will AI kill art?

AI is the news right now in tech, and people are examining its potential impact. Is this pointless?

Humans have failed to understand the implications of new tech for decades, because it changes society in unpredictable ways.

We can't foresee every use case.

Even the inventors of groundbreaking tech had no idea what they created.

In 1977, computer engineer Ken Olsen believed no one would ever want a computer in their house [1]. The inventor of the mobile phone, Marty Cooper, thought they would never replace a landline [2].

AI and Art

Some artists believe AI threatens their livelihood [3]. That the superior speed of AI will make their comparably slow process obsolete.

But, like tech, artists make bad predictions about art.

Artists believed photography would make realism painting obsolete. It ended up creating a new medium and merely shifting the role of painting.

Artists believed digital instruments (synths) would replace “real” instruments and ruin music creation. Synths ending up spawning new genres like electronic, and widened access to music production.

Creativity post-AI

New tech creates more artistic tools, but it doesn’t replace the old ones.

People are still paying for live symphonies over Spotify, for cameras instead of a smartphone, and for Steinway pianos instead of synths.

Some artists will speak out against AI, especially if they made a career before its creation.

But others won’t. They’ll see AI as fuel to create art that wasn’t previously possible.

And that is exciting.