a minor rant about AI art
Nov. 23rd, 2023 01:48 amI have been looking at apartments and houses lately. (I haven't even narrowed down what state I want to move to, but as long as I'm moving somewhere I figured it doesn't hurt to look around. 50/50 chance I play it safe and just rent a different apartment across town, but who knows.)
Anyway, tripped over this horror and it reminded me that I had an AI rant in mind.
( AI images being abused for misleading real estate listings )
Anyway here's the rant I've been meaning to make. (And just so you know how long I've been planning to get around to posting about this eventually, my current streak on Duolingo is 107.)

Why does the owl have a face on its butt?
I have the Duolingo widget installed to remind me to keep my streak going and it changes images several times a day to attract your attention and one of the images that cycles through is this one.
First thought, gotta be AI. Big company can't be bothered to pay real human artists for a handful of images. Jerks. But then here's where the real rant comes in. It occurred to me that there's no way to prove this isn't by a human because long before AI, human artists would do weird shit. A human artist might very well decide to draw an extra face on the owl's butt to signify ... okay, I have no idea what that would signify. Duo is busy and and being pulled in two directions at once? (Except Duo also clearly looks bored.) Duo is always watching you? I don't know.
But the point is that the established role here is that artists do weird shit and art critics debate what the deeper meaning is.
Except now, I think I'm hesitant to put as much weird shit out there. Draw a person with too many ears or eyes or fingers or whatever and people are just going to assume it's a "fake" AI image. Maybe I just felt like drawing extra ears today? Artists should be allowed to be weird if they want to be.
I'm sort of dreading the day a youngling dismisses Salvador Dali as "obvious AI". It's only a matter of time.
Anyway, tripped over this horror and it reminded me that I had an AI rant in mind.
( AI images being abused for misleading real estate listings )
Anyway here's the rant I've been meaning to make. (And just so you know how long I've been planning to get around to posting about this eventually, my current streak on Duolingo is 107.)

Why does the owl have a face on its butt?
I have the Duolingo widget installed to remind me to keep my streak going and it changes images several times a day to attract your attention and one of the images that cycles through is this one.
First thought, gotta be AI. Big company can't be bothered to pay real human artists for a handful of images. Jerks. But then here's where the real rant comes in. It occurred to me that there's no way to prove this isn't by a human because long before AI, human artists would do weird shit. A human artist might very well decide to draw an extra face on the owl's butt to signify ... okay, I have no idea what that would signify. Duo is busy and and being pulled in two directions at once? (Except Duo also clearly looks bored.) Duo is always watching you? I don't know.
But the point is that the established role here is that artists do weird shit and art critics debate what the deeper meaning is.
Except now, I think I'm hesitant to put as much weird shit out there. Draw a person with too many ears or eyes or fingers or whatever and people are just going to assume it's a "fake" AI image. Maybe I just felt like drawing extra ears today? Artists should be allowed to be weird if they want to be.
I'm sort of dreading the day a youngling dismisses Salvador Dali as "obvious AI". It's only a matter of time.