AI and Art

Caroline Ayers

I do not believe that AI can truly create art. I feel that this opinion is correct because art is more than just what the final outcome is. Art is the time, thought, and effort put into whatever is being made. In order for art to be created, it has to be personally thought of. Humans can use their imaginations, memories, and natural inspiration to create something truly unique. When I think of using personal memory to create art, this is not something that AI can conjure. It is unable to use childhood memories, or memories of a favorite birthday. It instead takes what is already out there on the internet and uses that as inspiration. What it creates can be called art, but the process cannot. Another thing that makes human art so special is time. Humans are given limited time, and when we choose to spend that time creating something that we are inspired to, that is art in and of itself. Everyday, the impacts we make and the way we use our time can be considered art. Choosing how to spend time is special and meaningful, humans try not to spend time doing something that they do not enjoy, and they especially will not use their free time to create something they find worthless. AI does not share the same time clock that we do. Its purpose is to create and be everliving, ours is not. Eventually and unfortunately, our time runs out, so it makes art all the more special when we put our limited and given time into its creation. AI does not have the ability to go outdoors or spend time with loved ones. I believe that the greatest inspiration for art has been the great outdoors and time spent with loved ones. Whenever I write, I write about my friends and family. There is no greater muse. AI might have the ability to collect information online and “create” memories, but it has never fully experienced them. AI cannot have the full, heartfelt experience of having a best friend, or the first day of school, or a first heartbreak. These are feelings that only humans can truly have. This is proven among all of us. It is difficult to relate to breakup songs as a child, but once we have truly experienced a breakup, suddenly we are able to understand every single word. AI is not at fault for being unable to feel these things, but it should not be accredited in a way that makes it sound like it could ever fully and truly have the human experience. Without that experience for humans, how would they have created the art that AI uses as inspiration in the first place? If it were not for us humans, AI would have none of the information that it does. We are its muse, but for humans, we are each other’s muse. It is the most beautiful part of art. We are inspired and moved by one another. 

“AI is derivative by design and inventive by chance.”

I did not use generative AI to write this essay.