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 anything and everything that humans create can be considered art. 
However, we don't usually tend to think of non-manmade creations as art (such 
as nature), while non-manmade creations can be beautiful it is probably not 
accurate to call them art, or at least not human 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 can indeed be 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 
while 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 Generative AI ethical?
I think using Generative AI can be ethical, becuase what generative AI models 
do is they take thousands or millions of tiny parts of existing media to 
create it's own mashup creation based on the input parameters. For better or 
worse, this most likely falls under the scope of "fair use" under copyright 
law, which means that most models are not violating our copyright as long as 
they pull from enough different sources. I personally agree with this view, 
becuase as humans we are constatnly remixing, referencing, and reusing things 
when we create media ourselves, and I would personally like to see a world 
where more creations have open and permissive creative licenses so people can 
freely learn from and build upon them (like my artworks, which are all 
CC-BY-SA). Now, which model one uses to generate things and what AI companies 
do may not be ethical, but that is beyond the scope of this article to 
scrutinize every existing model and company.


■ 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 meals made from scratch, we appreciate playing chess with each 
other even though there is chess AI that is better than any human could ever 
hope to be, and the list goes on. And now that AI has been around for a few 
years, I seem to see more people than ever standing up for and valuing human 
art, which fills me with motivation and makes me think human art will be 
valuable for the forseeable future. And as long as people find it valuable, 
it should be possible to make a business out of it one way or another. 


■ Have I ever found an AI art piece to be valuable?
I have found several AI generations that I've liked, 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. However to me AI generations do 
not currently feel like something I would wish to pay money for or hang up on 
my wall etc, they are more like a spectacle that are interesting to look at 
from time to time, and may provide valuable brainstorming fuel or be used as 
references, but nothing much more than that. 


■ 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 our global energy needs grow, 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. I am also concerned 
about people using AI for malicious intent, either trying to hide the fact 
that they use AI for their art or using AI to spread disinformation. 


■ Is it OK for someone to use AI as part of their art workflow?
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 posting tons of unedited AI pictures under an 
anonymous and impersonal account then they can expect to make little money at 
best. If someone uses AI to brainstorm or as a refernce and then draws the 
entire artwork themselves of their unique idea, I think it's much easier to 
say that they really created that art piece by hand, and that will likely 
make it much more marketable and valuable for as long as people continue to 
value hand-made art. 


■ 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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