What is Art? and the Tech Panic Cycle

https://www.wired.com/story/picture-limitless-creativity-ai-image-generators/

A couple years old, but I like what they say, “Most AI images are used in places where there were no images previously. They usually do not replace an image created by a human artist. They may be created, for example, to illustrate a text-only newsletter by someone without artistic talent themselves, or the time and budget to hire someone. Just as mechanical photography did not kill human illustrations a century ago, but rather significantly expanded the places in which images appeared, so too do AI image generators open up possibilities for more art, not less.”

I like what he listed later in the article…

AT ITS BIRTH, every new technology ignites a Tech Panic Cycle. There are seven phases:

  1. Don’t bother me with this nonsense. It will never work.

  2. OK, it is happening, but it’s dangerous, ’cause it doesn’t work well.

  3. Wait, it works too well. We need to hobble it. Do something!

  4. This stuff is so powerful that it’s not fair to those without access to it.

  5. Now it’s everywhere, and there is no way to escape it. Not fair.

  6. I am going to give it up. For a month.

  7. Let’s focus on the real problem—which is the next current thing.


“Take David Hockney, one of the highest-paid living artists. Hockney often acknowledges the great influence other living artists have on his work. As a society, we don’t expect him (or others) to write checks to his influences, even though he could. It’s a stretch to think AIs should pay their influencers. The “tax” that successful artists pay for their success is their unpaid influence on the success of others.”