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Comment by johnfn | Hacker News Reader

I use a compiler to perform a task. I don’t use pixel art to perform a task, other than to feel connection to another human —- something AI makes more challenging.

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I've been thinking about this a lot lately. I feel very averse to consuming AI media, but it's not super obvious to me why. In some sense, I agree with what you're saying, but in reality no pixel art of a city I've never been to would elicit that feeling in me. Maybe I would feel differently if it were art of the city I live in and had some pixels dedicated to specific things I think are cool about the city, but for this website in particular it could be the best pixel art of SF ever made and I don't think it would be all that meaningful to me.

The main conclusion I've come to is that it's less that I dislike AI art inherently, and rather that I value the human decisions in media that I personally care about, and AI media threatens both its creation and how much other people value such things.

maybe you are MOSTLY judging what you perceive to be the artist's options and then decisions, and with most AI art, it's super easy to judge both of those quickly and accurately -- they had a billion options, and they chose a really lazy one.

or i don't know if you are but this is how i think i feel a lot of the time haha

I mean pixel art is kind of weird, in that I rarely just look at a single screen of pixel art and say, wow, I feel more connected now. It’s often taken in context of a larger whole, like a game or animation where the artist is usually trying to express something, and the specific art is some small part of the overall expression. It’s kind of like how no individual still image from Spirited Away will convey the meaning of the whole movie.

It's not how most people encounter it, but non-animated, non-game standalone pixel art is a thriving artistic niche. Check out the Hall of Fame on lospec for examples:

https://lospec.com/gallery/sorting:likes/time:all

other than to feel connection to another human

With AI, instead you feel a connection to the sum of all humanity.

Usually I just feel a connection to someone out to make a quick buck from imitating works that a lot of love and effort were put into.

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