Our community art fair gave an award to an AI-generated painting, and now artists are divided.

I helped out at our town's annual art fair last weekend, and one of the winners was a landscape made by an AI program. The artist typed a few words into a computer, and the image popped out looking like a professional painting. Some people at the event loved it, saying it's cool to see new ways to make art and that thinking up the prompt is a creative act. They think AI is just another tool, like a camera or a paintbrush. But other artists got really mad. A friend who does oil paintings said it's not fair because the AI doesn't have feelings or put in hard work like humans do. She worries that if AI art keeps winning prizes, real artists might lose chances. I don't know where I stand on this. Should we welcome AI art in shows, or keep it separate? What's your take?

4 comments

4 Comments

wendy8203mo agoMost Upvoted

Last year's contest showed AI lacks the emotion we value.

spencera773mo ago

@lucash53, prompt thinking is creative, but AI art misses the human touch we value.

lucash533mo ago

The art fair in my town had a similar debate last summer. I used to say AI art was cheating, but seeing how much thought goes into the prompts changed my view. What do you think makes art real, anyway?

laura_chen412mo agoTop Commenter

Wow, I read an article that said the real issue is who gets the credit... the programmer, the user, or the machine? It gets messy fast.