I had a very good conversation today and one of the many things we talked about was why AI art can not be as good as art made by human hands. It was so interesting I thought I would share it.
At the time, we were specifically talking about art that is drawn but this really can apply to all forms of art or entertainment. Our conclusions were the same, though the roads we took to get to them were different. The conclusion was:
AI art has no soul.
Now, for me, I was thinking along the lines of more of a philosophical point of view. We all have seen what happens when writers don’t care and, therefore, can’t put their heart and soul into the work.
As fans, we can easily see this. It’s in new movies, TV shows, music, and art. And by “new” I mean rehashed garbage. Everyone of these art forms have suffered because of this. Which, in turn, means we, the fans, have suffered. J.R.R. Tolkien said “Evil cannot create anything new. It can only only spoil and destroy what good forces have created.”
And we know this is true because we have seen what they have done to Star Wars, Superman, Scooby-Doo, Beauty and the Beast; I mean, Winnie the Pooh is going to be a freaking horror movie this year. Talk about being antithetical to the source material. Much like AI, they aren’t creating anything new. They are just moving energy from one form to another. More on that later.
AI art has the same type of problem. The AI can not “make” art. All it can do is search through the work that others have created, take pits and pieces from some of them and put them together to “create” art. Some of these may look beautiful, but they will always be hollow. Much like the art that I mentioned has been. Hollow art does not move us. It bores and annoys us. That is why it fails.
Now the other person, who goes by the name Maji-chan(you can check out her substack here: https://matrixbearer.substack.com/ ) came at it from a far more thought provoking point of view. She started with the Law of Conservation of Mass-Energy. For those of you unfamiliar with that, the very simple version is that you can not create nor destroy matter and mass and energy must always stay in balance. That means if you lose energy you create mass and vice versa.
So, she said what was happening was that the energy of your very self is converted into matter through your writing or drawing process. In essence, you were literally putting part of yourself on paper or canvas; or sharing it through music, dance, or acting. I found this to be a fascinating way to look at.
If you’re a person who believes in souls it’s easy to see how part of your soul could actually be imbued into the works that you create in this way. The idea that you can share a little bit of your soul with all of your readers, if you’re a writer, is an absolutely amazing thing to think about. And why you can feel such a connection with a creator through their art.
In this same respect, as AI doesn’t have the ability to convert energy into matter; all it can do, really, is move energy around. It can not imbue it’s energy into the artwork it makes. At best it is a combination of many different energies coming from the different authors. Much like I mentioned above with what has been done with entertainment today.
I would argue that there is every possibility that some of those energies are incompatible. Which could be a major factor in why AI work can seem off. The many different energies of the works they have taken from could very well clash with each other. Canceling out parts of it and enhancing others. Much like how waves work. It’s an interesting thing to think about.
I can’t help but think that this is why the culture is shifting the way that it is. I believe that we can recognize when the energy of something doesn’t feel right subconsciously; and that is why the big names in entertainment today are struggling so. And why we are looking for new and better sources for art.
That is why people like Maji-chan are creating new art(check out her short story Reflection, you will not regret it) and you can tell they are putting a part of themselves into said art; and people like me are diving head first into them. You can find links to these artists here on this website. By supporting these type of artists, we can promote the good energy and flush out the bad. And that will make art good again.