Art vs. AI
Or Human Spirit vs. Soul-less Machines
[World famous impressionist artist, Claude Monet, working on a painting in his studio.]
~versus~
The subject I’m about to talk about is fairly extensive so I have decided to make this a “two-part” article. In this first part, I will express my feelings on the subject and, in the second part, I will say more about my reasons for them.
There seems to be a lot of talk these days about AI and what its rightful place is, or should be, if any—-especially in the world of Art. And let me clarify by saying that, when I say “the world of art”, I am referring to ALL of the art forms, including: visual arts, music, writing, film-making, animation, photography, any type of creative activity or skill that aims to express something, born from inspiration—-something only a human being can do.
I’ll be the first to admit, I don’t know much about AI. I guess that’s because the subject has never been very appealing to me. Robots, electronics, and having someone (or something) do all the thinking for me has never been of interest to me. But, in its defense, I will say that it can probably be very useful in certain areas. However, when it comes to art, I believe that’s where its usefulness ends. For real art is a human endeavor, something that is created from inspiration, through a human being. The purpose of “AI Art” is cheap content generation and so, to my mind, is not really ART at all. My son, Christopher, says, “AI Art would be like sending a robot to church for you so you wouldn’t have to go. But that’s a pretty absurd thing to do if you want to go!” In other words, why on earth would we want to have something do for us things that we want to do?! It totally misses the point.
You see, AI is a tool. A tool that could help us humans in probably several ways. But let’s not forget that it is just that—-a tool. Not something meant to replace the joys in life! It would make the most sense to me to use this tool to make our lives easier so that we can enjoy life more, not replace those things, like ART, that bring us joy! How about using AI to clean toilets, collect garbage, and to do all of the undesirable things in life that no one wants to do?! Now that, to me, would be the proper and best use of AI. But it really has no place in the creative fields! This has become painfully obvious already when we see how many prefer “the real thing” to cheap imitations, and, also, as we see growing concerns about how to tell which is real and which is fake, in videos and photos, and seeing how this “tool” can easily be used to abuse and deceive in the wrong hands and hoping this wasn’t its intention.
As I say, I don’t know much about AI but, just generally speaking, for some reason my gut feeling tells me to stay as far away from it as I can. Perhaps it’s because I’ve always just instinctively gravitated towards authentic, organic, genuine things. Or maybe it’s just because I don’t like to be deceived. All I know is that true ART comes from the heart and the soul. This is something AI could never accomplish. So it is actually my prediction (and hope!) that AI used in the arts will not only be rejected for the most part but that it will be nothing more than a trend or passing fancy that will run it’s course and will be seen as something undesirable and without value before long and that “hand-crafted ART” will increase in value as art appreciators will want the real thing created by a real artist.
Thank you so much for listening to my rant! Stay tuned for Part Two of this article to find out why I came to my conclusions on this subject! What are your feelings about AI? Whenever I am not sure what to think about something, I ask my heart for the answer, like in the song I wrote below.
Wishing you many blessings,
ox Jeannie
[“The Heart Is The Place”, written and performed by Jeannie Willets, from her Anywhere I Go album, available at Jeannie's Music Store as a digital download or CD. (Copyright 2005, 2026 J.Willets)]