No, Ai "Art" is not Art. 

As an illustrator, illustration is more than just “pretty pictures”. It is it’s own form of story telling, not limited to social norms of being hung in a gallery, it can be applied to everything, it can be fast, it can be slow, it can be beautiful, it can be ugly but more than anything illustration always tells a story. As much as AI has positives and negatives, I think more than anything the argument it has caused is pulling out the ugly side of the social understanding of art and the lack of respect artists get for the time, effort and passion gone into making a piece of “artwork” that is now being made with no time, effort or passion by an AI generator that wouldn’t even exist without the artists that have spent their whole lives trying to become masters in their own right. I agree that AI just produces “pretty pictures”, and more so now with social media feeding off of fast art, but for me without a story, what’s the point in the “artwork” existing in the first place.

After this entire Ai art scenario, I realized that the attitude held by many ( not necessarily a majority, or even close, but a large chunk nonetheless) has always been that of 'artists have it easy' or that it is frivolous. Every step I took on my journey has been in direct opposition of those along that path. My teachers, relatives, schoolmates, counselors, and coaches. Many scoff at my admission that I wish to be a traditional artist, or a baker, or a sculptor. 'you are too smart.' you are wasted doing that' 'you could be so much more.' this trade is looked down upon, exploited, and scoffed at. We do not provide enough value to the commercialized world we have constructed, and we also, uniquely, are willing to take it in the chin. Perhaps this is because of the deeply personal relationship between art and it's maker, or maybe it is simply a biproduct of the changing landscape of the professional space leaking backwards along the path. I am not yet quite in the professional space, and I am young, but I think the way this plays out is simple whether or not we as a community finally standup for ourselves, or once again simply take it on the chin and keep grinding. The problems posed by AI art is nothing new, it is simply yet another detractor, one more hurdle I, and many others must overcome.

I don't really see how reducing something to 'just illustration' means it's not art. The simple different between a sunset and an illustration of a sunset is: a sunset is beautiful, so isn't art. But an illustration of a sunset is 'how I, the illustrator, see the sunset'. Which is art, according to your own definition, because it's sharing an experience.

I think something important about creating art that you didn't mention here is the process of making art is art. It's beautiful to know that an artist has spent their effort into making it, and it can be extremely cathartic and mentally important to the artist to take part in working on art.

I fundamentally disagree with the implicit notion that "deeper meaning" is equivalent to conceptional meaning. In my opinion, an artwork that speaks to the viewer directly through its emotional impact (through beauty or whatever) is far deeper than just the expression of a concept. As you mentioned Tarkovsky: This was one of his key philosophies as well, and many of his movies can only be interpreted conceptually to a certain extend.

I once wrote this poem and I think it is fitting for all of art not only for dancing (I tried to translate it from the German original as best as I could, but some of the beauty might have been lost to translation): I never wanted to be a dancer - only to dance is what I wanted. Pulsating giving life to forms - blissful and eternally colorful. Radiating full of beauty, spreading happiness, begetting joy, sowing, blossoming. I never wanted to be a dancer - only to dance is what I wanted. In deep believe drawing power from gods - mighty and eons old. Rejoicing from the heart, Driving away gloom, giving hope, having, beeing. But I never wanted to be a dancer - only to dance is what I had to.

I'm following the midjourny group on Facebook and I'm noticing something in my feelings towards these works , the "art" they share and inspite of how creative it looks, is making me lose my intrest in opening the posts and observe what people are sharing, and that's what is SCARY for me, the appreciation of the works, the ideas, the artists ,the stories that made us attached to a work of art before, they will simply disappear . That's just so sad.

I mostly agree, but if somebody draws by hand in a world where you can just generate images, that's already enough to give it deeper meaning, so it doesn't now suddenly become "just illustration". They're putting their soul into every line, which makes a difference for someone who can appreciate it.

i don't like that you think illustration isn't art. i consider myself an illustrative art because i tell stories with my art, its not just a pretty picture its a tiny tale in ink, watercolor and pencil. take my avatar here. yes it's just a semi realistic portrait of me on the surface, but its meant to tell the tale of how my chronic pain encompasses my body in clean visual language any layperson can understand. i love high and low art, but just because i choose to make my images in an illustrative way does not make it any less art. art is meant to invoke feeling and connection, and i don't think AI will ever be able to do that because we cannot teach a computer how to be human. also i don't think we can program art into computers because there isn't an "if/then" easy clean way to make art by a pattern. plus AI isn't borrowing from previous art, it's outright stealing other peoples styles, not looking at a painting and thinking "i could encorprate that method or idea into my style and make it my own".

I disagree with the last argument. What’s meant to be solely aesthetics and what’s meant to be art are not inherently unrelated. I mean, I don’t look at a beautiful sunset only because I love how the colors clash and blend upon each other, I look at it also cuz it makes me think about my day, about the next day and its possibilities, about the person I would love to be sharing this moment with me. All these things are meaningful. Beauty has meaning because artistic purpose itself has always been a flawed concept. Art has been made absentmindedly and we have called it art that explores the subconscious desires or beliefs of its creator, so… One could argue the argument about whether AI art is meaningful is in and of itself the purpose of the piece.

I have a huge problem. I am a cartoonist. Bright colors and round faces are my base and media. It’s silly and amusing, but I’ve always ached to make art that made people think, stirred up a conversation, and had deeper meaning. So ..two years ago, that’s what I began doing, in my style. No words, they’re not comics, they’re simply pieces that happen to be made in a cartoonish style. According to your standards, my art should fall in illustration because my style is considered eye candy and appealing, but to me, they reach topics of loneliness, anxiety, our society, social situations and emotions. I would consider them art. My problem is that there shouldn’t be a fine line. Some artists will admit they made something just to be pretty, an ‘illustration’, but many will not. Especially as they begin learning that this devalues their pieces in some way. Who are we to decide what has meaning or not? A sunset to you may be a pretty picture, a sunset to someone else is the representation of loneliness or a bleak ending as colors fade to black. We cannot decide what is art and what is illustration, no matter how pretty is it and vise versa. Just because we see an a nonconforming piece that seems to have a deep meaning, doesn’t mean it does. Some may see my art as doodles and cute illustrations, others will feel a deeper meaning from them. There is no way to ever certainly define a piece as ‘illustration’ and ‘art’. In another universe, where capitalism and multimillion corps didn’t run, I think AI would be considered ‘art’ under the right circumstances and perspective. Perhaps not completely random generated pieces, or perhaps yes, but absolutely pieces that were purposely made with an input or pieces adopted by the right people who found meaning in them.

Art is the expression of emotion. Beauty is the extent that art is conveyed.

My concern about that narrowing definition of art is that it makes only social or political art "real art" and leaves the role of the audience out of the discussion. Is art only visual communication ? I think artists are already devalued in society to now say to them "you're just doing pretty things that holds nothing more than that, you're """just""" an illustrator" because machines gets to do the same. But this convo is super interesting ! Would love a whole series on that if it doesn't exist yet

Happy New Year! I'm very excited about 2023 and all the conversations it will have to offer! If you feel like it (and are able to), please support me on Patreon! It helps the channel tremendously. The link to it is in the description. Oh, and, keep in mind, the passage cited at the beginning is from The Conundrum of the Workshops, a poem by Rudyard Kipling. The whole point of that poem is to point out how paralyzing it can be for artists to wonder if what they do is art. In this video, I'm playing the Devil. Sometimes, it really doesn't matter if what you're making is art or not.

Without great art by great artists, these AI "Art" generators would not exist.

An artist once said, all it takes is one person to believe it's art and it's art.

So, to anyone who is worried about the need of being purposefuly meaningful or transgressive to society at large, as long as your art is meaningful to both you and the community you share it with, it is still art. Do you want to make pretty fanart to express how much your fandom meant to you? That's art. Do you want to draw cute boys smooching because that is how you express your gender identity? That's art. Do you draw cool characters because their aesthetic resonates with you for personal reasons that are hard to describe in words? That's art. Do you draw dinosaurs, trains, insects, historical outfits, indescribably horrible monsters or anything that is part of your niche hyperfixation because you have a particular fascination, intertest or find deep meaning in them for any reason. That is also art. I disagree with the last point of this video and I'd argue it could even be used as ammo to devalue artists not fitting certain expectations further. Ironic, isn't it? If anything this is not a revolution but further accentuates that, just like commodification of artwork under capitalism, art elistism as being a problem artists have always contended with that is just going to grow more intense and difficult to deal with now that AI has entered the scene. An AI may be able to do what we "illustrators" do better but it is hollow in that its subject matter means nothing to it nor to the people who push this as something to replace us. To say art is not art if it's just pretty is devaluating the reasons on *why* the artists who make it think it's pretty.

For starters, the best definition of Art that I've ever been able to come up with is "Art is the attempt to communicate abstract concepts in a concrete medium". As much as I like the video overall, I'd tend to disagree with the described "Art" vs. "Illustration" dichotomy; or rather, with how that dichotomy is applied. I'd say illustration ceases to be artistic when it's merely technical, but aside from that the difference between the two can be very nebulous. Another quibble I have is with the dismissal of "Beauty" as a valid subject for Art. Beauty is very much an abstract concept that can be and should be communicated via Art, but it's far from the only one. To be fair, the popular perception of Art is disproportionately focused on Beauty as its raison d'etre; and that capitalism encourages this limited focus because it's much easier to commodify. Also, I'd say that the Art vs Entertainment dichotomy is misunderstanding one or both. Art and Entertainment are two very different processes, but can be linked. They're two circles in a Venn diagram that have a certain amount of overlap, but are otherwise not inherently linked or opposed. But again, as with Beauty, capitalism tries to restrict the purpose of Art to Entertainment, because that makes it easier to commodify.

This as you pointed out goes back a long way. I think about schools dropping their drama and band programs to meet a budget. There was a time historically when a person would create something for a purpose and then try and improve their product partly on the basis that a better thing would sell itself and profit would increase by greater sales, but as you said today today the only goal is to chisel away at that product to increase profit instead of true innovation. I think that being exposed to the arts in school is necessary for a student to be able to see depth in life. This in an interesting topic as all artists may be influenced by the works of others, otherwise there would be no schools of art, so the idea of AI poaching art has to be debated. The only sad reality is that a bunch of lawyers will inevitably make a fortune feeding the fires of this issue. Perhaps because AI art is based on a collection of images, it can only be regarded as a print as opposed to a genuine piece of art. This trend however is disturbing as it will spread to all areas of art, novels where a piece of software is given a time frame and a plot outline and a book is written, we saw in the movie 300 that perhaps shortly actors can be done away with, how long before a computer can compose music, or design a bridge. Once automation was thought to give people a better salary and more time off to enjoy family and friends, today some automation is just making humans redundant. Look at the all automatic McDonalds in Texas for example. Today profit for the sake of profit has become the mantra. The result is that art which was suppose to be a way for people to look at themselves and their society will slowly become nothing more that propaganda to justify the dehumanization of society

Art needs to be made by humans not machines. This dillutes the meaning, pleasure and affects the human psychology. If we do not make something the future will be bleak and sad. We need to do things with our hands because this brings me. We do not need to make everything very fast and corporate.

Even though I agree with the last few sentences of the video, I have to add the following. When an artist can’t make a living out of selling illustrations, they’ll never have the financial opportunity to remain an artist either. Seeing that, I can’t see AI as anything else except a curse for artists. This is the unforgiving world we live in, were the possibility of being an artist, keeps becoming less of a realistic option.

The discussion of AI generated images reminded me of how revolutionary modern collage was. I feel it's kind of the same: you take someone else's work very literally in both cases and make something new. The difference is that collages HAVE intentionality and creativity behind them, and AI gen doesn't. The solution is to go down the route some AI artists like Henar Sherif have: DO something with it. Work the image. Take from several and make something different. Build upon it to tell a story. CREATE using the base. That's art. Me imputing the same prompt 10 times because the AI keeps throwing things that aren't what I want isn't. My only true problem is the usage of art without permission. That's not fair use. Fair use is, anyways, a policy, not a law, and the power to determine fair use in in the hands of the owner of the copyright. So, no, fair use isn't an excuse especially when people are profiting by selling their AI generators or by selling the output.

The world in which we live in is horrible because it makes us to concentrate just on working, gaining wealth, frivolous things, getting worried about the next day and on coming wars. We need to work together and fight for a better world, by this I mean doing what we can to make the world a better place and face the horrible people who create ways to separate us and overwork or abuse us.

I'm so happy I found your channel today. Thank you for existing!

I have a lot of comic book artists as friends. I can assure you the debate/distinction between Art and illustration has existed for a long time.

I would love to see a video on capitalism’s effects on art. As for AI art… I can’t help but think of a video I watched recently by Blind Dweller on Kim Noble, a dissociative identity disorder system. One point the video made was that for many alters within the system, art was a process and the act of creating it was therapy. The end product was not the goal, but the the act of creation itself. I can’t help but feel that’s an important part of human-made art. There is a conversation between the viewer of a finished piece and the artist of the past, that same artist as they slowly make decisions and bring their work to completion. In a way, the finished piece is a snapshot of an artist at a certain point in time. AI art eliminates that. Instead of capturing an artist’s process and their mental state, it becomes all about consumption and the end product. I think that’s a great loss. Not only is the art “soulless,” but it has also lost the chance for it to be a means of human connection.

There was a weird take in terms of distinguishing illustration from art. I understand the pov in which you described the two but, art which sole purpose is to showcase and capture beauty is still art. It is a look into what the artist finds pleasing to stare at, what someone is obsessed with and how that differs from the culture of that time period and how it was influenced by their surroundings. I wouldn't really go as far as to call that hollow at all. But in subjective terms I completely understand viewing a piece of art I'm which the beauty is something I find to be cliche and hollow as my own subjective taste in beauty. I understand and agree with the difference of ai art and art, how ai art will most likely be used by Corp. But at some point I do feel ai art will be used in an interesting way as a tool to create art just through words and editing. I'm not sure how I feel about that as an artist to be honest. overall I learned quite a lot! Thank you for creating interesting videos

Thanks for keeping this videos FREE. I've been thinking a lot about this theme and it really amuses, i'm in a NEW kind of knowledge that hasn't been studied the full possibilities and it really intrigues me I really liked that part were you explained what happened to the artists when the photography came in. When the sound came into cinema, Directors were really frustated because the silent cinema had found his language after a long way of just representing the reality by what it was and nothing else. But sound cinema found his way too, and it was clear that silent and sound were two completely different things, you can´t just add soun to a film that was intended to be silent. I really wonder if the same history with Photography and sound cinema will happen with ai art: It will find his own language, is his own language being a soulless illustration? Yet, i can't believe that the answer is just "Because we are humans" It really amazes and at the same time scares me the possibilities of the future of art.

I think it's more of a frightening thing for artists how fast and accurate the work produced by AI is , where artists might imitate and then integrate a style over years , AI can do it between a second and a day.

Fear not, AI won't replace human artists completely because though photography was introduced people have been creating hyper-realism art, even now. AI will just coexist as a tool of expression along with others.

My brother and I had a conversation about this a few months ago. It started with the observation of how people like to use ‘art’ as an enhancer (e.g. calling a car a work of art to make it seem fancier)

I'm not an artist in the traditional sense. My canvas isn't a blank sheet of paper or vinyl. I build and paint models. In doing so I express my view of the world. An AI could never do that for me.

To my mind, art is what allows us to understand another person's experience of the world. That can be as simple as the joy of "look at this beautiful sunset" or as complex as a novel that fully transports the reader into the world of its protagonist. And yes, that is a very broad definition of art, but IMO nothing good has ever come of "that's not art!" It not only dismisses the work itself, but also the artist as a thinking, feeling (albeit perhaps not overly talented) human being. So, I agree that intent is the key point, but to me, it's art if it was made with the intent of expressing an emotion or internal landscape. AIs don't have emotions or internal landscapes, so they cannot make art, only mimic it.

Writing this out of frustration but i hope i can get my point down clearly enough.The biggest problem with the rise of AI prompters and that people seem to love glossing over is the blatant art theft that goes into it. I'm an artist myself, i post my art and do commissions and speak to other artists so i'm exposed to this subject on a near daily basis. This is less about people making cool images for the sake of beauty or simply to give visuals to an idea quickly, which i understand, and more about the use of other people's works just so they don't have to learn how to make things by themself and in turn render all of our efforts and hours of hard work worthless. Some will even profit from what they do beyond just "not having to pay an artist for it", and i can tell you as a commission artist that there are some of our clients who now ask us if we're using AI prompts or if we draw things legit. Laziness or automization are one thing, but theft is another, and there is nothing more insulting than AI prompters daring to say that them taking our works for their own benefit is something we, as the artists, should be grateful of. What is happening right now is exactly how people will end up with artists putting massive watermarks over their works or puts them behind paywalls on sites like Patreon or Ko-fi. Like many i love sharing my art freely either to make people happy or spark conversations, and i love learning from other artists when they show theirs. We do these things because we enjoy sharing, we love the joy and love behind creation, and i think this is what the true essence of art is beyond profit. Artists are taken for granted and the current situation with AI prompters only proves that people will conveniently shift their focus from a very real and immediate problem that artists have to instead debate in circles over "what is real art". A story that stuck with me because it was what made me realize that something was deeply wrong with the rise of AI prompters was this; at some point there was artist (haruno_intro on twitter, there's threads and articles that will speak better of it than i do from memory) who had their sketch stolen as they streamed the process. The thief took the sketch and finished it through the use of an AI and then posted it before the artist was even done with their own work. The artist posted the finished piece after 11h of work, several hours after the thief did. If i'm not mistaken the thief had the gall to try and pass as the victim in the story and even described themself as "self-taught" and "gifted". Sure this is not an experience that happens universally between artists and AI prompters, but it highlights quite simply what AI "art" is all about; theft, and putting no effort into the process of creation.

When you invited the commenters to change your mind, I rolled my eyes. "Silence, RU-vidr. I'm not boosting your algorithm." But here I am, because your closing argument contained such a glaring oversight, I had to speak up. Art contains meaning and a deeper conversation ONLY because the viewer pulls that meaning out of their engagement with a piece. Meaning in isn't encoded by the artist. He's not in the museum, holding our hand, telling us why his use of of amaranth instead of vermillion is significant. The audience interrogates that out of the piece in a private dialogue between themselves and the art. What that means is the audience inevitably attributes meaning the artist did not and sees deliberate choice where no thought was given. That means it's impossible for people to apply your distinction. People will hallucinate meaning and context and deliberate choice into AI generated art. Everything will appear to have meaning, and in some real sense it will. It won't have an artist's meaning, but then again, it never did in practice anyway. The distinction you draw is dead on arrival, but it's worse than that, because there is enough control in prompt creation that AI art can be used to convey deliberate meaning. Subject, composition, medium, and tone can be used to convey meaning and are easily manipulated in prompts. If you want to push this idea, it's going to take a much, much narrower definition of art, and I honestly don't think any definition is going to hold out indefinitely. You'll be revising your definition of art again in 10 years.

A fascinating topic. In my long life as an artist there have been others who openly copied my work. This was intensely distressing until my husband said, "You have only one option. Outrun them." Thereafter I always made sure that my work clearly represented ME and it has proved to be wise in every way. I paint for me, what is on the canvas or in the clay represents what my mind sees. A happy way to work which oddly makes me no longer consider my work to be in the long continuum of art history. It is just me. I hope the same solution may be helpful with AI, at least for now.

Automation is for jobs we don't need to do. The idea of offloading artistic expression to an AI, even outside of the pressures of capitalism, is inhuman. We make and consume art to communicate.

I think it’s difficult to define whether an artwork has meaning beyond visual appeal. Any work is trying to achieve more than look nice, no matter how commercialized it is. Even just a straightforward landscape painting will try to highlight certain aspects of nature. How can we draw the line of some kind of social commentary as what makes it art? I’m certain AI art will be able to soon, if not already, take a message and create an artwork that symbolizes similar to how a human artist would.

AI art is an insult to the time and effort real artists put into their work.

If chucking a bucket of paint at a wall is art, anything goes.

Yes yes yes to a video on the intersection between capitalism and art. Such an interesting topic, and one that I would love to hear you expend your ideas on even further! Great vid as always!!! You always open my mind, and have me leaving the video with not only more knowledge than when I had started, but also more questions about the world!

I love how AI came for the high skilled jobs first instead of low skilled job.

This was a beautiful anecdote. Thank you. I am currently writing my bachelor thesis on this exact question and even though I obviously still have to do a whole scientific process, I am grateful for the thought aspects this video has given me.

I guess art is no longer subjective when we are going to make rules about what is and isn't art.

As a student who has read my Jameson and my Fisher, I am like yes but no. I think narrowing the definition of art could rob us of something and since we are already due to lose something because of AI art, I don't want to intentionally be deprived of more...

Let’s be real, this software companies need you to believe you’re “doing art” They do this not because of “democratizing art”, but because they need people training the AIs, so they can go autopilot after that As someone said, *when the product is free, you’re the product*

I think your take on what’s art is so refreshing and simple. I like it Picasso

very, very nicely summed up! gj

if i dont make art, i die, so whether or not im replaced by a machine doesnt change this fact, ill just be bent over im my dark room painting more pictures

So I appreciated that you brought up capitalism so directly. I feel like many people are dancing around that word. Art has been commodified for a long time and Ai Art is the end destination of that road. There is no Artist behind Ai Art, it's just more content to be consumed. Just pixels to stimulate the eyeballs. What I don't understand is your stance on dater collection. I think it is the biggest issue with Ai Art, so it's strange that you brushed past it so quickly. I think the conversation about Ai Art would look completely different if these companies had used only public-domain images. The content the AI Image generated would create would look a lot different. The images would have a dated look, and wouldn't appeal to modern audiences. What I also disagree with is that the history of art is about copying other artist. I'm an artist and I feel like non-artists overestimate how much artists influence each other to a ridiculous extent. If you talk to Ai-Art defenders you might think, that all we do is copy each other. But in Art school you are told to draw from life, to look at the real world. We were encouraged to start with a realistic style and develop something unique from that. Not to copy another artist.

in the episode "Neptune's Spatula," SpongeBob attempts to answer the question of what is the meaning of art by challenging Neptune to a cook-off. SpongeBob only makes one hamburger, but is able to prove his worthiness as an artist by using a unique combination of ingredients and condiments to make it a work of art. This episode made me not afraid of artificial intelligence, because in the end people will see the truth

really philosofical end gotta say, keep up the grind dude

I agree with most of what has been said in this video; art transcends the need for money and it should be viewed as the expression of what makes us truly alive and human, and as an aspiring artist getting ready for art university here's hoping to one day be part of a newly refreshed and reborn ART market in which the sheer emotional and subjective perspective is enough to live off this wonderful discipline

Wait, but works like Duchamp's Urinal emphasize that what defines an "Art" piece is not some essence or quality in the artistic object itself, but a specific relation with the object as such from the part of the viewer. Getting further with this idea, anything could be considered "Art" in the right context or if the viewer desired it so. If a spectator reads an AI Work as "Art" and decides to interact with it beyond simple beauty and towards a place of ideas (ideas which are usually expressed though a painting's aesthetics and visuals, things an AI can easily replicate, even if without cohesion), wouldn't this make this AI Work "Art" despite any other categorical definition that we could give it? This whole debate reminds me a lot of that case in which a lot of art critics were astonished by some abstract paintings and derived the most beautiful ideas out of it only to discover it was made by a Chimp without any idea of what "Art" even is. Does this take away from the aesthetic experience those critics had? I personally don't believe so. From what I believe, we cannot define what "Art" is or isn't, it only is Art as far as we have a specific relation with an object as such. The biggest problem with AI Art right now doesn't seem to be an aesthetical or philosophical one, but more of a systemical and economical problem that the first half of this video described with great concision.

I don't even make Ai art. But I can easily see how it's just another tool artists will adapt to, and use to be creative, just like every technological art tool that came before it. The exact same arguments were used against photography, every single one, and meant in the exact same way. They really thought photography was stealing their work, that it was non-human and artificial, and required no skill beyond pressing a button. Then again, in the same way, when digital art on computers came around, traditional artists claimed it would never be art, because it wasn't being made by a human hand.. Which we all know is a silly over-simplified way to view those things now. AI art is the EXACT same, despite the ethical complications around how some of them are trained, in the long run that won't really change the discussion. Eventually that will be worked out, and by then they'll be even more capable of even greater quality imagery, maybe even video.. It's all about the creative intention, and effort you put into using the tool. The best AI art out there, isn't just throwing some words together, it's about describing a scene in details that AI can understand, in a way that gives you the most control over those details. Which is a skill that takes learning.. It also requires just as much knowledge and understanding of art and photography concepts and terminology, as any other art. Producing good images often requires fine-tuning, post-processing, tweaking prompts over and over, trial and error to get things looking the way you were really imagining. I see a lot of people making the exact same over-simplifications of how this tool is used to create art, and not giving ANY consideration to the possibilities that someone could use it that way, because they just don't want to accept it could.

I feel like every art trend for the last 100 years, having critics say that it's not actually art is what made it popular.

No amount of art can reflect the true nature of reality. It doesn't matter if we use words or illustrations. I wish more people could see the beauty with the incompleteness. "is this art?"

Wonderful thought provoking critique on why AI isn’t art. I’ve never been in the “AI is Art” camp but didn’t have the words to express why. Thank you for adding to my argument. Have a wonderful new year.

I seem to recall all of these same arguments being made toward Warhol

Very well done

10:40 It's amazing that your cited the fountain because there is already an new forum with only re-imaginated Duchamp's fountains made by AI

Bravo! Exceptionally well put. Another great video as always. Keep up the amazing work!

"Photography is not art" "Digital art is not art" Sounds dumb? Yet both were at some point widely held beliefs amongst the artists. This is just the new iteration of it.

Incredible video, I can finally point out the exact difference between art and "not art".

Man I really thought the first jobs to be replaced by AI would be in Finance, Insurance, accounting and other office jobs of that sort, I didn't think that illustrators would be in any danger. I guess that the only jobs that are totally safe for now are those that require labor with your hands, electricians, plumbers, hvac people, construction. Corporations are as soulless as they can get, for them "AI art" is art and if it means less money spent then it's worth it.

Is funny how our pals using ai try to humanize the machine as much as they can when it comes to references in order to avoid criticism for copyright, but then they dehumanize it as much as they can when it comes to creating the image in order to claim the picture as “theirs”

Fantastic. I’m glad you put this together and shared. I wholly agree.

Just wanna say that I love your topics/content. I'm not in the art world nor an artist but knowing things like this is important to me. I look forward to a lot of the other topics you want to cover.

Under extreme Capitalism; a country ceases to be a society, and becomes merely an economy. Everything is commodified and all interactions, transactional. This is where we're headed, if not already there.

The main distinction you draw between art and non-art (or "illustration") is intentionality. I don't think the vast majority of people who consume art will make or have historically made that same distinction. What one considers art is necessarily subjective, and making the prescription to eliminate a whole sub-category (that is already largely considered art) from the overall category feels elitist and, to many, comes off as gate-keeping. Personally I feel that AI-art is a fine subcategory in the overall category of art; in the same way that photography is. It distinguishes itself so that people know what you mean when you say AI-art, as well as what you don't mean. The way we categorize nebulous things like art seems to always come down to common parlance. Trying to force this elimination from the category down peoples throats when a perfectly descriptive term within the category is already being used feels pointless.

Amazing thought-provoking video!!

As anyone who talks about ai art you are missing a simple point. AI art is not something that a dumb computer generate by itself: it is something that a human generate by using a set of easy to use but complex to master tools. So what you are witnessing right now is just like the dawn of cinema: mostly a collection of experiments done by a new media. But as right now a lot of people are figuring out ways to express themselves with this tools. If art is communication between the autor and the viewer then as right now there is art generated by an AI mastered by the autor.

Artists get inspired by each other but enjoy the process of creating art and perfecting their style while people who generate AI images seem to only be concerned with the result. To me, the results are not even pretty. I cannot understand how someone can reach satisfaction without actually putting in some work but to each their own... I understand why you call it "illustration" but illustration can also be art. I wouldn't call Ai generated images art-related terms at all. Artists are well aware that corporations will do just about anything to avoid supporting real art. Ai is just the shiny new addition to the hardships an artist has to face. But aside from corporations, uneducated people who have no clue about art are part of the problem. Some of these comments are proof of that. They can only see, consume and understand kitsch (and not the good kind). At this point, artists are making art for themselves and no one else.

This is a very thoughtful analysis, and I can only agree.

Great contribution!

can AI be used to create a thought provoking image if I am able to express my inner vision in a manner that allows the AI to produce the image I envision? in the way a painter uses a brush, or photographer uses their camera ? If I do not have the ability to draw or paint in a manner that would allow me to create the image I see in my brain, and I am (after trial and error of mult. attemps) am able to produce an image that communicates my inner thoughts and vision, would it not be art? If I use a computer tablet to sketch out my image and color it in, is it no longer art since no paper, ink or paint is used? Inphotography, I may capture an image and either porocess it faithfully to the reality of that moment, or I may alter it in a way that produces the image I saw in my minds eye which was created in my imagination stimulated by the scene in front of me. In music autotune allows people who have difficulty singing in tune, to sing right on note. as this is AI processing to produce the correct notes, is it no longer singing and just computer generated sounds? As a photographic artist, I admit there is a fine line between an artful photograph and a graphic illustration but at the same time todays software allows me to look at a scene thar excites me, capture it and then enhance or alter it into the image I saw in my mind. As I say at times, when I take a picture, I am not photographing what it is, but what it could become, the final statement. As painters have long done, capturing a version of reality as an interpretation of their 'vision'. so will AI bring about the death of art? or become another tool of expression? can cut either way as have all new methods of creating art have been, a double edged sword

i have so many thoughts but so little time or space. this is an entire discussion for me and one that engrosses me. i actually to an extent agree wit you and have so much praise for some of the points mentioned and some of the analysis on how commercialism and capitalism has affected the definitions and perspectives of art in society. these are criticisms that i regularly mention in discussion and also a large part of my personal thoughts and theories on and of the future of AI art. I actually love this video. thank you.

This was a great way of describing this. I always mention the Fountain when discussing this topic. What are your thoughts on integration? In the sense of using AI generated images as assets or inspiration of art built from or on top of the image. I am curious as someone that makes collages I have used AI to create "photographs" that I will incorporate with other images to create my pieces. One major point of collage making is to cut from other media and create something new. What are y'alls thoughts?

If you're good enough at crafting prompts, then you can certainly make very thoughtful pieces. It's a great tool to use as reference, but each piece cannot be left as is, for all that it is on its own is theft.

"Art is in the eye of the beholder".

AI art is almost like cloning a person's years of learning and hard work and discarding him and replacing him with a machine which sounds like a dystopian future, which devalues artists in general, this is just the start of AI it will only get better, i predict in the future it would be almost like cloning people not just in the art field but every field imaginable, i get that AI will help with mundane tasks but for things that are unique to an individual or maybe even a company i think thats unethical, if AI gets really good in the future to the point where its almost like cloning, so is it ethical to clone people without their permission? this does sound like science fiction but this is exactly where we are heading, in the near future people will start to ask themselves why do anything at all if any large companies or anyone could feed my hard work to AI models to replace me without any compensation for my hard work at all and easily make similar work to it, everyone is affected here, from writers, musicians, animators, 3d modelers, programmers, and the list goes on, i think "training data" is too valuable and unethical to be taken without permission, and should be copyrightable, a person should have a right to how his data is used, this is the only way forward in a capitalist society, the other option is shifting our society to a more socialist one, where an AI taking your job isn't as fatal as it is now to your livelihood, as it is now we are on the road to a dystopian future because capitalism and AI automation cannot coexist.

"Art is like religion. For the believers, it's everything. For anyone else, it's just a pile of bullshit"

If beauty without thought is illustration, thought without beauty is worthless. Beauty is as essential to art as intent.

I remember my mother told me that the point of art was sending a message while illustrations, as you put it, only represented their subject matter. I think it's an apt description of art in general being very much applicable across the different media of art.

I think you make an interesting point but to me it's impossible to differentiate between meaningful and just "pretty" art. I think beauty alone can be deeply moving, be it a painting, a photo or a song, even if the creator didn't know exactly what they were doing. By your definition only financially independent artists working conveying intentional messages could produce real art. Also I think the thumbnail is an example of AI art that absolutely qualifies as real art even by your definition, I think the creator spent 90 hours crafting his prompts to get the intended result.

The best art critics have also said that pop art isn’t art, that cubism isn’t art, that graffiti isn’t art, that photography isn’t art. I personally do not think that AI art is art, but I think that more likely shows that my opinions and preferences are set in the past. I’m quite sure that in 50 years, people will look back upon the advent of AI art as an inevitability and a natural extension of artistic progress. But I cannot imagine what forms that future will take.

Literally Vaush.

Everything I would say has been said. I comment for the algorithm. The green of your background is the most perfect lovely green. Thanks for that, and thankyou for your very human commentary. As an artist, I appreciate this.

Thank you for making a video on this, it's been difficult as a digital creator through this feud. Having to constantly defend my art and self is exhausting and yes, boring.

I feel like when a human creates, he bleeds onto the canvas or his creation and puts a little bit of him onto the art he creates. Our hands are always bleeding and staining and imprinting all we create with ourselves and our humanity, our thoughts and framework of things.

I have finally watched this video, and I have to say that it is precisely the reason why I appreciate your content!!

You are literally the guy whose take on this I'd look to first, thank you for sharing.

Art requires intent, an AI cannot do that.

Since you're so sure of your opinion I've got your next video concept. Collect a couple hundred pieces of art from humans and AI alike. How about we cycle through the images and you hand pick which are human and which are AI made? We both know you're going to fail at this task. Let that sink in. This argument is doomed to devolve into the age old argument , "Does art need context." Which it objectively does not. The example that "This toilet becomes art when we engage with it" directly clashes with the example of "Its pretty but is it art?" The only question to ask is, "Is this expression? Was someone expressing themselves through a medium when they created this?" The concept that Art must be conceptualized and contextualized by culture, conflict, story or other means treads directly towards elitism you claimed to be avoiding. You can merely argue these conceptualized and contextualized pieces are higher forms of art but the argument that they are the only Art is very short sited and intellectually dishonest.

What these people really don't seem to understand is that art is not meant to just be pretty. Art still has a very palpable function, like social commentary or pre-production for a movei, game, etc. Just being pretty is not enough for it to be art, a sunset can be pretty, is it art?

That was a great and inspiring video, thank you very much!

“Do we want all artists to be replaced by ai?” Unfortunately, that is exactly what most ai users want. They’re jealous of the “talent” that we have, too lazy to start drawing themselves and then argue that not everyone is able to afford art supplies. (Please, If yore able to have access to the internet, you can also afford an ikea pencil and a piece of paper.)

I would love a video on the effects of capitalism on art!

What makes something "art" is the nail used to hang it on a wall. The invention of photography was supposed end art, but they were able to create some new and beautiful language that the camera could not do: impressionism (and now photography is considered a form of art in it's own right).

Thank you for a thought provoking content!!!