The AI Vending Machine

I've been thinking that AI generation of images is much like a vending machine for art.

An unusual vending machine that delivers its idea of what the customer is asking for but from a limitless collection of what creations have preceded it. A vending machine for creative action that doesn't create but delivers product/creativity from an amalgam of human creators whose work results from real-world emotional experiences, something AI can only try to understand but never experience for itself. 

Artificial intelligence (AI) has made remarkable strides in generating what some uninformed viewers call creative works, from poetry to music and visual art. However, at its core, AI’s creative output is akin to a vending machine dispensing products - an amalgamation of existing human creations repackaged and presented in a novel form.

While AI can mimic and recombine elements from a vast body of human-made art, it lacks the genuine emotional experiences that fuel creativity.

Yet, despite AI’s apparent boundlessness, its creations are ultimately derivative works, lacking the genuine emotional depth and lived experiences that imbue photography with its profundity and resonance. While AI can mimic the surface elements of human creativity, it cannot truly understand or experience the emotions, struggles, and triumphs that inspire great photographs.

Human creativity is deeply rooted in our experiences, emotions, and perspectives. A photographer’s work is imbued with the joy, sorrow, and passion they have felt. Their photos resonate with the depths of their own struggles and triumphs, capturing the essence of their innermost feelings and emotions.

AI, on the other hand, operates within the confines of its training data and algorithms. It can recognize patterns, recombine elements, and generate novel outputs but cannot truly understand or experience the human condition that fuels genuine creativity. AI's creations reflect the data it has been exposed to, not the product of personal experiences and emotional depth.

AI encapsulates the capabilities and limitations of technology in the creative domain. It provides unprecedented access and customization in art generation, yet it operates without the core of what makes art profoundly human: emotion. Photographers must balance embracing AI’s potential and preserving the irreplaceable value of human emotional experience in art.

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