Submitted by spyser t3_10kzpb8 in Futurology
For the past few weeks I have thought a lot of about AI generated art (even dabbled a bit with stable diffusion). Initially I found it interesting, but eventually it started to make me depressed. I'm not an artist myself, I'm not even particularly creative, but even so I started to feel bad for all artists out there who spent their whole life mastering a skill, only for an algorithm to be able to do it faster and more skillfully than most of them. I have realised for a long time that more menial, repetitive professions will eventually be replaced by AI. However, I have always hoped that the result of this would be to give humans more time to engage in creative pursuits. But if AI can do creative stuff better than us, then what is the point? What is left for us to do?
But today I realised that it isn't the end result that matters. Sure, an AI may be able to create a fantastic painting beyond what even skilled artists can make. But so what? The simple drawing of a child may not be as high quality as a painting made by a famous artist. But to the parents of the child, that drawing is infinitely more valuable.
I realise that in the past, when I looked at art, I was more impressed with the "product" rather than the "process". Now when AI can make products that are of the same quality as any human artist, it means that the process is what that distinguishes the human from the machine. The inspiration of that human, their history and their limitations, and their relationships to other humans is what makes it valuable. Now when I'm looking at art I'm looking at it with different eyes, and I feel like I appreciate it much more than I did before.
The rise of AI may very well be the end of "commercial art". But maybe that is a good thing? Now we can finally focus on and value the creative aspects.
Still gonna need that UBI though...
Redditing-Dutchman t1_j5u89n8 wrote
Some art forms are safe for a long time, or maybe forever. I'm thinking about performance art, theater, ballet, conceptual art, etc. Because even if a robot could dance or sing, I wouldn't watch it. Or rather: yes I would watch it once out of interest, but I would also keep watching humans do that stuff. Just as people watch real chess matches and not AI's completing a match in 0.1 second.
Therefore it seems extremely unlikely these jobs/skills will be obsolete in a few years. The 'masses' are often not interested in theater anyway, so even if they only consume AI art, there will still be a paralel society that enjoys real theater, dance, etc. And they will pay for it as well, just as they do now.