Look, I know AI is controversial, but just for a moment, let's set aside our preconceived notions, our biases, the environmental impact, the massive cost to train and run models, the labor exploitation, the intellectual property theft, the inaccuracies, the mania it causes in users, the destruction of search, the deskilling of professionals, the devaluation of creative work, job losses, and lack of economic value from enterprise implementations.

Wait, what were we talking about?

@maxleibman the question I often ask myself, especially with regards to the art theft of AI, is: does having the ability to instantly generate art actually make society better?

I just don't see the point. We create art to express ourselves. When a machine does it for us, the machine is doing most of the expressing for us.

The only situation I can really see there being a point is for people who view the creative process as an impediment to maximizing profi- ohhhhh...

@constancies @maxleibman most people I know can differentiate between "great art that is supposed to mean something" vs. a "funny picture that makes me smile for 4 minutes".

AI image generation is used for the second purpose by most everyday folk. For the corporate types, they've been doing soulless "art" work for decades, the kinds of stuff their creatives did had no, or only traces of "self-expression" anyways.