Gen AI is a thing seems to be inescapable these days. I have slightly mixed feelings about the (quotes HEAVILY applied) “democratization of digital art creation”, but generally think it’s current formulation is pretty wack. But like it or not, it’s everywhere now. Though only a year or two ago, the same could be said for crypto & “the promise of Web3”…and where are they now?
For a moment, put aside the questionable (i.e. illegal) training processes for all of these models, there are plenty of resources there to help your arguments against wannabe techbros. Like the concept of digital art itself, genAI is a tool that is being used to bring the act of creation into more hands than ever before. I can’t argue with that—it has enabled folks who thought MS Paint was beyond them envision new ideas and engage creativity that they may never have known they had otherwise.
But as a digital artist who also still has a naive fascination with the possibilities of technology, what I find really telling about GenAI usage used for commercial purposes is the level of disrespect to the medium of digital art creation in general—and perhaps more tellingly—the idea that the audience for it should accept such shoddy work with open arms and minds.
After all, it is quite easy for someone to poop out something that gets you 90% there, & then take it to canva to sugarcoat the rest to remove the hallucinations & tell-tale signs of a prompt-based piece. Hell, one could use AI based tools like the healing brush to get it done in just another minute or two.
But so often we simply see the slop get slapped on a “finished” product, without even the slightest bit of artistic oversight or editorial glance. It speaks to a corporate culture that sees only engagement & deadlines—artisty or hell even simple fact checking be damned.
There are many factors that have led us to this point; The relentless grind of technocracy & capitalism consumes all forms of human creativity & transmogrifies misplaced passion (such as my own) for the seemingly endless possibilities of computing into 7-fingered abominations—all in the name of The Numbers. There are no more pieces, editorials, artworks, stories, compositions or creations, only Content.
But even so, to call this process of enshittification, the acceptance of slop as design & art as “inevitable”, is something that I refuse to accept, & will continue to stand & fight against. The tide of public opinion has toppled other forms of slop that has been forcefed our way before.
By calling out & condemning the removal of artistry & talent from the process of digital creation, we can once again prevail over those who attempt to force feed us AI Slop & perhaps cause the creators of this tech to not only rethink their strategies & practices in creating these tools, but maybe—just maybe—also make them stop being so damned weird.