Computers are making paintings on the internet now, and we, as a culture, have to decide if that’s alright or not. As the debates around AI art continue to swirl, questions are being asked about whether or not AI art should even be considered art at all. Afterall, what is art? Well for one, art is created by artists. And one thing for certain: you’re not a real artist unless you’re forced to draw a bunch of furry porn before making the art you actually want to make.
If there’s one thing that makes someone an artist, it’s the crippling weight of the economic system we live in and the understanding that the thing you love to do — the thing that you are best at doing — is valued at precisely zero dollars. And so you’re forced to do the thing that artists do: agree to draw pictures of humanoid animals fucking each other to pay the bills, so that, in time, you may get a chance to draw the creepy skeleton guy you want to make. If you don’t go through this process, are you truly an artist?
And maybe you don’t draw furry porn to pay the bills. Maybe you’re an artist, but not of the drawing variety. Maybe you did this once before and you’re already successful. These things do not matter. If you once drew furry porn to pay the bills, you are forever an artist who drew furry porn to pay the bills. And sometimes that furry porn isn’t literally furry porn. Sometimes it’s extremely realistic greyscale drawings of Walter White. Sometimes it’s having to figure out a way for your art to be a daily 15-second video on TikTok. Sometimes it’s having a corporate job. Whatever your thing is, it is your furry porn. It is your version of having to draw two extremely muscular foxes drenched in each other’s bodily fluids. That is what makes someone an artist, and perhaps, that alone.
But what happens when an AI tries to paint a picture? Someone inputs a sentence, the AI scans through a bunch of paintings by human artists, and then tries to mash the two together. But how can something so instant be art? Where is the struggle? Where are cramping arms, tired from finishing commissions? Where is the furry porn? How is this not just a rehash of the real art made by artists who have drawn furry porn?
In its current state, no truly serious person could argue that an AI is a real artist without having to draw a bunch of furry porn.
But there are compromises I believe we can make to mend the two sides of this argument. Imagine a world where every time you input a sentence into DALL·E 2 or Midjourney, you have to wait like six months for that image to come out. That’s because every time there’s a prompt, the AI has to automatically begin spending that time drawing dozens of furry porn commissions. These commissions don’t come from anyone, and they aren’t ever shown to anyone, but the AI has to spend that time making the drawings before starting the one you requested.
I think that would build a lot of character into these machines. And I think it would really change the debate as to whether or not AI art is really art. Just something to think about. Now, I gotta go — writing about video games on the internet doesn’t quite pay the bills these days, and I have a lot of furry porn to draw.
