artificial /ˌɑːtɪˈfɪʃl/: made or produced by human beings rather than occurring naturally, especially as a copy of something natural.
in·tel·li·gence in-ˈtel-ə-jən(t)s. : the ability to learn or understand or to deal with new or trying situations. : the ability to apply knowledge to manipulate one’s environment or to think abstractly as measured by objective criteria
Here’s a question for you. If an elephant paints a canvas using brushes held in its trunk, is it art? Of course it is, as it is an original piece that simply didn’t exist before.
On the same note, during the week there was a cute story about a bear in a national park in the US that had got hold of a trail camera and took 800 selfies, each one seemingly a deliberate pose for camera.
So, is this photography? Again, I’d say yes.
Over the weekend, a mini furore occurred in Sydney photographic circles as the image above was chosen as the winner of a photo competition. Apparently, all the judges, AND the other entrants, were fooled into thinking it was a real image captured from a drone, when in fact it was ‘AI’ generated.
Now, by the definitions of the Oxford Dictionary as quoted above, its creation is neither ‘artificial’ nor ‘intelligent’ I’d suggest?
According to Australian Photography magazine, the perpetrator of the stunt made the comment, “The barriers to creating something truly eye-catching have never been lower. Our award-winning ‘photograph’ is a good example of that. We didn’t need to wake up at sunrise, drive to the beach and send the drone up to capture the image. We created this image from our couch in Sydney by entering text into a computer program.”
Isn’t that a sad indictment of this new way of supposedly creating art? How inventive. What vision!
He went on to continue, “”We’re at a point now where Machine may be the superior creator to Man,”
Actually no, because the computer needed reference works created BY ‘Man’ in order to generate its product.
Additionally, if that is so, as so many commentators pointed out, why are the ripples in the water going in opposite directions, and there are other anomalies that the surfers among them picked up immediately. So it’s not THAT smart either.
By total coincidence, driving home from a trip to the beach yesterday, Radio National had a pair of artists on discussing ‘AI’ generated imagery. A comment from one who I felt was a slightly overly zealous supporter of the method stated she was ‘excited by the way the computer / algorithm had blended together styles, colours and textures from possibly billions of images, to create one she particularly liked’ (I am paraphrasing as I didn’t write down the exact quote due to driving at the time).
My Bachelor of Psychology qualified other half retorted ‘that is not creating, that is averaging’.
I think there is plenty left in ‘mankind’ yet to generate art of all kinds of art whether it be a painting, photograph, film, music, screen play or whatever. And just as we evolve, so the ‘machines will also have to. But as we create them, we’ll always be at least one step ahead.
What are your thoughts? Leave them in the comments below.
It depends of the taste. Some people love to read poetry while some will only enjoy SciFi literature, one will not replace another. As a photographer, I will not replace the pleasure of walking towards the beach in the morning and release the drone and actually have an effort to identify and shoot these waves, it is the pleasure and the process of creating these things not necessary the easy obtained effect of the image, just by comfortably sit in your toilet seat while you create stories and not going anywhere.But yes it is a form of expression, not an art per se, in my humble opinion which can be used in different justified situations. The writers are creating images in our minds for hundreds of years, without the need of an AI generator, yet fabulous and without limits. That’s exactly why when we speak about an apple, mine would be red and yours would be yellow, if you show me the apple, you will oblige me to see the colour that the AI will decide. Writing and reading would be with more liberty of thinking expressions in this respect. I see the AI job compare to traditional photography exactly like and electric car compared to a traditional fuel car. These are worlds which are not mixed and never mixed, my memories are coming from a different space and time, AI memories are to be invented and fabricated by an AI. It is not good or bad, it is just what I think, without any digital aid or form of manifestation.