By: Weston Halgunseth

Introduction

For centuries art was defined by the muscle ache of musicians, paint soaked clothes, and pencil lead fingers of artists. To create means to physically struggle with concepts and tools. However, in the last few years a new artist has joined which is AI. While many celebrate this as a “new era” others fear we are trading human touch, meaning, originality for mere convenience and speed.

The rise of the machine

The statistics are hard to ignore. Today a vast majority of artists are using AI to generate or do most of the work with stuff like drawing, instruments, painting and books and stories. We have moved from a world where you had to spend months to years learning to play instruments, draw realistically, make complex stories, etc, to a world where you simply type “make me a story about ____, make me a song, etc” into a box.

What we gain vs What we lose

On one hand tech provides accessibility and speed especially with broke people that want to make music but are low on money but still want to learn. Another plus is that if you have a great idea but have no skill to make it, AI can help you express that idea. But the cost is steep. When a computer generates a piece of art, it lacks the element of human experience, emotion and overall just seems dull and boring most of the time, losing the stuff that made art pop.

The devaluation of “the doer”

The most concerning trend I saw is the shift from “doing”. If a machine can create a perfect art piece in seconds what happens to the person who spends hours practicing their art? I’m seeing a decline in dedication in art. As people become more used to the “perfection” of algorithms we risk entering a “post human” art era where everything looks and sounds “perfect, flawless, and downright inhuman”. It feels like there was no emotion or bigger picture when making it and it was just making it to look good.

The robbers

Much of the art AI makes isn’t original because AI uses the internet to learn. If it has to look at other art to get an idea of what art is, what is stopping it from just straight up copying or taking most of someone else’s art to make another “masterpiece”? There has been a lot of hate with this especially with stories and taking ideas and phrases from other texts for their “original” art pieces.

The path forward

We must decide if we want technology to be our pen, brush, pick, etc. or our helper and guide for art. The future of creativity depends on our ability to prioritize human “mistakes” and experiences that only a person can show, over an art piece made just to look good and get praise and fame.

Conclusion

Ultimately, a computer can mimic a heartbeat but it cannot feel the rhythm of the brain’s experiences and the emotions that come with that. As we move further into this digital age we must make a conscious effort to support the artists who are still picking up their art supplies and make sure they don’t fall out of the cycle.