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The Evolution of Art and Ai

·2 mins

The AI deceleration movement isn’t new. With every step change in technology, we’ve had people with vested interests protest.

First, they dismiss it. Then they ridicule it. Then they’re wary of it. Finally they attack it. Without fail, they lose to it.

One must realise that the way ahead odds to co-opt technology and move beyond what it can do. Humans can do so many things that AI just can’t. And even if it does, we keep pushing the limits and going beyond.

I’d like to take the example of how art evolved in the face of technology. When photography emerged, painters felt irrelevant. A painter’s job was to recreate the world in the highest fidelity possible - to capture a moment in time. Photographs could do it in mere seconds at a higher fidelity. What could they do?

Let’s look at three paths:

  1. Some painters derided the new form as ridiculous and an insult to human ingenuity. “It can’t capture the soul of a scene like we can.” These painters went on the road of irrelevancy and commodity.

  2. Others turned to doing things beyond the new technology. Impressionists came along and saw the world outside its realist boundaries. This led to the rise of the surrealists, cubists, pointillism, and most of contemporary art. They evolved to go beyond what technology could do. They survived as long as they evolved.

  3. The third kind turned the new medium into an art form itself. They co-opted the new art form into their career and work. Photography became their medium to do things that no one else thought of. They captured moments paintings just couldn’t. They rode the wave of improving technology and created their own new industry.

With AI, many forms of human creativity are now evolving. I was surprised with the backlash against the wave of Ghibli photos on the Internet. Those who called it “theft” did not understand that this technology has just brought creative expression to the masses.

It is our choice on how we evolve with AI. Whether we’re a VC, a developer, an artist, a lawyer, or a reporter. We have to learn, to go beyond, and to co-opt to survive.

The opportunities are boundless. It’s up to us to seize them.