The comparison and equation of artists copying one another, and generative A.I. processing and replicating styles of art, really really angers me.

Artists inspire each other. It is an organic and mostly respectful process in which human artists learn from each other, and eventually internalize their learnings, developing a voice of their own, and refining the artistic process.

There is no inspiration or respect involved in generative A.I. No discerning choice, no organic and measured learning, no appreciation for the artistically unique. There is only the mechanized meat grinder processing of huge volumes of undifferentiated data that intends to spew out innumerable digitized facsimiles, like oceans of cheap ketchup from a giant ketchup bottle. It synthesizes, mass-produces and homogenizes that which is unique. The very process itself is absolutely inhuman, and deeply unbecoming of human ingenuity.

Philosophically and ethically, this is a huge stain on human culture. We’re letting technology rape our artistic heritage, and some of us are standing by, applauding it. It’s absolutely vile.