I find the AI Art debate very interesting. Should it be praised as art? Is it a cheap ripoff that cheapens the “real deal”?
I don’t know. All I know is I’ve seen AI art so beautiful and unique that I can’t bring myself to condemn it. I like what I’m seeing. I still respect the commitment to “real” art. I like both. Is it wrong to like both?
My art is also based on countless works of real artists, and I didn’t need their consent to put pen to paper (or tablet, rather). Media like Courage the Cowardly Dog, Goodnight Punpun and Majora’s Mask taught me how to incorporate surrealism into my work, and I don’t need permission from those creators to use what I learned in my game.
If I tried putting Courage, Punpun or Link in my game, that’d be a different story. And when generative AI companies do that, that’s also a different story… But I have to give credit where it’s due, as much as I don’t like OpenAI they have done a better job at complying with copyright law better than YouTube. I’ve even had ChatGPT refuse my prompts when I’m not trying to get it to generate copyrighted material.
I do agree with your other points though, and I think we’d both agree that machine learning is a net negative for the world. I’m not on the side of big corporations, I just don’t think this argument is really good for anything except getting people emotionally charged.