The first thing that comes to mind is the age old question asked to every ai in story, meant to undermine its ability to compare itself to Earth’s apex predator, humanity. “Can a robot make art? Can it write a beautiful symphony?” Well, it has now been proven that it can absolutely fucking make art. It can make art that most humans are and will always be incapable of making. I’ve been delving into this realm of late and am amazed, appalled, in awe, of what ai is capable of. With a few simple prompts and prods, computers can now make art that challenge human imagination. Some have been quick to capitalize on this, claiming the title of artist by stating “in colaboration with” or “with assistance from” ai.
I call bullshit. Even if they have to do finishing touches on photoshop, the computer is doing all the heavy lifting.
And yet is that not the plight of our society? One CEO has a conversation over dinner with another CEO, both making 3000 times the wage of their lowest earning worker (while eating a company paid meal), and while never putting hammer to nail, claim the lion’s share of another’s labor?
Now ai has granted artists and would-be artists the opportunity to be CEOs in their own right, by making an enslaved algorithm do all the heavy lifting while they reap the praise and rewards. What a time to be alive.
All that aside, I cannot claim to be above the fascinating possibilities this grants. I can make my own art now, of characters, places, events, and scenes from my stories that I would have otherwise had to pay professional artists THOUSANDS of dollars for hundreds of hours to create for me.
I don’t claim to be an artist in this sense. Never will, but that I can enhance the exposure of my beloved stories with visual expressions this detailed and captivating is an opportunity I would be foolish to overlook.
So this is me, on the wagon, for my own reasons and with my own reservations, but truth be told, the future is here, like it or not. I’m certain the conversation will become a powderkeg soon. There is a lot to say about the morality and human identity wrapped around visual art. There is a storm brewing, but in the meantime I am going to strive to bring Darbretora and the stories written of it to visual life. It is a little selfish dream I’ve always had and now get to enjoy.
Case and point, the very picture that now introduces this blog was made with ai. Instead of having a random stock photo I tweaked with photoshop, I get to display what I actually mean by “Lost Ship of Lanterns.”
What a fucking time to be alive.