After I shared my take on the AI vs Art, I have been asked a few questions which I feel needs addressing separately. Here goes the questions and my answers to those questions
AI has helped many graphic designers to make art and helps people in many ways. Why do you write that it threatens human existence?
AI was built to made human lives easier and everyday we take help from AI for various reasons, I believe there’s nothing wrong in that but when you give commands to Open AI to create art for you and you claim to be the creator of that art just because you gave the commands that’s where the problem lies. It shows that creativity is diminishing in human beings which is unfortunately the sad reality.
Coming to graphic designers and artists who make digital art, well they are taking the help of technology to represent their original concepts and ideas, there’s individuality and exclusivity in this kind of art even if it’s made with the help of a software. Even if someone imitates and recreates artworks of profound artists such as Vincent Van Gogh’s Starry Night or Leonardo Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa, they are doing so as they are inspired by such artists, their re-creation is a way of paying homage to the masters of their craft or their way of perceiving these paintings.
This imitation should never be compared with giving commands to software which manufactures art as per commands. With recent Ghibli fever that has taken over the social media platforms by a storm, it is quite evident that an artform( an entire artist’s life’s work) has been reduced to a mere trend, as soon as the masses will be bored they will hop into another trend.
When an art form becomes equivalent to a filter of a phone, it’s really heart-rending to be a witness to this blinding narcissism that is leading people to celebrate such a trend. AI threatens human existence because of the way humans are exploiting AI. The day is not far when we will have to bear the consequences of such actions maybe at the cost of our jobs and sanity.
Many directors have made films inspired from stories and concepts without giving the due credits to it’s original creator. AI is making art accessible to people through this trend. Everyone is paying a homage to Miyazaki by participating in this trend…
Art has been accessible to people for ages now, and people can celebrate art in many ways but the way people are celebrating Ghibli can’t certainly be called a celebration rather they are satiating their desire to be in Ghibli world or to be a Ghibli character leveraging someone’s art form. Coming to films made my directors, making a film requires a lot of effort, hard work and resilience.
Even if they are using someone’s concept then the screenplay has to be adapted from that story or idea and then it has to be written, followed by the script there’s direction, acting, cinematography basically a collaboration of artists. It’s utterly wrong when credits aren’t given to the original creator of the idea or story however in recent times most films give proper credits due to strict copyright infringement rules.
Those who are narrating such examples, those instances took place in bygone era. People are now getting aware about the laws and ethics related to art and if they are resisting against the recent activities of people in social media then they shouldn’t be shunned by the other group who fanatically support every advancement of technology. Making a film or making a painting inspired from an idea or another painting shouldn’t be compared with the current Ghibli obsession.
If masses are willing to pay homage to Miyazaki then should immediately withdraw themselves from this trend. Paying homage to an artist means respecting his vision and he strongly detests the use of AI to make art. People should resort to handmade or digital paintings if they are willing to recreate the Ghibli world. Effort, purpose and art goes hand in hand, using someone’s art form as a filter in one’s photographs for aesthetic pleasure shows how moral sense is degraded among human beings.
Derrida’s Deconstruction and Roland Barthes’s Death of the author are making so much sense reflecting on the current scenario, the ray of hopes are slowly fading as humans are voraciously using technology to endorse autonomy which may very soon lead to a different kind of inexorable autocracy.
The featured image is for representation purposes only. Image from Canva royalty free gallery.