On AI and spirit
Part of a conversation I had with a friend:
I have great respect for people who use machines ethically, but don't let those machines limit their output or vision or intent.
I'll be a bit lyrical and maybe nostalgic. Setting aside ethical implications for a moment, for me, the defining element of AI art isn't its mechanical, reproducible nature, but it's (more often than not) lack of spirit. This is a kind of ineffable quality of spirit I feel, and many might disagree with me, which is also fine.
Tara Donovan’s styrofoam cup sculpture is beautiful. Even in those photos I can see how wonderfully and strangely the light hits and resonates. I think it has a spirit to it. I also imagine the artist worked bloody hard to make it that way.
In the same way, I think Studio Ghibli's animations have spirit to them. Not because they're hand-drawn, though I love that, but because of the attention to vision, storytelling, intent. It is effortful in some way, like drawing blood from a stone, you can tell there were undoubtedly tears spilt and late nights spent over storytelling decisions, character designs, each word spoken. These films are so clearly effortful.
And that effortfulness – which I think is maybe the spirit I'm describing – represents a human transcending some kind of plane or boundary or experience through their effort, in service of their creativity. You can see the same transcendence in a young musician who plays a far-from-perfect piece of music, but clearly poured their heart into it to get their performance to that point. They and their performance have spirit.
We already have so much spiritlessness in the world. And some people might make some beautiful things with AI, but unless there is that effortfulness, that striving, that spirit, it shows me nothing about who they are as a human and what they're willing to transcend to create something true to themselves.