But people said the same thing about photography and painting 150 years ago!

This is entirely different from that. Landscaping had aesthetic value after photography because people were able to embellish and stylize landscapes in ways they didn't actually exist in real life. There is no way to "escape" from AI into more stylization. All it takes is enough of those new stylized images and it'll be able to replicate it. This is different from photography because photography can't learn.

But people want human expression!

Yes, they do, but they'll probably only realize this after a couple decades of art [almost] completely uninspired by the human condition and depression and anxiety skyrockets. In the short term, people will only care that they can type into a field and get what they want without any significant investment. Good luck finding an art job that isn't just making prompts in that economy (And if you say that making prompts is the same as being a painter or illustrator, yes it is art but no it isn't the same and fuck you).

I rest my case, art automation is cool but under capitalism it'll only be used to devalue artists further, and drive them deeper into poverty. It would be a great tool in a society capable of regulating itself but WE DON'T LIVE IN THAT SOCIETY AND I SHOULDN'T HAVE TO POINT THAT OUT.

STOP LISTENING TO :melon-musk: :debatebro-l: AND SUPPORT YOUR ARTIST COMRADES NOW

Now that I got your attention with my inflammatory statements, please commission your artist comrades and support them in their struggle to exist in what is already a very punishing world to live in. I promise to give any of you that do big hugs, I love you all, and bye.

  • KiaKaha [he/him]
    ·
    edit-2
    2 years ago

    Since the 2000s? That’s the takeoff of the digital era, so think of everything supplanted by digital variants.

    Streaming and piracy killed Blockbuster. VOIP and video calls killed pay phones and landlines, and will kill mobile voice calls too. Navigation software killed paper maps. Email’s killing snail-mail. Ctrl+F alone has saved countless labour-hours.

    Yes, any new technology is used to break labour. Labour is in an era of weakness. Its gains were won during the social democratic period, and any disruption of that order will cause those ossified remnants of labour power to shatter.

    Take CGI for example. Suddenly you can create anything, literally anything you can imagine on screen. To people of the special effects era, it’d be near impossible to believe. It’s a modern miracle. And yet the CGI industry is young, without the hard-won protections of film unions. It ends up overworked and exploited, fresh feed for the Mouse.