How AI is Affecting Art

AI is terrifying to artists, but perhaps there is a such a thing as too “perfect”

Yve Spengler

Many find the use of AI in art to be terrifying. What happens to artists who spend hours upon hours making paintings or digital art, when AI can make similar images in just minutes? If time is money, will future artists soon be out of a job? As a human who is currently attempting to make this article you are reading art, will my writing hold up to the effortless “perfection” of words as produced by AI?

Remember when AI first became relevant? We were entertained by the way Snapchat AI wrote poems about anything, or how ChatGPT wrote whole essays. At first, AI appeared to be a brilliant tool, saving us time and brain power. However, the lack of brain power had detrimental effects on our creativity, as the part of our brains that create and execute ideas grew soft with a lack of use.

AI works similarly to generate art quickly, without any of the time consuming, “superfluous” human effort. Except, it often feels like AI produced art is missing something. We can easily tell an AI image apart from a human crafted one, because AI art only goes so far. AI takes from already existing images, including images from other AI databases when there is a lack of information or materials. Thus, AI art never feels real, as if the screen holds another universe that can never quite mimic our real world. 

Human made art, however, can never reach “perfection.” Van Gough experimented with wild colors and bold line strokes, but even he had critics. Our flaws mean there is always something more to create. Our art contains the element of authenticity. AI will always project art in a state of “perfection,” but I have hope that we will always incline towards the touch of “humanity” in artwork—the beauty of a misplaced stroke.