AI Art and the Creators of Tomorrow

I am going to say some things about AI Art. None of this should be taken as support for copyright violations and other problems that AI Art generators most definitely do have. My point is more about the history of tech adoption and the nature of evolving content marketplaces.

Let's go back to the times when photography came along and try to think of it from the perspecive of someone whose special skill was making lifelike paintings of people and nature. They would rightly say that this was the end of their profession. But it wasn't. The ability to paint remains with us and is a well-respected art form. On the other hand, photography has become an art form in and of itself.

If I look at the ongoing AI Art revolution in that light, it seems to me that we may be staring at a new kind of art. Or at least, the somewhat flawed beginnings of one.

Because when YouTube was spawning a culture of short videos and vlogs about people's everyday lives, those in TV studios and film companies were getting increasingly worried about what was coming. They thought it was a replacement, but it was an additional range of formats and a whole new kind of creator. Someone who seemed like a threat to what was accepted as the only way to do video - approach studio, get show, find network etc. - and was just bypassing the whole system to make something the world had never seen before.

I know there are those who think clicking the generate button makes them "artists" and that's just sad. But I think that when the controversies settle down and some manner of balance has been found between copyright concerns and all the new things AI makes possible for artists, we might find ourselves looking at a new variety of creator. And quite possibly, many new content formats.

What this future will look like is anybody's guess, but if it was mine, I would say it might look a little like the holodecks we saw on Star Trek. A future where it is possible for anyone to create life-like simulations of real as well as unreal places and people by simply speaking words.

Think about it - we already have most of that technology. We have tech that enables talking to computers in human language. We have holographic projectors. We have augmented reality, VR, and perhaps a Metaverse soon. The creators of the future might be building worlds with words. They might be selling these worlds to those who wish to inhabit them. They might even be known as creators of worlds by fans all over the world who await the release of their next creation the way people today wait for a YouTube video or a new single by their favourite singer.

I know there is still a long way to go before any of this happens. But this future may not be as distant as Star Trek. And my fear is that because of the confusion created by these birthing pangs we are seeing right now, many prospective worldbuilders might never start on the path to that as yet undiscovered country.