we care about the herds or their farmers? Their music is awful, and I’ve stopped listening.
I have been an artist (draughtsman, painter, sculptor, architect, songwriter, novelist, memoirist, non-fictionist) for decades. 100% of the Ai-generated art I've seen is crapola - no exceptions so far. Ai reduces the quality of human life, therefore it will soon become omnipresent in our lives like so many things that save capitalists time / money.
It's Searle's Chinese Room with a somewhat more sophisticated set of rules for fetching replies. True understanding and creativity come from taking something outside of yourself and incorporating it into your own being, becoming more than what you were before. It requires interface with reality, as opposed to rehashing established conceptual structures. It's no coincidence that LLMs have difficulty telling the difference between truth and confabulation.
Salsa was the best choice, wasn’t it? A passionless computer playing bongos and maracas was just a little more fun. Love the last line of this one. Merry Christmas.
Taken to the extreme, AI would be so prolific that it would flood the internet with more AI works than human creations. At some point it would be incestuously seeding itself.
I doubt that AI will be much more than a passing fad, similar to Y2K.
After reading this I'm reminded of the old statistics story that if 1,000 monkeys were given 1,000 typewriters and allowed to bang away for 1,000 years they'd produce all of the works of William Shakespeare. That was the foreshadowing of AI art.
Well now I've done it: "Write a short poem about DALL-E art written in the style of the author Walter Kirn"In the digital realm where pixels collide,
DALL-E's art takes me on quite a ride.
Walter Kirn, I'll spin you a tale,
Of AI's prowess in a creative travail.
From ones and zeros, it conjures dreams,
A kaleidoscope of imaginative schemes.
With algorithms and a touch of grace,
DALL-E crafts a visual embrace.
A canvas of code, a symphony of light,
In the virtual realm, it takes its flight.
In surreal landscapes and abstract streams,
DALL-E's art transcends our wildest dreams.
So let us marvel at this AI's might,
As it paints the world in a different light.
In the style of Walter Kirn, I say,
DALL-E's art is here to stay.
Beautiful piece, Walter. It reminds me of McD's and its ilk. In the '70s my family thought they were a wonderful sign of progress. Reliable! Predictable! The same everywhere! Maybe it was true for a while; maybe a disturbing proportion local diners had unsafe food. But now we have mass outbreaks of e coli or whatever, and unsafe obesity food at scale.
As an artist who has “messed around” with AI image creation, I can perhaps (certainly not in the most excellent style of Walter Kirn) explain what I think is the potential of AI image generators as related to art and photography. I agree with the idea that words and phrases creating an image that is then viewed as art falls short of true art and indeed lacks the vitality of human life. What it does offer visual artists and photographers is the ability to try out ideas, scenes, points of view. It can provide images to be used in collage, photoshop artistry, and as the basis for study in various ways. I see it as another way of rolling around ideas, sparking inspiration and a jumping off point for further human exploration. I’m using AI in these ways in my own art; taking results and modifying them, manipulating them or simply using them to spark more of my own ideas.
I found this essay quite depressing. The use of AI impacts the humanity and originality manifested in the arts. People will come to accept art created by AI, devoid of emotion and life experience. It will also economically affect the true artist: if art can be generated by AI, why pay the person who spent a lifetime honing their craft? Unfortunately, the genie is out of the bottle, and you can't put it back in.
Money can’t buy love, but it can purchase a reasonable facsimile. AI can’t make art, but it can make a digital simulacrum.
I suspect this will all get sorted out and everything will take its place. A Bach cello sonata played by YoYo Ma experienced in person versus a digital sampler spun by a DJ at a rave. Both have their audiences.
The problem with AI isn’t fake art or fake fashion or fake copywriting. It’s wars and drugs and fraud.
Have a Merry Christmas. Illegitimus non carborundum, as I like to say in fake, non-AI Latin.