this post was submitted on 11 May 2025
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Fuck AI
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It makes it more accessible to the lazy and talentless.
As someone with the fine motor control of someone made of all elbows, who couldn’t hope to ever draw anything and who leaves that up to people with talent and work ethic for money, all of the cool things in my head that die there because they’re better in my imagination than I could ever express through words or art.
I feel seen.
Give digital art programs a try. There's plenty of free alternatives to the big subscription model vultures out there, there's GIMP for image editing, Krita for drawing, Blender for 3D, DaVinci Resolve for video editing, Audacity and Pro Tools Free for sound recording and editing, you can even make modular synths using VCV Rack. And if you like rum and eye patches theres versions of the big players out there too.
I am absolutely shit at drawing, but professionally I make 3d animations, having drawing skills helps, but it's not necessary to learn any one of these.
I am even more terrible at those than I am with physical media.
Everyone is terrible when they start. You can get better if you practice over time.
You might not ever draw the next big masterpiece, but if you practice you will get better.
All it takes is 15-30 minutes a day.
There are definitely exceptions
(He's 2 years old)
Creative skill and imagination. It is inherent to art.
Even the shittiest executed art is art. Your perception of art is skewed by the commodification of it through capitalist societies. I sincerely implore you to take up any kind of art that does not require AI if you're truly interested in expressing yourself.
It really is just persistence and accepting a certain amount of "I'm so bad at art" for eternity. Just make something, draw, paint or whatever. Look for things that motivate you to make stuff and learn to do it anyway, sucking is the first step to being kinda good at something.
You're not alone. Sorry all these pricks think you just haven't tried.
I wish to formally apologize for offering friendly advice on the internet, maybe I should have been even more of an apparent prick than I apparently was and told op to give up forever on their desire to be more creative and told op to eat shit and die.
Or you could not think less of someone for using a tool that you don't need to express their creativity.
I don't think less of OP, if I did, I wouldn't be be giving suggestions for freely accessible digital art programs of all different kinds and not even limiting myself to just visual mediums.
All I want to do is offer words of encouragement to go and try some of these. They're free programs, what's the harm in encouraging someone to give them a try?
Sorry, I assumed you were one of the people who doesn't think using AI tools is a valid way to express one's self. In hindsight, you never said things to that effect.
You aren't one of the pricks I was referring to, I should have checked before replying to your comment. But you gotta admit, there are a lot of people who think anyone who uses AI tools is a loser, and will say all kinds of things to invalidate those who use AI.
Have you considered collage? You just need some mod podge, a few foam brushes, and magazines/random print material. There’s still lots of room for skill and exploration, but there’s not a technical barrier to entry.
I never realized it, but isn't a collage basically the analog version of AI art, except in this case it's using the literal other art of people rather than learning from it and blending to make something new? Literally using other pictures to make a picture.
The art and challenge of collage is changing the context. Consider how the Avalanches work is entirely samples - but there’s something there that was not in the constituent parts.
Or video collage. YouTube Poops are another example of that kind of finding something new in what was already there - what about Robotnik’s PINGAS.
I posted a project on c/artshare which is chunks of a Christian courtship manual which I drowned in paint and then chopped out the most fucked up parts from. I don’t think that is something AI would do trained on a model of pop Christian literature - that’s something I a person with context and reactions to that literature would do. An AI can create pictures that might look nice, but they don’t have meaning. Art for me prioritizes meaning. - but I’m the kind of weirdo that burst into tears when I saw the replica of Fountain at the Tate.
Art is not about the destination. It's about the journey. Deaf compositors made music knowing they would never hear it.
Isn’t creating art despite those obstacles meaningful though? Art is always going to be an imperfect copy of what is in our head and absolutely nothing about generative AI can possibly change that. But artists have intent and all their experience in every line they make - that’s part of the joy and tragedy of it and what makes it so human.
Yes.
In the same way that some people are satisfied with fast food, AI folks are satisfied with fast art - despite that they may be poisoning themselves.
Have you tried pixel art?
It's why it's so so so popular with conservatives (and fascist now). There is something about having skill in art that makes you a lot less likely to be conservative. It's about the material circumstances that lead people to become artists, I'd guess.
So now all these Nazis can make Trump memes by typing something stupid into a prompt. It's ugly. It's not intelligent or creative but it's just enough to spread their hateful propaganda. AI art is awful. But it's 100x better than what these fascist could ever hope to create.
Seriously. I feel like the only real use case for AI art right now is making awful fascist propaganda. At least it's the only area of "art" that is actually seeing "improvement" from it.
Which tells you a lot about how these fascist idiots complain about "culture" so much but have actually no culture or art of their own.
If you need a gross example just search for the AI Trump Gaza video. The purpose isn't art. But it's still serving the role that art plays in propaganda.
What a crock of shit. You clearly haven't lived with talented people. I've had roommates that I got to observe their daily habits and while they did work and practice, much of their skill came from how their brains and muscles were wired. Talent is very real. To assume every accomplishment that out shines another is simply a product of greater training and effort is an excuse of the ignorant.
I'd also suspect there are things that may not be "learnable" -- if you don't have great spatial perception or colour vision, that might not really be a skill than can be practiced.
It doesn't mean you can't do art either. Art is not only "faithful representations of reality". Heck, that is probably the most boring and useless definition of art one could think of.
Edit: nevermind, just read another comment equating art's value to its financial success. Now, that is an even more boring definition of art.
The most impressive art is when people learn the rules well enough to ignore them.
Disabled people can make great art. They can also hire someone else to help them; people who work succeed more together than apart.
I also think that having someone make a nice image is not worth the sheer amount of electrical energy and water cooling needed to power the datacenters.
Counterpoints:
This 2 year old
This 19 month old
This 5 year old
A 6 year old
Cringe news station, but 3 years old
And lastly, for now, Chloe Chua at 9 years old with decades level violin mastery (she can also play the piano).
I am one of those poor coders that need simple art for their project and i know a better solution than AI
https://itch.io/game-assets
People have aptitudes. The idea that a you could put 100 people in a room with the best teacher, and they could all become excellent artists, is hopeful but naive. But yes, even with talent a person has to work hard and practice. The word "talent" implies that the person worked hard to develop the skill. I agree we shouldn't downplay the amount of work that goes into specializing, but let's not pretend that means there's no such thing as talent. Some people have a knack for things that others don't, I've seen this firsthand on so many occasions. These knacks are what can be turned into talents.
So let's not downplay a person's natural aptitude by saying "well you just worked super hard, anybody can do that."
In my work place we hired an intern who was pivoting careers and wanted to learn a new skill. The company was doing well, so we kept her on so long as she was trying. We patiently worked with her for years, but the skill NEVER clicked. She came from a robust background, so she was clearly capable, but we eventually figured out that she didn't have the talent for it. She eventually decided that career wasn't for her and left for another company - and in her new position she picked up on the different and required skill super quick. Our brains are elastic, sure, but they're also hardwired in all different ways.
Put 100 people in a room with the best teacher, and the 1 student that likes the subject the most will be the best student.
There's different levels of interests between the students. A student that is very invested in the subject is going to learn more than a student that wishes they were doing anything else. That's what happens when something "clicks" - when a student goes above and beyond the taught material because they're always thinking about it. "Talent" is indistinguishable from enthusiasm.
Sure, there are literal cognitive differences between people, but 99 times out of 100 "talent" is just passion imo
It's this. Everybody else's take us missing this. I play a BUNCH of musical instruments, and when people are like, "Oh wow, how did you learn to play all of those. You must be so talented!" And I always say, "Time. Time and a lot of practice. And most importantly a LOT of patience with myself".
The thing is, to get good at something, you have to be bad at it first. And many people simply do not have the passion to keep pushing through the part where they're bad at it.
People who are "talented" might start out at a better point in a field than others but they'll hit a wall where they have to actually put in work to go further, that comes all at once instead of in small steps.
I can't visualize things in my head so generative ai can help me "see" my thoughts in a way i couldn't otherwise. Are there artists with aphantasia? I'm sure, and kudos to them. I took several art classes and could never really do well unless i was trying to recreate someone else's work.
But absolutely agree with your point. I would love for the future to have art licensed for genAI use so artists get their royalties and i can use it. I don't like all the theft in current LLMs so don't use them anymore
One of the animators behind The Little Mermaid had aphantasia.
There’s also experimenting with more abstract forms - playing with color and shape. Art doesn’t have to be a picture of something.
Where?
I'm with you on all of your points actually (it's photography all again), but you did post it in /fuck_ai 😁
I don't feel like that's actually an argument against it. Why would everyone need to learn to draw? Why if I need some random background asset or prop should I spend months or years learning to do something I don't enjoy? The alternative is to pay an artist, but in many cases it literally doesn't make sense to waste that kind of money on a trivial thing. It can have its uses.
Okay. If you don't even like drawing, why should I care to see it, then?
Is this like when casual acquaintances who don't like each other pretend to make weekend plans they both know they're going to cancel if either one of them ever brings it up again?
You shouldn't care, you're right!
Yet here we are in a community that's all about b*thing about it.
I'm not saying this is something that should be used to crank out slop to sell as posters or paintings or idk. I'm saying it can help e.g. indie devs, people making random powerpoints, making a customised meme, stuff where the art isn't the main point but is sometimes still necessary.
Is that for your D&D campaign?
IDK. I don't like AI for commercial applications. But for frivolous things? That's it's critical application. I'm not taking food from the mouth of any artist if I post some AI meme image I generate onto a social media site. There is no universe where I'm paying an actual professional artist to make meme images for me to post to social media. I'll sometimes use AI slop, but only in slopworthy applications. Screwing around on fediverse and other sites is such a slopworthy application.