NanoraptorDec 8

The bit I don't get about AI art is that what I chase after in my own work is the *doing*.

Finding a -flow- where I can kind of see a thing in my head, start working towards it, and it changes continuously as I tell myself a narrative behind what I'm making.

AI art is like instead of going out for an evening with friends, talking, and a great meal followed by dessert then lazing about in a park swearing at bats - you press a button and suddenly you're so full you could burst and have rabies.

Show threadEmily VelascoDec 8

@NanoRaptor I think that's because the people who do AI art don't get art. I know some of them enjoy the iterative process of refining the work through additional prompts, but it seems like the general vibe is that AI boosters see art as a product, not an activity, and if it's a product, its production should be streamlined.

It's not you, it's them!

Show threadChipDec 8
@NanoRaptor @MLE_online I think that’s exactly right. Relatedly, I’m kind of baffled by my fellow engineers adopting it to write code. I have no interest myself, and I’m realizing with some horror that I don’t understand them the way I thought I did. I program computers because I find genuine joy in finding the solution. Apparently they don’t.
Show threadEmily VelascoDec 8
@bytex64 If I wasn't so opposed to AI on principle, I might use it to help me write code. I am bad at coding, and even after years if playing with it, I'm still bad at it.
Show threadChip

@MLE_online The secret to programming is everyone’s bad at it. 😆 That’s why AI coding assistants are even valuable. It doesn’t produce better code, it just produces code faster, so it can replace lower level programmers pretty effectively. :[

And yeah, I wouldn’t even really blame you for using it to skip the tedious parts, except for all the other issues with the corporations and culture surrounding it.

Dec 8 at 5:19pmWeb
Show threadEmily VelascoDec 8

@bytex64 I have friends who know how to code, and i've seen them code and it seems to come naturally to them. They write code quickly and it works well. Then there's me. If everyone is bad, then I am dreadfully awful.

It's not a matter of tediousness. It's just that I can't wrap my brain around parts of it and make it work

Show threadChipDec 8

@MLE_online Yeah. I guess what I mean is, based on the state of what I’ve seen, everyone could be doing better. But also don’t let other people’s seeming lack of effort trick you into thinking it should be easy.

In art class I had a friend who could just freehand illustrations with a sharpie. Genuinely made me think I was bad at drawing, and it took me years to realize most people start with pencil sketches and refine step by step (our art teacher was also maybe not the best…). I’m still not good, but at least now I understand it’s not fundamentally about my lack of skill. :)

Show threadEmily VelascoDec 8
@bytex64 I don't expect it to be easy. I just don't seem to get much better at it. It is always a huge struggle and I just don't 'get' it a lot of times. I think I'm just not built right in the brain to be good at coding
Show threadChipDec 8

@MLE_online Maybe, maybe not. But the people you’re comparing yourself to have probably been doing it every day for a decade or more. I struggled. They struggled too, I guarantee it. But if it’s not your bag, that’s fine. There’s plenty of humans willing to help so you don’t have to lean on AI. :)

(At least for me, guided instruction helped a lot. I didn’t understand a *lot* of things before going to college.)