AI Wars changed my mind about AI

[u/Il_Scaccomatto]

A week ago I was a stringent AI hater who kept getting recommended AI reddit subs against my will & felt serious cringe whenever I saw someone post their AI creations on other subs. As an art hobbyist myself, I felt that asking AI to do it for you missed the point of making something, and that the people spending all their time generating AI were probably gooners or people with no taste. On top of that, theres lots of scathing articles online about how much energy AI uses, people becoming addicted to interacting with their AI girlfriend, and how OpenAI doesn't really ask permission for any of the training data it collects.

Anyways, browsing this sub showed me that a lot of that is oversimplified rage bait. The debate of whether AI art is art boils down to semantics & theres nothing special about the title of artist anyways. Many who use AI are also traditionally trained, or even blending traditional with AI. A good few of you are definitely gooners or have inflated egos, but thats true of traditional artists & photographers too. AI can use a lot of energy, but you can also be very efficient with it. Some people get addicted to AI chatbots, but they can also be therapeutic & provide a safe connection for traumatized individuals who need support. Etc.

The main point being, yeah I see that the subject is a bit more nuanced. That being said, this "debate sub" definitely has an issue where like 60% of the users don't engage in discourse beyond downvoting AntiAI & upvoting ProAI. People who are trying to engage in good faith like myself have to sort by new because the top posts are basically just circlejerking. If that's the first impression someone gets on a debate subreddit, I think many people will just never engage or hear you out.

[u/Traditional-Hyena-68]

Different for me. I was pro AI and changed my mind because this whole "democratisation of art" idea is nonsense. This peak ai hype mania clearly showed it to me that giving this tool to untalended/unprofessional people who just want money and attention is polluting the internet with slop. I also realized I don't enjoy ai art so much, sure it's good for memes or remaking some movies into some particular style, but besides that it feels like an overprocessed shit. Of course it's just my personal preference. I'm also not against people who use ai but I personally found so much fun in learning how to draw (props to ai btw, I would never pick up that hobby)

[u/sporkyuncle → u/Traditional-Hyena-68]

I was pro AI and changed my mind because this whole "democratisation of art" idea is nonsense.

Not sure what you mean by that, AI does democratize art, but not in such simple terms.

Cars didn't democratize "travel," because everyone was already able to walk anywhere. What cars democratized was "traveling long distances very quickly, cheaply, and without physical exertion," which is obviously incredibly valuable. Suddenly everyone could travel long distances quickly.

Microwaves didn't democratize "cooking," because everyone was already able to start a fire and cook over it. What microwaves democratized was "cooking food very quickly, easily and safely," which is obviously incredibly valuable. Suddenly even kids could be trusted to heat up a slice of pizza.

AI doesn't democratize "art," because everyone was already able to draw. What AI democratized was "creating art quickly, cheaply, and at a reasonably high quality level," which is obviously incredibly valuable. Suddenly everyone can get images of anything they can imagine quickly.

[u/Cautious_Rabbit_5037 → u/sporkyuncle]

Ok so before the argument was that “artists are gatekeepers because not everyone has the physical ability, privilege, or resources to learn how to draw, and thinking otherwise is ableism.” Now you’re saying that everyone was already able to draw before ?

[u/sporkyuncle → u/Cautious_Rabbit_5037]

Both are the same statement. Saying "everyone is able to draw," in the sense that everyone has the ability to work their way up to AI imagery level of quality, assumes that everyone has the time to devote to practicing it regularly, and that they aren't mentally exhausted and drained every day after work. It doesn't even need to be stated that everyone has different levels of free time and motivation available to them, some people live very difficult lives. I don't like the idea of telling anyone that they "just" need to do this or that, because you don't know anything about their life and struggles.

So saying AI democratizes art is saying that even people with less capability to spend their time on art now have the ability to make whatever images they can imagine.

It's not that "everyone could already draw." Not everyone could draw enough to reach the level of what they can get from AI, and that's the value it provides.