I believe art by its literal definition is the process of creating something to express oneself. It gives something as intangible, fleeting, and abstract as human emotion a physical presence that can be experienced by the senses. The life of the artist is reflected in every piece of it, from the childhood memory that made them like the color yellow to the car accident that makes their hand shake when they hold a pencil. These are things that give art its meaning, what I would call its soul. It goes beyond what the artist intended to say as it reflects all the thousands of tiny stories they weren’t even trying to tell.
The word gestalt has the definition, “the whole is greater or different than the sum of its parts” which I think encapsulates what makes art something a generative AI could never replicate. The parts in handmade, human art are reflections of the artists life and experiences. The decisions the artist make evolve with the piece they are making. A spontaneous brushstroke, a stray cat hair, the music the artist is listening to, can all influence the next decision. Alone, these are so small they aren’t always noticeable. But together, they create a portrait entirely unique to the artist in the time they were creating it.
On the other hand, the “parts” of AI’s generations are based entirely on the visuals of millions of images taken without knowledge or permission from their owners. That surface level database is its only memory, the only source for any of its decisions. Even if you were to ask it why it made the decisions it did, it will only tell you the most likely answer. There are no life experiences to draw inspiration from or react to, no subconscious thoughts or feelings influencing how it creates, just the most likely outcome based on its programming and the prompt it was given. Even if the prompt writer spends hours upon hours writing and refining their prompts, they will never be able to give AI the soul it’s missing. They are not the ones holding the brush.
Art without soul is an image or a sound or a list of words. By robbing it of the process, you rob it of what makes it art. I do not, and will never sabotage my passion for creating by using generative AI in my work, not even for brainstorming or inspiration.