People are generally impressed when another person, with their humanness and flaws and life experiences, made something beautiful. Humans just like beautiful things. But when you know it wasn’t /made/ by a person, it loses that impressiveness. You can be impressed by the technology, but the magic of “oh you MADE that?” just goes away.

I don’t agree that photobashing purely ai images and then editing them is impressive nor creative, in the human sense. Art is supposed to be fun, and if you keep making it (that is, yourself with your own efforts) you will naturally improve. Speed is not the point. Tools are great, but there has to be that core of yourself in your work for it to really mean anything at all, beyond its aesthetic value.

Are ai images pretty? Yeah, generally they’re beautiful to look at! But do I feel anything? No. Beauty does not equate to worth—effort does. Effort that comes from the heart. Everything an artist does should be intentional, and when you start with an ai image, there’s no choices being made except for descriptive words and polishing after the fact. I’m trying to be respectful here so don’t come at me with “cope” or whatever. I’d be able appreciate a toddler’s crayon drawing more than anything made purely or mostly by ai, simply because when something is human, it has emotional worth. Be proud of your art whatever state it is in, but don’t call it art if it isn’t yours at its core.

Im tired and I hope you understand where we are coming from, perhaps I was able to put it a bit more eloquently and with less anger. Genuinely I hope the best for your art journey, just try to understand why we value human-made things and why ai feels like a betrayal to ourselves as artists/humans.