M.G. Siegler: A Spirited Debate Around AI

This isn’t the end of art. It may indeed be the dawn of a new age for art. And that may not devalue the human-created art as is the clear fear right now. In fact, it may even *elevate* it. Perhaps that sounds naive, but as is the case with everything I write, my aim is to ultimately be right. I think this is far more likely an outcome than the grim alternative. I think the proliferation of AI tools and the subsequent explosion of AI-generated art is just going to lead to newfound desires and appreciation for the human-made varieties.

I think this is absolutely true. Look no further than the popular art forms today. Audiences are already so enamored with the idea of filmmakers doing everything in camera that studios have gone so far as to (ironically) use CG in behind the scenes footage to hide green screens. Meanwhile, the Mission: Impossible franchise lives on the fact audiences love the fact Tom Cruise is doing most of his own stunts, and those stunts are positively crazy. Ditto for the John Wick franchise. If they announced that the next movies in those franchises would feature a CG Tom or Keanu that’s doing even more crazy stunts, I promise you their box office would drop by at least half.

Or let's look at it the other direction. Does J. K. Rowling's personal behavior impact how you feel about the story she created? Have you listened to the new Kanye West album? Does knowing what you know now about Woody Allen make you no longer feel like you can love some movies you used to hold dear? Yeah, I think it's pretty clear that people have a real, emotional connection to not just the art, but the people behind the art. Some will tell you that the vast majority of people don't actually care if a human or a computer makes something that looks like art, but I emphatically disagree with that notion.

In the long run, I simply think that people are drawn to humanity in the arts.

Cards on the table, I think these new ChatGPT 4o images are wildly impressive. They’re a meaningful step improved from the “AI slop” we’ve been looking at for the past couple years, but it still doesn’t do more than technically impress me. I’m impressed a computer can do this the way I’m impressed a computer can process millions of lines of data in a CSV in the blink of an eye.

To be clear, CG artists create great art as well, this comparison simply tries to illustrate that people still like to see real people doing real things on screen.