Is AI Art Art?

This past weekend I got into (albeit short) conversation with my artist friend John about artificial intelligence art. He is a graphic artist by trade, but his talents  burst through pen and ink drawings and nature photography as well.

He posted a number of AI pieces of art on his Facebook account, and I thought they were amazingly creative. Something I could post in my Art Gallery. He told me he had hundreds of other creations; that he has so much fun creating his images but it’s not art. Or should I say Art. 

So I wandered through the wilds of the Internet and asked, “Is AI Art Really Art?”

As many answers as questions, it seems.

Tech Target defined AI as, “AI art (artificial intelligence art) is any form of digital art created or enhanced with AI tools. Though commonly associated with visual art — images and video, for example — the term AI art also applies to audio compositions, including music. AI art allows anyone to create works or even entire collections of art, but in a small fraction of the time non-AI methods afford. In addition, AI art can create visual or audio compositions that would be difficult to create otherwise. With text-to-image generative AI tools, such as Dall-E or Stable Diffusion, humans no longer need to attempt to draw the image they want; they simply type a text prompt into the tool, which generates the desired imagery.”

I got mental brain freeze by then, so I stepped back and wondered in my own off-center way.

Is Artificial Intelligence Art really art? Does AI need a creator to make it create? Or do you set the computer to “create” and see what it comes up with? Does working with pre-programmed programs help the artist who can’t quite draw a circle or an alien? Does the computer shade and gradate and use algorithms to create one-of-a-kind treasures?

Wikipedia says, “AI art is created when an artist or creator inputs prompts into AI art generators. Trained on large amounts of data and coded by algorithms (large language models), these generators process the request and produce an image or video.”

Do you need a human hand to choose those gradations and shades of color and shape? And if you don’t, can you still call their creations “art”?

I am from the simple side of town. I appreciate art that I can see and hear and feel. To me art is trial and error, a hands-on adventure, a physical excursion into clay and yarn and oils and guitars and voices. It’s using your own physical attributes to create uniqueness, not a machine.

Yet those who do AI art are creative, albeit in a different medium. They push the buttons and pick the subject matter and create the shapes and colors and programs to create the vision they have in their minds. They not only have the technical prowess of computer programming but the fourth dimensional trait of Creativity.

So I leave this blog as confused as I was when I started it. I know what I like. I know what styles and colors and subjects and music I like. I enjoy reading about the history and trials and tribulations artists have gone through to find the perfection they seek.

But I also really like John’s AI images.

Let me know if you think AI-created pictures are real art.

I also want you to enjoy John’s creations?  You can find his pen and ink art at https://sundayeveningartgallery.com/2015/08/02/john-lemke/, his photography at https://sundayeveningartgallery.com/2021/12/24/john-lemke-2/ and his AI creations at Visual Edge AI – Mystical, Eerie, Art, Fantasy, Sci-fi, magical reality.