Technology

No it was photography.

William S. Burroughs called photography "obscene and sinister", while many 19th-century critics dismissed it as a "mechanical" activity lacking soul or a refuge for "failed painters"

Edvard Munch Dismissed the medium by stating, "The camera will never compete with the brush and palette until such time as photography can be taken to Heaven or Hell".

Susan Sontag described photography as "soft murder" and a form of voyeurism, asserting it turns people into possessed objects.

And lastly

“This industry, by invading the territory of art, has become art’s most mortal enemy.” - Quote from 1859 about photography.

Strange, as the above quote sure sounds like it is about AI.

Depends. Are they still making negative money with it? If so, then I'm gonna say no.

It's kind of like robbing a bank, killing everyone inside, then running out without taking anything, dropping your wallet in the process

art isn’t something you can generate as such. having a model that can copy the Mona Lisa pixel perfectly hasn’t stolen the Mona Lisa. it’s the shitty kids’ movies and TV ads and company logos that are at stake.

art is about effort and ingenuity and is centered around people and places and times and can’t be simply replicated by an industrial process, as much as Disney wants that

No and the hyperbole around this gives AI authority that it does not deserve. I love art, and one of the things that has peeved me off in the last 10-15 years is how many times I have stood in a gallery and all around me are people with a phone out snapping a pic to say I have been there.

There is only one of that item. One, and in real life if you take the time to view, you can appreciate the delicate lines, the brush strokes, the variation of colour and technique, the grain of the canvas that have stood the test of centuries, and you can marvel that it was once held by its creator. It has the ability to stir something inside you.

Pure art still holds. as another posted alluded digital art is where it changed. It is nothing more than endless reproduction, I am not criticising digital art, it is a movement, and and employer but with it you lose uniqueness and compromise authenticity. It's hard to hear but its the nature of the format. AI is just another form of mass production and I would argue a graduation of the movement.

In short, anyone who thinks this needs to step inside a gallery and assess if AI content can achieve and hold credence.

WBM Link https://web.archive.org/web/20260413102003/https://www.theguardian.com/books/2026/apr/12/is-ai-the-greatest-art-heist-in-history

It is more like taking someone's style without consent at all, and for profit.

Few societies and institutions teach about art appreciation to everyone, and the understanding of one's expression through art is also emotional investment, that's why creatives in traditional manual endeavors are understandably enraged at AI and its investors being tactless in taking their style and then mass-producing the generated media for aesthetic but soulless consumption.

My kids are growing up in this environment and they already have an eye for ai slop. I suspect it's the same thing that led to OpenAI's TikSlop "product" is getting canned. After society had gotten over the sugar rush excitement of new and shiny toys I suspect the interest will fade and people will crave the connection you get from real art made by real people.

At least I hope that is what will happen. We might have to do something to hold the tech companies accountable for their dopamine trigger machines though.

No. They're giving AI too much credit this way.

Yes. They stole everything and are diverting markets to their supply. Many many many markets. All AI companies are criminal operations. If you've built a body of work and had it scooped up by a billionaire to have it output simply by referencing your name.... its easy to see this point. Of course the non-creator's voice, who has no work absorbed by these corporations, will be the loudest to defend AI.

piracy isn't theft.

yup

AI bad, upvotes to the left please.