It’s the Greatest Art Heist in the History of the World.
And we are as complacent as drunk ducks sleeping on a pond during hunting season.
Yes, happening right before us is the greatest art heist in the history of the world. Tens of thousands — nay millions of art pieces were swept up and stolen.
For a profit.
And the world is cheering it on, supporting it, and going all gaga over the stolen work of artists of every level. Beginning artists, amateur artists, professional and fine art artists, cartoon artists, anime artists, film and photography artists… all become fodder for the ultra-rich tech oligarchs and big money.
It is beyond sad for me. Beyond angering.
I simply cannot understand why this has happened. and that it is allowed to be done so openly, supported, and ignored by those who were supposed to protect creators.
Whatever you think of these new (and oh so cool, and like… awesome*) AI “art generators” are, they are based on the wholesale theft of other people’s work.
We used to be against that, as a creative community. We called it out, we blasted it when it happened to others, and if it was egregious, we went to court. We went to war over it. We fought in courts and on the pages of newspapers, and in the boardrooms.
We fought the theft. No matter how small.
Now we simply ooh and ahh over the most insipid illustrations and faux photography, giving them merit they do not deserve and referring to them as creative, knowledgeable, and having an imagination.
Virtually none of those statements are true. AI is an algorithm based on predictability, not a deliberate choice. The choices it makes are made from what it has ‘seen’ done in the past. There is not a deliberate choice to make this pixel red, because it may excite or disturb or create an emotion, it turns it red because it has predicted that is where it ‘should’ be red.
Deliberate choices make art.
Creativity is a human condition and is deliberate, not predictive.
Knowledge is based on experience, and experience is based on time. Without the time factor, experience is simply data in a string, with no context other than itself.
And imagination… is a distinctly human attribute. There is no imagination in the data streamed algorithm, there is only predictability based on the stolen works and the knowledge and imagination of humans who experienced the challenge of creating that art.
Imagination is juxtaposition and insight into meanings never contemplated, or twisting an already twisted tale into something sublime. Imagination happens when the experiences of the person, the knowledge they have ingested (wrong, right, indifferent) and comes out the other side deliberately changed. Deliberately, not predictably changed.
For a damned reason.
Art exists for a reason. For many reasons for sure.
AI makes output. Without deliberation based on experience, it instead looks for answers based on probability. And that is a fucking long way around from experiential deliberation.
AI for helping me sharpen my photographs, or do a complex task faster… fine. In fact, double fine. Using it for mockups, storyboards, and to find every John Coltrane recording that can still be found? Oh, yeah baby, I’m in.
But when you start using terms like creative, knowledgable, and imagination, you have decidedly and deliberately removed the meaning from those words.
And I stop listening.
The greatest art theft in the world is the highest-rated app on Apple. Wow and fuck you, Apple. You used to care about us creatives.
We are now the prey.
Photo by Luis Villasmil on Unsplash
I am a photographer, designer, and photo editor. You can find me at my self-named website or at Project 52 Pro System (enrollment begins January 6, 2023) where I teach commercial photography online. This is our tenth year of teaching, and it is the most unique online class you will find anywhere.
You can find my books on Amazon, and I have taught two classes at CREATIVELIVE.
