There is so much more behind producing a piece of artwork than the generation of a single, final image. People are often quick to say that “it’s about the journey, not the destination...” but AI skips over that journey entirely, jumping straight to the destination. A final piece is about more than just the image. It’s about the process that takes us to that point, the formats that the pieces take, the explanation and thought behind it all...

For example, if I were asked to design a logo, I would begin by asking the client about their brand. What colors best represent your brand or have to do with the symbols you’d like to have? What style? What kind of message do you want the text to send, and what kind of font would best evoke that feeling? Once a few ideas have been jotted down and initial sketches made, the most resonant one can move on to the next stage. Every single step of the creative process is an active decision. AI omits all of those steps — there is no decision, or at least, none that are made by you. Sure, you can ask for it to generate more and more and more... but can it build upon what you already have in the same way a designer can? Then, when the project is all done, what kind of files will you be left with? A good designer knows how to set up clean files to save future headaches, ensure the highest quality of work, and allow for a simple and efficient production process. AI doesn’t do any of that. It skips straight to the singular final image, and that’s all you’re left with. Usually, that file ends up being a lousy jpg that you can’t even do much with at all. Was all that effort and wasted resource worth it?

Some people will create a concept with AI and bring it to a designer to flesh out. There is little that is more draining than trying to bring a piece of AI work to life. An artist or designer will have done sketches that make sure the lines connect properly, that the proportions make sense. AI does not know how to do any of that, and as a result, many of the finer details are left hanging in an uncanny way.

The defiant question “why should I bother reading something that nobody could be bothered to write?” has been shared a few times. Similarly, why should we be bothered to appreciate artwork that someone did not take the time to create, nor hone the skills necessary to bring their vision to life? Art is most interesting when it is in conversation with other art, and therefore the artists behind it, along with the real, lived experience that informs all the decisions behind a finished piece. What is there behind AI but a bunch of algorithms desperately mashing things together to try and make something “new?” It scours the internet for any material it can, puzzling bits and pieces to come up with something different from the source material. What AI is doing is plain and simple: theft.

There is a sense of entitlement amongst those who clamor about using AI to create art, as if there is a certain deservedness for everyone to be on an even playing field when it comes to the subject. There is some discourse about how AI is the “only way” that some people can create artwork... but there are so many different ways to make art. It’s about self-expression, not perfection. What “self” does AI have to express? If someone cannot put in the time and effort to learn how to make art, why should they deserve to be considered an artist? It’s simply discrediting other artists, diminishing the value, and cheapening the hard work that goes into it all. Already, people are accusing writers who use em dashes and artists who make polished works of using AI. What a horrible feeling to know that you have poured endless amounts of time and energy into something just for people to assume it was made by or with AI.

And to the artists who have honed their skills, and choose to use AI anyway... why? You’ve been creating art all this time without the help of AI. Why start now? Why would you feed it your own creativity, your soul, your passion? For efficiency? For a new angle? What about how it feeds the model as a whole? You’ve made it that much easier for someone else to create something just like yours. Do you really want to train the AI models that will replace you? Creating art is about the feeling behind putting pen to paper, about pouring thoughts into a medium. Why would you want to give it such an easy way to steal from you?

Often, the bottom line is money. From a financial standpoint, how would you feel if somebody else profited off your hard work while you didn’t get a single dime? What if you spent years and years perfecting your craft in a way that cannot be easily replicated by someone else, only to have it stolen in an infinite copy paste by AI? There is a reason intellectual property exists, and AI has no respect for that whatsoever. I would not want AI to be able to “create” new artworks in the visual style that I have spent years developing to represent my own brand in a way that is recognizable and stands out from others.

To the people saying that “your first mistake was thinking art is a viable career choice...” I have heard that phrase many times. We may need money to survive, but art itself is about human connection. It is certainly a bit of a luxury: a way to make life fuller and more beautiful. Why would we want to take that away? Do we not all want to experience the luxury of expression?

Bruce Schneier, author of Data and Goliath: The Hidden Battles to Collect Your Data and Control Your World, says “if something is free, you’re not the customer; you’re the product.” For the people who are using AI because it is “cheaper” than finding someone to do the work... it’s not free or cheap if it’s stealing your personal information while ruining our planet and using up our resources. It is consuming fresh water that is necessary for every aspect of survival, electricity that could be used in so many parts of the world, land that could be used for anything from producing food to providing homes for people to live in, and so on. Why are we wasting all these incredible resources and polluting our environment just to generate silly pictures of dancing bananas or bunnies on trampolines? If humankind really felt some kind of need to use these resources up, would it not be more productive to use it to help diagnose or cure diseases? Find better ways to keep people safe? Not to mention that there are people actively using AI to scam, impersonate, or slander others. I’m sure that there are many other evil ways that it is being used that I’m not even aware of.

Why are we wasting valuable resources to take away something that makes people happy, rather than easing the burden of everyday life? As writer Joana Maciejewska said: “I want AI to do my laundry and dishes so that I can do art and writing, not for AI to do my art and writing so that I can do my laundry and dishes.” I see people being deliberately obtuse about this statement, about how the maintenance of such a robot would be more trouble than it’s worth. The logistics of how AI would do chores is not what this is about, and if you think it is, then you’re part of the problem.

I, for one, miss the days when “AI” just meant Adobe Illustrator, when the biggest debate was about whether or not digital art counts as “real art,” and when we didn’t need to second guess every single thing because it might have been made with AI.