Noticed some discussions about whether AI generated art is actually “real art.” Here’s my take:
For AI generated art, its the same with every other creative tool. You can create art with a pen and can come up with something completely new, but you can also use it to trace something that already exists. You can take unique, meaningful photographs with a camera, or you can take the same generic holiday photos everyone else does. You can take a few bricks and build the same model house everyone else builds, or use them to create something that makes people stop and think. You can develop your own style in Procreate, or you can reproduce things you have already seen a thousand times.
AI is no different. You can use it to create something genuinely unique, something that has never been seen before, or you can generate cheap, generic crap with a lazy prompt and no real art direction, concept, or intent.
Art is about having an idea and finding a way to bring it to life. to express something. There are countless ways to get there, and the tool you use doesn’t determine the quality or meaning of the work. Art is about people finding their own style to express something and in best case other people resonate with. That style is what makes their work stand out and makes them an artist. You can develop that style with any tool, and AI is simply one of those tools.
It is not about handmade art vs AI generated art. Good AI art is handmade too, in the sense that it is shaped by human intention, decisions, iteration, and direction. Otherwise, you could just as easily argue that using a special brush stroke in Procreate is the “cheap, not-handmade” way of doing it compared to someone creating that exact stroke with a calligraphic pen on paper.
You can make cheap, generic art with any tool. The same is true of AI.