So, basically, if I don't want to pay for a burger, I can't have a burger. That's the rule for everything and that's the same with art.
Hmmm....
BUT... I have found a loophole!
Instead of having to either lunch in a restaurant, or stay hungry, I can have an industrial, frozen burger that I reheat in a microwave at work (ting!). It's much quicker than having lunch in a proper restaurant. It's also much inferior: the bread isn't freshly home-made, the beef is probably full of growth hormones, the cheese is certainly some imitation and not a real cheddar made in Somerset, within 30 miles of the cathedral of Wells. A deeply inferior product to be sure, but a filling meal anyway.
This also apply to shirts. There is no dichotomy like "if you are not willing to pay the price of tailor, you don't get to wear a shirt". There is a trick, very much like the burger one. Using an industrial machine constructed to imitate the work of the tailor and generate a shirt in much less time (you just need to pick it at the store, not taking measures and waiting litteraly months to get your bespoke shirt done), for a very small cost. Sure, it's inferior, it lacks soul and it's badly made (industrial shirts kind of fit, but the collar and elbows can be uncomfortable, and you won't find anything that will accomodate you if, like most humans, one of your arms is slightly longer than the other). But it's an acceptable alternative to going to work half-naked. From my experience, this little trick is quite well-known, since I haven't noticed many bare-chested coworkers and I am sure they don't all wear bespoke suits and dresses.
With art, it's the same. There is no dichotomy "either pay the price of an image maker, or accept not having any image". We can do the exact same thing as with burger and suits, get the quicker, less expensive version. Sure, it will be soulless and spitted out by a machine, it will have imperfect hands sometime and details will be off like a cat's whisker being too symmetrical, but it will mostly do the job in 99% of the cases. That's definitely not the same product, probably not targetting the same market.
I don't feel bad at using AI anymore than I feel bad wearing non-bespoke clothes (mostly) and eating industrial food (very occasionally). I am all for people having the choice to either get a quick & half-bad product or a hand-made product, but I can see how most people won't afford the luxury of the bespoke product and get the more convenient, cheaper alternative. For this reason, I am not leaning toward forbidding AI images, ready-made food and off-the-peg clothes.
Hmmm....
BUT... I have found a loophole!
Instead of having to either lunch in a restaurant, or stay hungry, I can have an industrial, frozen burger that I reheat in a microwave at work (ting!). It's much quicker than having lunch in a proper restaurant. It's also much inferior: the bread isn't freshly home-made, the beef is probably full of growth hormones, the cheese is certainly some imitation and not a real cheddar made in Somerset, within 30 miles of the cathedral of Wells. A deeply inferior product to be sure, but a filling meal anyway.
This also apply to shirts. There is no dichotomy like "if you are not willing to pay the price of tailor, you don't get to wear a shirt". There is a trick, very much like the burger one. Using an industrial machine constructed to imitate the work of the tailor and generate a shirt in much less time (you just need to pick it at the store, not taking measures and waiting litteraly months to get your bespoke shirt done), for a very small cost. Sure, it's inferior, it lacks soul and it's badly made (industrial shirts kind of fit, but the collar and elbows can be uncomfortable, and you won't find anything that will accomodate you if, like most humans, one of your arms is slightly longer than the other). But it's an acceptable alternative to going to work half-naked. From my experience, this little trick is quite well-known, since I haven't noticed many bare-chested coworkers and I am sure they don't all wear bespoke suits and dresses.
With art, it's the same. There is no dichotomy "either pay the price of an image maker, or accept not having any image". We can do the exact same thing as with burger and suits, get the quicker, less expensive version. Sure, it will be soulless and spitted out by a machine, it will have imperfect hands sometime and details will be off like a cat's whisker being too symmetrical, but it will mostly do the job in 99% of the cases. That's definitely not the same product, probably not targetting the same market.
I don't feel bad at using AI anymore than I feel bad wearing non-bespoke clothes (mostly) and eating industrial food (very occasionally). I am all for people having the choice to either get a quick & half-bad product or a hand-made product, but I can see how most people won't afford the luxury of the bespoke product and get the more convenient, cheaper alternative. For this reason, I am not leaning toward forbidding AI images, ready-made food and off-the-peg clothes.
Last edited: