My Collected Thoughts on AI

I wanted to make this blog post to answer common questions I see about AI and 
art in a collected and concise manner, because on the internet I see so many 
arguments and conflicting viewpoints that it can feel hard to wrap your head 
around all of it sometimes. I hope for this to serve as a resource for any 
people that have AI questions for me, and can be the last post I make about AI 
for a long time. These responses are meant to be mostly short and simple, I 
have reasons for everything I believe but I don't want to turn each question 
into a long ramble, instead I can expand for any who are interested to hear 
more.


■ What is art?
I think that anything and everything can be art, and anyone who tries to limit 
it further than that is trying to push their preconceived notions onto others. 
What we value and see as a valuable creation is art!


■ What is a tool?
A tool to me is any object, workflow, or concept that helps get a job done 
better or faster. A hammer is a tool, software is a tool, math is a tool, etc. 


■ Is AI a tool for creating art?
And on that same note, I would definitely say that AI is indeed a tool for 
creating art. 


■ Does AI take away from our creativity?
I do not believe that AI takes away from our creativity. Some people make the 
argument that using AI is like contracting out your work to someone else, and 
this is partially true but you still have full control of it at any time during 
the process. One can change the generation parameters, use a different model, 
and build or change upon the generations in whatever way they wish. The only 
loss of creativity comes from someone being lazy, which is a problem regardless 
if they utilize AI or not. 


■ Is Generative AI itself a bad thing?
I do not think Generative AI itself is a bad thing, it is only a tool. People 
who abuse it and use it with malicious intent are the bad thing.


■ Is using AI ethical?
I think using AI is ethical, because the copyright system we have now is broken 
in many ways, and I want a future where more things are open source and freely 
redistributable. Trying to credit every artist used for an AI generated picture 
would potentially spit out a list of hundreds or even thousands of artists that 
most would not care to check, and we already do not pay each other to refer to 
pictures when creating our own art pieces.


■ Will people still value 100% hand-made art in the future?
I think they will. We still appreciate hand-crafted decorations and furniture, 
we appreciate made from scratch meals, we appreciate playing chess with each 
other even though there is chess AI that is better than any human could ever 
hope to be, the list goes on. 


■ Have I ever found an AI art piece to be valuable?
I have, and by now I have probably been "tricked" several dozen times, 
initially thinking a certain piece of art is quite good only to find out it's 
AI-generated or AI-assisted. These days I don't even get offended anymore 
unless the person is trying to scam or hide the fact that they are using AI. I 
do not think it's wrong to appreciate or value AI art pieces, because anything 
we value can be art.


■ What personal concerns do I have about AI?
I am personally concerned about the energy usage of AI, it takes a lot of power 
just to make a single query. As people start using it more, I think it's 
important to pursue power efficiency and of course move towards sustainable 
green energy for the world's energy needs in general.


■ Do I think it's OK for someone to use AI as part of their creation process?
I think as long as they are transparent with their workflow and adjust their 
expectations accordingly, then there is nothing wrong with someone using AI to 
help them create. If someone is generating AI pictures and just touching them 
up, they can expect to make little money at best. If someone uses AI to just 
brainstorm and then creates the entire drawing themselves, that is basically 
negligible and easy to say that they really created that art piece!


■ Is my art AI generated?
My art is not AI generated! I love the drawing process and would have to make 
so many changes to an AI generated picture to achieve my specific vision and 
story ideas (as well as learn how to generate in the first place), that it's 
quicker to draw things myself.

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