I realized AI are artist.

It's hard writing that title. AI is an artist? AI are artist? I haven't even started talking about what's on my mind and already thrown for a loop. I now want to say that art generated from AI reflect a real artist, but it still doesn't work. I guess I could ask ChatGPT but I refuse. Take my mistakes as they are. I hope I can convey what I mean in this writeup.

I've spent a very long time diving into AI art and what i'm beginning to see has amazed me. I'm learning something new and that is very exciting. I want to spend every free moment I have coming up with new ways to interact and evolve what I see. I've shared many images here on Patreon and my Twitter.

Applefanb0y sent me this tweet.

my initial response without really thinking about this in depth was

This was my opinion as an immediate response, but the more I think about this the more I learn things.

What is an artist? Is it a person you know that can sit down with a pencil and paper and quickly sketch the hat your are wearing? Maybe draw your favorite cartoon character? Well yes they are artists, but they aren't the only definition of an artist. The person or people who came together to make the device you are reading this on, in my opinion are also artists. To be artistic to me means to be creative and expressive. Creating something, but being curious on how it works or how to make it better. 

Applefanb0y mentioned a photographer. Wanted me to put myself in a photographers shoes to see how he would feel about me creating AI art. That's tough. I come up with another question because for me asking similar questions can lead you to the same answer, but its presented differently. How would a photographer that only uses a camera feel about another artist that uses a camera and software like photoshop. The camera only photographer has to live with what his camera provides, whereas the photographer that uses camera and software can get rid of his/her mistakes.

Lets step back even further. How do you think the first self portrait was made? It was an oil painting. How do you think all the people who did portraits on canvas felt when the camera was introduced? I feel this is very similar.

Is an artist that creates digital art a real artist? They are using computer software and can just ctrl-z (cmd-z on mac) to simply erase mistakes. They can open up google and find thousands of reference images. Where as artists long ago did not have these tools. Are you only an artist if you can do something from memory? No.

One great things about humans is they continue to improve. What is being done today will be done better tomorrow. Maybe even a human isn't needed anymore, but is that a step back or a step forward?

This brings me to my title. I realized that AI generation at this moment in time is an artist. I'll start with a quote. "There are no mistakes only happy accidents." - Bob Ross If you've done any research in art you know in that scene mistakes are what make things unique. "Don't worry about mistakes. Making things out of mistakes, that's creativity" - Peter Max

I can't tell you how many hours I spent changing code in AI to make it generate images that I want or what I think I want. I'm trying to take the mistakes out of the AI generations, but I realized that's what makes this art so unique. The computer model is trying to create what I want, but it doesn't know enough to do so. It's doing it's best with what information it has. Sometimes it generates art that I just stare at and get lost in. You can see how it's directed to create a thing, but has so much freedom that it veers off course and creates something out of this world. It creates mistakes and if not directly told it was a mistake it runs with it. Creating some mind blowing art. "Mistakes are the portals of discovery" - James Joyce

Will AI stop being artist when everything they do is perfect? We may actually be in the golden era of AI Art. When everything is perfect and we see no hint of creativity then I feel like it loses a lot of the creativity it has now.

Think of this. Way before the internet. You go on hike deep into the wilderness and come across a bear. You make it out alive and when you get home you grab a pen and paper and draw what you saw. You have no way to pull up references of bears, but you do your best from memory. Imagine what this would look like. Would it look like a bear that someone created in photoshop with a million bear references? No, but I bet when you look at that drawing it displays the fear of the person who encountered the bear. The artist will convey that through the art even if it barely represents a bear at all.

Will AI art effect artists? Yes. Just as the camera effected the people doing self portraits on a canvas with oil. The camera changed the landscape dramatically and AI art will do the same. We will continue to create, explore and push boundaries. It's in our nature.

Thanks for reading.