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When photography was first introduced, many traditional artists scoffed. They said it wasn’t art. It didn’t require talent. You just clicked a button and captured what was already there. Sound familiar? Today, we're watching history repeat itself—only this time, the "click" isn't from a shutter but from a prompt. AI-generated art is provoking the same visceral reactions, the same skepticism, the same debate about what counts as "real" art. And just like with photography, we’re at the beginning of a creative revolution we barely understand yet. *The Blur Between Talent and Tool * In the past, it was easy to tell who was “talented.” You could watch someone sketch breathtaking portraits with a pencil, or see a canvas transform under layers of oil paint. Then came cameras. And people had to learn new words—aperture, shutter speed, exposure, ISO. What looked like a simple snap turned out to be a complex dance between art and science. AI art is no different. Right now, the tools are just new. And because they’re new, it’s hard to see the artistry behind the scenes. It’s easy to assume anything made with AI is lazy or low-effort. But we’re missing something important here. Creativity Is Becoming More Democratic Yes, it’s easier than ever to make something beautiful. And that’s not a bad thing. We live in a world where creativity has been locked behind technical skills for centuries. If you couldn’t draw, sculpt, paint, or master a complex toolset, you were out of the game. Now? Anyone with a thoughtful mind can experiment, explore, and express. That’s not the death of creativity—it’s a renaissance. AI doesn’t kill art. It expands it. It shifts the focus from technical mastery to conceptual depth. From “how well can you hold a brush” to “how deeply can you think?” And that, in a time when most people are just doom-scrolling through noise, is kind of beautiful. The Invisible Effort Here’s the tricky part: we can’t easily see the effort behind AI-generated work. There are artists out there who train their own LoRAs, who tweak ControlNets, who spend days or weeks refining prompts, discarding hundreds of images that don’t quite hit the mark. But to the casual viewer? It looks like someone typed a sentence and got a masterpiece. That’s why AI art feels hollow to so many people. Not because it lacks soul—but because we can’t see the soul behind it. Oil paintings and photography at least came with a visible process. AI art is hidden behind code, GPUs, trial-and-error, and conceptual planning that most people don’t understand yet. And that gap in visibility makes it harder to appreciate the real artistry involved. A New Kind of Artist We’re entering an era where the most important skill might not be your hand but your mind. Can you dream in new ways? Can you push a tool to its limits? Can you take something artificial and make it feel human? That’s what great AI artists are doing. The world hasn’t gotten less creative. It’s gotten more creative—and more inclusive. The barrier to entry has lowered. But the ceiling? It’s higher than ever. This is what evolution looks like submitted by /u/SvampebobFirkant |
