previous parts:
A very brief history of art: In the beginning…
A very brief history of art: growing up
A very brief history of art: today
A very brief history of art: fight them or join them?
Yes, but how long will it last?
Hard to say: only six months ago one would have guffawed at the notion of a computer producing original creative images virtually indistinguishable from the ones made by a skilled artist. Now on that same notion we are crying aloud.
A machine has no soul but, if properly ‘educated’, it seems to be able to emulate pretty well one; by scanning thousands of human-made works it sort of ‘deduces’ what pleases us and imitates it plausibly enough. How long can take it to learn and imitate credibly also our newly found ‘human-only’ jobs?
That depends on the job, of course. Let’s be honest: when we paint, draw, write, sculpt or do anything else that we regard as human-only, we too use plenty of ready-made patterns we’re accustomed to – color combinations, common shapes, set phrases, easily detectable rules or identifiable styles… in the end only a small part of our work is really ours, all the rest is out-of-the-can.
It’s the way we assemble the out-of-the-can elements and merge them with our own ideas that makes the outcome unique.
Now, the AI has no ideas of its own; the originality of its work comes only from the input words we feed it with, most likely a little stirred by a random algorithm to prevent the machine from churning out identical outcomes from identical inputs.
Sadly enough though the same goes also for quite a number of people of flesh and bones: how many times did you hear “Man, he’s so predictable…”? How many people speak mostly (or only) in clichés? How many get their ideas, opinions, even beliefs mostly (or even only) from the community they live in, or from their favorite social?
I’m afraid that those people will be perfectly satisfied with the outcomes of an AI, no matter if it’s made only of out-of-the-can elements and a pinch of random.
Want a novel? Just enter
“boy meets girl – parents oppose – girl runs away – boy follows her – rival appears – boy beats rival – happy ever after – Sugar Kissy style”,
upload it to www.romanticker.com *) and download a 300 pages bestseller that all the ‘predictables’ will buy eagerly. Just don’t tell them it’s AI-made, their social might not approve of it 🙂
**)*) don’t try it, it doesn’t exist – yet.
**) image created with Midjourney and made swooning enough with postprocessing, not based on real persons.
next part:
A very brief history of art (5 of 5): where will it end?
oh no! think of all those self-published romancers having to find new jobs!
poor things… they’ll have to join the Luddites! :-)))
The Tarots tell me it’s gonna end up like with desktop publishing:
1. Millions of wannabe writers publish their crap by the ton since computers and eBooks make it quick & easy & cheap.
2. Readers grow bored with digging for something truly worth reading and go fishing.
3. Modern literature croaks choked in trash.
Now, with AI spitting passable cheap pictures:
1. Millions of wannabe artists…
2. …
3. …
Mark my words, dark clouds are gathering on the horizon.
Hi Gypsy,
I concur with your Tarots about the demise of modern literature flooded by legions of wannabes, some of them barely able to spell their own name, most of them driven by the vanity of seeing their name published rather than by love for good literature.
For one thing, to support your point, before buying an SF book I make sure it was written before the E-reader appeared on the market, lest I drop it to the floor muttering profanities at the first occurrence of crass ignorance about the basic principles that rule this universe. Doing that with an E-book can be pretty expensive, you know 😉
I beg to differ though on AI-generated graphic art.
Junk literature you can tell before you’re done with the first page, but AI “paintings” are quite another story: more and more often you’re tempted to exclaim “WOW, that’s some artist!” while you savour over and again the fine details, the light and the general atmosphere of a piece – until you notice something bizarre on a hand and count the fingers… 🙂
Yet my old crystal ball (perhaps not as reliable as your Tarots but still good enough) suggests that finger count and other minor issues may get fixed in a very near future, and then telling a GOOD piece of AI-art from a GOOD piece of human art won’t be a walk in the park.
That’s why I’m not dismissing your prophecy entirely: modern figurative art might actually die – maybe not smothered in rubbish as you say but due to a severe inflation of good art, the evil curse that could turn ‘priceless’ into ‘worthless’ in few weeks.
Thus I still agree with you about the dark clouds on the horizon 🙁