Asklemmy
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How else would someone have been able to get all those chipmunks in one photo?
Taxidermy
There are a lot of talented artists here on lemmy.ml and I think it would be wise to ask them if they were interested in providing a banner image that is not ai generated, surely someone would take up the offer.
If they wanted to do it for free, they would have offered.
Artists do labor for free for the benefit of their communities all the time, myself included, mostly out of the goodness of their hearts. Although maybe Lemmy can offer some compensation if they want to commission something. Tbh, I've never approached someone or an organization and said, "hey, I think you should change your logo/banner/whatever, want me to make a better one?" I think that's a bit forward.
You wouldn't necessarily even need to comission someone. There are plenty of Creative Commons licensed pieces of art that could be used.
it's just a crappy and lazy image regardless of origins, but the fact it is AI makes it crappier
There is absolutely nothing wrong with the tech itself. Your issue is with capitalist relations and the way this technology is used under capitalism. Focus on what the actual problem is. https://dialecticaldispatches.substack.com/p/a-marxist-perspective-on-ai
I read your link. I think my main issue is the framing as though AI is just a new tool that people are afraid of similar to the introduction of the camera.
Even outside of capitalist exploitation, AI generated art suffers from an inherent creative limitation. It's a derivative and subtractive tool. It can only remix what already exists. It lacks intention and human experience that make art meaningful. The creative process isn't just about the final image. There's choices, mistakes, revisions, and personal investment, etc. No amount of super long and super specific prompts can do this.
This is why a crude MS Paint drawing or a hastily made meme can resonate more than a "flawless" AI generated piece. Statistical approximation can't imbue a piece with lived experience or subvert expectations with purpose. It is creative sterility.
I can see some applications of AI generation for the more mundane aspects of creation, like the actions panel in Photoshop. But I think framing creative folks' objections as an act of self preservation as though we are afraid of technology is a bit of a strawman and reductive of the reality of the situation. Although there are definitely artists that react this way, I admit.
It is true that new tools reshape art. The comparison to photography or Photoshop is flawed. Those tools still require direct engagement with the creative process. In the link you provided the argument is made for a pro-AI stance using the argument that the photographer composes a shot and manipulating light. In contrast to AI which automates the creative act itself. That's where their argument falls apart.
As for democratization goes the issue isn't accessibility (plenty of free, nonexploitative tools already exist for beginners) and that is something that could be improved. AI doesnβt teach someone to draw, operate a camera, paint, reiterate, conceptualize, and develop artistic judgment. It lets them skip those steps entirely resulting in outputs that are aesthetically polished and creatively hollow. True democratization would mean empowering people to create.
In my opinion, AI just feels like the logical next step for capitalist exploitation and destruction of culture.
I don't think AI is inherently bad. What's bad is how we (or well, the corpos) use it. SEO, vibe coding, making slop, you name it.
About training material being stealing: hard agree here. Our copyright laws are broken, but they are right about AI - training is strong in a retrieval system, which is infingement. Shame they aren't enforced at all.
What fascinates me is the similarity between AI and photography. That is, both are revolutionary tools in the visual medium. Imagine this thread being an opinion column in an 1800s newspaper, and replace all instances of 'AI' with 'photography'. The arguments all stand, but our perspective to them may change.
My PFP is actually AI generated with a local model (Stable Diffusion 1.5) thanks to my producer, Neigsendoig (who goes by Sendo). Personally speaking, both Sendo and I are into generative AI, and use it with proper disclosure.
Most people should do that whenever they use generative AI for anything, provided that AI is an integral part of the production.