AI Luddite

Just as words make up poems, brushstrokes make up paintings. Copying words to make a new composition is an original work. Copying brushstrokes to make a new painting is an original work. Sampling is a valid form of original art, and so is mashing up paintings. Artists didn’t complain when other humans mashed paintings, but only so when the cost is reduced to a few keystrokes. Just as sewing machines do their work, new machines do theirs. Does not invalidate the old way of making, but elevates it via augmentation.

Programmers and engineers have been trying to end jobs for centuries, I understand. But if a robot can do your job, maybe it’s time to learn something else. It used to be somebody’s job to operate an elevator, and not long until Uber drivers get displaced. The clock don’t turn backwards on this. You can’t stop robots from looking at art. No government can send me to jail because they can’t tell the difference between robot art and human art.

How much more art would you be able produce with the help of robots? You can train it with your work and multiply your output.

I don’t care if my hoodie was sewn by man or machine, or if my books were written by hand or press. There will always be room for human art, but I wouldn’t care if corporate marketers’ Christmas cards were drawn or generated. Art will become craft, as IKEA displaced woodworking. I love woodworking.

Will it ever be possible that you wouldn’t be able to distinguish the difference between human art and machine art?

There will always be demand for artists, but not for doing work that robots can. No ai is stopping you from doing what you love. And no robot will stop me either. We can keep doing what we love, and some algorithm isn’t taking anything away from that