Art is also functional. Specifically, paid opportunities for art perform some type of function. Not all art is museum type contemplative work or the highest level of self expression. Some art, its purpose is to serve as a banner on the side of a web page notifying people of a new feature. That isn’t really enriching to create. It’s a rather low form of self expression, similar to code created to be functional.
I think you’re also underestimating AI image gens as a form of self expression. Obviously it’s more freeing to be able to draw or paint or create a thing yourself. But people often lack the prerequisite skills to create the thing they have in their mind. I often see career artists compare their work and style from years ago to their works today, showing off extreme improvement - meaning that even talented artists sometimes lack the skills necessary to create the “perfect” version of what they had in their mind.
With LLMs, you can get quite specific - not just “draw me in a Studio Ghibli style,” but meticulously describing a scene and visual style - and it will render it. There is still creative satisfaction in that process, like how a movie director tells the actors how to accomplish a scene but doesn’t actually play a role in the film themselves.
But people often lack the prerequisite skills to create the thing they have in their mind.
And they will always lack those skills if they never practice!
Furthermore, art isn’t just functionally putting creations into the world, it’s also the act of creation. There’s a feeling of creation that comes from creating art, it’s about the journey and not just the destination.
Having a chatbot do it for you isn’t the same.
There is still creative satisfaction in that process, like how a movie director tells the actors how to accomplish a scene but doesn’t actually play a role in the film themselves.
Many actors do not want to be directors, many directors do not want to be actors. Those are just different things.
Even if you want to compare prompting LLMs with directing, that still means that people are deprived of acting. They’re missing out on feeling and experiencing the act of artistic expression by outsourcing it to a chatbot.
And they will always lack those skills if they never practice!
That’s not really relevant. AI lets you skip the prerequisite 2000 hours of mastery practice if all you need to do is create a specific render of something in a specific style.
I do have my own artistic endeavors. But not everything needs to be “earned” through countless evenings and thousands of dollars of materials, YouTube courses, studio time, whatever. The other day I made an event invitation in the style of stop motion animation. It was for a free event and the end result was really charming. I had fun prompt crafting to make it exactly like how I wanted.
Though I suppose I could have spent a few years making dolls as a hobby, set up a photo studio in my home, paid for a high quality camera, and spent a few weeks fabricating custom dolls for my little event invite. Not sure that was worth experiencing the “act of creation”, at least moreso than I felt making it using the image gen.
Art is also functional. Specifically, paid opportunities for art perform some type of function. Not all art is museum type contemplative work or the highest level of self expression. Some art, its purpose is to serve as a banner on the side of a web page notifying people of a new feature. That isn’t really enriching to create. It’s a rather low form of self expression, similar to code created to be functional.
I think you’re also underestimating AI image gens as a form of self expression. Obviously it’s more freeing to be able to draw or paint or create a thing yourself. But people often lack the prerequisite skills to create the thing they have in their mind. I often see career artists compare their work and style from years ago to their works today, showing off extreme improvement - meaning that even talented artists sometimes lack the skills necessary to create the “perfect” version of what they had in their mind.
With LLMs, you can get quite specific - not just “draw me in a Studio Ghibli style,” but meticulously describing a scene and visual style - and it will render it. There is still creative satisfaction in that process, like how a movie director tells the actors how to accomplish a scene but doesn’t actually play a role in the film themselves.
And they will always lack those skills if they never practice!
Furthermore, art isn’t just functionally putting creations into the world, it’s also the act of creation. There’s a feeling of creation that comes from creating art, it’s about the journey and not just the destination.
Having a chatbot do it for you isn’t the same.
Many actors do not want to be directors, many directors do not want to be actors. Those are just different things.
Even if you want to compare prompting LLMs with directing, that still means that people are deprived of acting. They’re missing out on feeling and experiencing the act of artistic expression by outsourcing it to a chatbot.
That’s not really relevant. AI lets you skip the prerequisite 2000 hours of mastery practice if all you need to do is create a specific render of something in a specific style.
I do have my own artistic endeavors. But not everything needs to be “earned” through countless evenings and thousands of dollars of materials, YouTube courses, studio time, whatever. The other day I made an event invitation in the style of stop motion animation. It was for a free event and the end result was really charming. I had fun prompt crafting to make it exactly like how I wanted.
Though I suppose I could have spent a few years making dolls as a hobby, set up a photo studio in my home, paid for a high quality camera, and spent a few weeks fabricating custom dolls for my little event invite. Not sure that was worth experiencing the “act of creation”, at least moreso than I felt making it using the image gen.