Thoughts on AI and art
You probably have seen the sentence that "AI art is not art" online. I personally am against AI in art (visual artworks, writing etc) but also, the sentence is false.
Art is a pretty open term, and the definition of it has been debated for ages. Some definitions will exclude AI art completely, while others will include it. But I think that wether it is or is not art is the wrong question to ask. What is the meaning of "it doesn't have soul" in the first place? You could argue that art created to advertise some company does not have a soul either. The question should be about the ethics of AI art.
It is a fact that AI companies took all the images available on the open web, and even pirated books to feed to their datasets. That work is protected under copyright law, but let's even pretend that intellectual property isn't a thing at all. They took the exact unedited work of millions of people, without their permission, many times against the wishes of the creators, and monetized it. I think that that is unethical. Does that make any AI work unethical? Well yes, but the line becomes blurred, because it seems like it is not taking the exact work and copying it. So no? It's confusing
What I can say for certain is that if some artist specifically wishes that their work is not uploaded to AI tools, people should respect their wishes. If I took my friends art and willingly gave it to someone that will sell it for profit, and I knew my friend doesn't want that, well maybe I should not. Same goes for AI.
Anyways, these are mostly random thoughts I've had after reading recent dispute about such things. What's your opinion?