My main frustrations of AI and art is that people often frame art as a product the creator has made, instead of something part of the creator.
What I'm referring to here is the parts of self that artists put into their work. For example, many of Raymond Carver's characters in his short stories are blue collar workers in the mid-west. He's writing from experience. He was a blue collar worker from the mid-west.
(I'm not referring to 'separating art from the artist', that's a different conversation).
In many aspects of art, art is certainly a product that the creator is making and intending to do so, but in other aspects it isn't - it's something the creator is making as part of themselves.
In conversations with AI and art, especially with AI creating visual media, I feel like people often forget this point of view.
Does this mean that someone using AI to create art can't put some of themselves into it? No, I don't think so.
Does this mean that art created with AI that has no human element in it, aside from prompts, isn't art? No, I don't think so as well. Art can be art without any human element at all. One can even consider prompts part of that human element.
It's just my opinion that this point of view is often missed in discussions. People sometimes make art because they want to, they have something to say, they have feelings they want to express, or they just want to have fun. AI can be used in this way as well.
I think people view artist's complaints similar to people losing their jobs in the industrial revolution. This is in some way correct, but it also just completely skips over the emotions, soul, and self that people put into what they create.
At the end of the day though, I don't think what I'm saying here is new at all. There are intentional artists, and then there's zombie formalism [0] or songs written by a team whose job it is to make a hit. Sorry for the rambling, I just wish people viewed art more than a product to be sold.
And at the end of the day, maybe my opinion is just my own. I love reading about the process an artist takes and their entire life, but I know not everyone does the same.
[0]: https://www.artspace.com/magazine/contributors/see_here/the_...