this post was submitted on 22 Apr 2025
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Fuck AI

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[–] [email protected] 76 points 3 weeks ago (11 children)

I've always been confused about this train of thought, because it seems to justify the opposite of what it's trying to say.

I mean, if the argument is people will use whatever garbage they have on hand to make art... presumably that includes generative AI? Look, I lived through four decades of people making art out of ASCII. My bar for acceptance for this stuff is really low. You give people a thing that makes pictures in any way and you'll get a) pictures of dicks and b) pictures of other things.

I don't think GenAI will kill human art for the same reasons I don't think AI art is even in competition with human art. I may be moved or impressed by a generated image, but it'll be for different reasons and in different scales than I'm... eh... moved and impressed by hot dragon rock lady here. Just like I can be impressed by the artistry in a photo but not for the same reasons I'm impressed by an oil painting. Different media, different forms of expression, different skill sets.

[–] [email protected] 56 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

Nothing will kill art itself, GenAI will simply be incorporated as another tool

Killing the ability to make money from art AND the bs that corporations are pulling in regards to AI, profit and making line go up is what people are mad about, but that anger is constantly misplaced leading to lines of thought like this lol

[–] [email protected] 16 points 3 weeks ago

I believe this states the take many have - much like nobody batted an eye about auto-contrast, content-aware fill, or line smoothing. They weren't trying to replace humans with programs, weren't causing huge environmental impact, and weren't trained on stolen content. It's the ham-handed implementation that most are opposed to, combined with the obnoxious techbro mentality.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 3 weeks ago (15 children)

I don't understand why generative AI will kill making money from art. As you said, it's just a tool.

If an artist can make a web comic in a fraction of the time they used to, they can multiply their output and thus possibly sell to more. A good gen AI artist would also be a good prompt engineer, which would also mean an expanded skillset. Game developers, architects, engineers, could also speed up their work to hit the ground running instead of doing a bunch of repetitive stuff.

Everybody has to adapt to AI. Adapt or die, it's quite simple.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 3 weeks ago (6 children)

I don’t understand why generative AI will kill making money from art. As you said, it’s just a tool.

If an artist can make a web comic in a fraction of the time they used to, they can multiply their output and thus possibly sell to more.

You're presenting the scenario of an artist using a tool to create more art. I think the concern is someone who would have hired an artist uses the tool themselves to make art instead of hiring the artist. Hence the comment @[email protected] made that GenAI won't kill art, but it will kill the ability to make money from art.

This isn't a new thing that just started with GenAI though. Entire professions of commercial art evaporated with the introduction of computers. How many typesetters were employed by major newspapers around the world 50 years ago? With the introduction of computers the number has drastically reduced. This is also true of graphic artists that used to work all day over a light box, waxer, and Exacto knife. Now all of that is done with far fewer people in a computer. I don't see how GenAI different from those technologies and how they impacted artist jobs.

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[–] [email protected] 19 points 3 weeks ago

I think the argument is that an AI "artist" is incapable of creating art. Their "tool" does the work for them. Whereas other artists use digital tools but as just that - tools. The art comes from the artist.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 3 weeks ago (3 children)

This pretty well encapsulates my feelings, except for the issue of training the models. AI is cool tech, but the fact remains that people are making money off of scraped content. Not to mention the environmental aspect.

Honestly I find it difficult to reconcile.

In a perfect world, we would have open source models trained on public domain and properly licensed content.

I don’t think AI is going to replace artists any time soon. On the personal side, people create for the joy of it, whatever that means to them. On the professional side, people have a hard enough time communicating what they want to an actual person, much less a computer.

As someone that likely has moderate aphantasia, I really struggle with describing what I want. Being able to tell an image gen to make so many variations of X, and then commission a friend to take inspiration from Y and Z to make something original is really freeing for both sides, imo.

I’ve never gotten exactly what I’m looking for, but it almost always gives me something to point to, without doing a bunch of test drafts. I suppose that’s technically taking work away from the artist, but so does having an ‘undo’ button in procreate.

Idk, it’s a more complex issue than many make it out to be. I’m still further on the fuck ai side than not, just due to its current implementations.

End rant.

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

The thing is, an AI 'artist' isn't making art. They are generating images with no real meaning or effort put into them.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 3 weeks ago (15 children)

That depends on what they're doing. If they're entering a prompt and rolling with what they get out of it, then sure.

If they're inputting a prompt and refining it with solely AI tools then meeeh, that starts to fade a little. I'd ask why someone is spending hours going back and forth with an AI instead of doing some of it manually, but it's hard to tell one way or the other from the final output.

If they're inputting a prompt, refining it with AI tools and heavily editing what comes out in image editing software that's approaching some strange digital mixed media weirdness I don't think we have particularly good intuitions for.

If they're inputting a prompt and using the output as some building block like a texture on a 3D model or for a content aware fill in photo editing or for a brush or a stamp I genuinely have no mental model for what impact that has in my assessment of the "meaning" or "effort" going into a piece, if I'm being perfectly honest.

Reductionism isn't serving us particularly well on this one. Makes the pushback feel poorly informed and excessively dogmatic.

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[–] [email protected] 55 points 3 weeks ago (3 children)

This is gonna confuse an archaeologist in a few millennia.

[–] [email protected] 36 points 3 weeks ago

Archaeologists:

[–] [email protected] 27 points 3 weeks ago (3 children)

Archaeologists will just call it a ritualistic artifact. Like they already do with every piece of ancient porn they find.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

Around the 2000's a new pagan religion emerged, by the name of Furry. The believers of Furry followed human-animal hybrid spirits, often honoring them through depictions in the arts and even some costumes. A lot of these spirits might have been fertility gods.

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[–] [email protected] 18 points 3 weeks ago
[–] [email protected] 31 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

Art is inherent in us. Just like the need to put boobs on mythical lizard creatures.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 3 weeks ago

Drawing boobs is second only to the instinct to draw cocks.

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[–] [email protected] 28 points 3 weeks ago (3 children)

Furries: "I would like to purchase this rock."

[–] [email protected] 21 points 3 weeks ago
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[–] [email protected] 21 points 3 weeks ago

The future is approaching. When society will collapse a new Furry-Stone age will begin...

[–] [email protected] 21 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

“Nothing will stop real artists from making art.”

Exactly. AI images are not going to eliminate art. They just make it more difficult for artists to compete under capitalism.

The solution is to abandon capitalism. Not stop tech development.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 3 weeks ago (3 children)

Wish in one hand and shit in the other and see which one fills up first.

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[–] [email protected] 18 points 3 weeks ago

Relevant Oglaf (NSFW but not nearly as NSFW as this comic often gets): Dimorphism

[–] [email protected] 16 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

If all it takes to be a "real artist" is drawing proficiently, then every ai artist who has also learned to draw is a real artist and every performance or installation artist who can't draw is not an artist.

I don't like AI slop, but this argument against it just doesn't make sense.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 3 weeks ago

If all it takes to be a “real artist” is drawing proficiently

I think you are miss-understanding the argument.

Pro-AI folk say that being anti-AI, as a digital artist, is hypocrisy because you also used a computer. Here it is shown that, despite not using a computer, the artist is still able to create their art, because there is more to the visual arts than the tools you have to make it. This puts rest to the idea that using digital art tools is somehow hypocritical with being against AIGen.

The argumentor is not saying that not knowing how to draw proficiently excludes being an artist. They are just saying that real artist do not need a computer program to create their arts, much like performances or installation artists you mentioned.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (16 children)

It isn't saying that drawing is the only art form, just that having the ability to create art from scratch is what makes someone an artist. Drawing was an example, performance art, music, and other forms of art are also criteria for being an artist.

Hell, you don't even have to be proficient if you are able to create art that conveys something.

every ai artist who has also learned to draw is a real artist

Yes, they are an artist if they are able to create art although the label only matters in reference to the things they create. It doesn't mean everything they do is art.

Using AI prompts is like using a web search to find art someone else created, it isn't creating art. Does writing down an idea for a book make someone an author? No, it does not.

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[–] [email protected] 13 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Supreme Court: that's not art that's pornography. I cant exactly define pornography, but "you know it when you see it."

:P

[–] [email protected] 9 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Also, if you stick a stamp on it and mail it… straight to jail.

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[–] [email protected] 12 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (1 children)

Busty dragonesses are not art, but this is.

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 3 weeks ago

Haven't seen this on here yet

I've seen it 3 times already.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

i say this as nicely as I can, you dont need expensive and exploitative algorithms to make art. i dont really care if you say you cant make anything, put a pen to paper and draw. your terrible scribble has infinitely more value than anything a tech company's software can generate using stolen data. and after you crumple that up and throw it away, get another sheet of paper and do it again, and again, until your wrist snaps apart, and I guarantee you will not only have learned something about yourself but you will be more of an artist than any tech bro using chatgpt

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 3 weeks ago

It has but it is always good to see.

Also Source.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 3 weeks ago (8 children)

But why give a lizard boobs? They don't have boobs!

[–] [email protected] 15 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

That's where the fire is stored

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Non-mammals lacking mammary glands?! Say it ain't so.

And the first thing that came to mind after typing that? Lobster-titties

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 3 weeks ago

It's not a lizard.

It's a dragon.

Dragons could have boobs, I've never seen one.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 3 weeks ago

Have you ever seen a giant, flying, fire breathing dragon IRL that didn't have boobs?

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Comments here are a shit show.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 3 weeks ago

Here as in... They internet?

[–] [email protected] 7 points 3 weeks ago (3 children)

"real art". Gatekeeping art now, are we?

[–] [email protected] 10 points 3 weeks ago (4 children)

Yes.

Art is made by living things. Until AI is alive it cannot make art. Current models don't fit the bill. That's not saying that a far more advanced future AI couldn't make art, but at present AI can't make art.

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 weeks ago

BEEEG DRAGOM TTS

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