[HN Gopher] Endjourney
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       Endjourney
        
       Author : webmaven
       Score  : 6 points
       Date   : 2023-12-23 15:16 UTC (7 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.saturdayeveningpost.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.saturdayeveningpost.com)
        
       | webmaven wrote:
       | For some reason this gives me vibes similar to RMS' "The Right to
       | Read"[0], but also to Cory Doctorow's ouvre like "The Things that
       | Make Me Weak and Strange Get Engineered Away"[1] or "Unauthorized
       | Bread"[2].
       | 
       | [0] https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/right-to-read.en.html
       | 
       | [1] https://www.tor.com/2008/08/06/weak-and-strange/
       | 
       | [2] https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2020/01/unauthorized-
       | bread-a-...
        
       | nonbirithm wrote:
       | I think it is worth asking what is cut out of the artistic
       | process when you delegate to a black box as this piece has. In my
       | opinion it is worth demarcating AI art from handmade art so the
       | possible intentions can be identified.
       | 
       | At the same time, I'm not sure it's realistic to convince
       | everyone who enjoys AI art that they're not getting the full
       | picture unless they put in the effort to create handmade art. I
       | think if AI art hadn't been invented as of now, all those people
       | would just be doing other things that they believe have a higher
       | return on investment - other unrelated hobbies, for example -
       | instead of anything related to art at all.
       | 
       | I had tried picking up pen, pencil, and ink for a year to try to
       | relax and find enjoyment, but for me it was the opposite result,
       | much like the frustrated guests at the end of the piece, and it
       | never really got better for me even though I _could_ see the slow
       | and steady progress I was making.
       | 
       | It didn't help that much of the time I wanted to draw for real, I
       | found that I had some other programming projects on the
       | backburner I wanted to work on instead. So I did those things and
       | was generally happier about my free time. When AI art came around
       | later that year, I found the process much more enjoyable than the
       | sketching and doodling I had been doing for months.
       | 
       | I accept that because of how my mind works, AI art and the
       | related computer code will be more interesting to me than
       | penciling, and because of this difference in interest I might
       | never become a decent penciller in my lifetime. Is that a _bad_
       | thing, if I 'm not necessarily trying to embark on a profound
       | artistic journey?
       | 
       | I'm imaging hordes of businessmen tired from their daily
       | activities that at most have an hour of free time to make
       | _something_ they like. In the past these people would have
       | silently given up and did something else. Except, now there is a
       | solution to that problem of skill and effort that has been placed
       | in front of us and it 's impossible to ignore.
       | 
       | The problem I see is, how do you convince a "kindergartner-at-
       | art" who will turn down a crayon and paper after a few weeks to
       | grab hold of the interest in physical art and not let it go, lest
       | their interest fall back to AI art for an indefinite time? It
       | feels like this allocation of interest has almost become
       | political with the ethics surrounding AI art being hotly
       | discussed - the ones who have the "correct" interests and hobbies
       | are placed on one side of the discussion or another.
        
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       (page generated 2023-12-23 23:02 UTC)