Watch The Video

Read The Transcript

This week, I want to chat about AI and some thoughts I’ve been having about it—my experience of using it. I use it every single day, multiple times a day at my work, and there are some things I’ve been thinking about ever since I started this painting I’m currently working on. How does AI impact the relevance of a medium like painting? Is it still relevant in a world where a bot can receive some directives and spit out what some might see as a masterpiece?

I want to start by saying that I am not an AI hater by any means. I work in the tech industry, I use AI every day at my job, and I am completely blown away—repeatedly blown away—by its ability to synthesize large amounts of information, collate ideas from multiple sources, and summarize the key points of those ideas to do gap analyses. It saves me so much time and effort, and for that, I am grateful for it.

Honestly, I know that using AI has a significant environmental impact, and I’m not going to speak on that because I am no expert by any means. I know very little about it. This is really just to share a couple of different perspectives on AI, and before I talk about it in the context of art, I want to be clear that I am not against AI. I think that it is incredibly valuable, and I’m a user of it. I can also see where it has major flaws and disadvantages.

When I started this painting, I was thinking about the relevance of painting. I’m in this process of reflecting on my life and realizing how much time I’ve wasted not engaging in the practice of painting, which is something that I really love. And now I’m doing it at this moment when AI is so prevalent and people are creating astounding things using AI. So, I’ve just let that idea and that question simmer in my brain as I’m working on this piece and as I’m going about my daily life, seeing the ways that AI impacts my day-to-day and the way other people use it.

From what I’ve observed and from what I’ve experienced, there really is nothing to replace the authenticity and the unique personality of something created by a human. I want to give you a non-art example of that.

Something I do in my work is hiring, and as you can imagine, AI is heavily used by candidates in the hiring process. So, we have a multi-step process for someone to be hired by the company that I work for, and the first step is to submit an application. People find it online, answer questions, and submit a resume. I can’t tell you how often I read the same responses—literally, word for word. People all over the world can apply to work at my company for this particular job, and people all over the world are using AI. We are reading hundreds of applications a week, and over and over again, we’re reading the same thing. Of course, I think it’s wise to use AI for something like a job application. However, what people are failing to do is to use it as a tool and then re-inject their personality into it.

So, the result is, people who write authentically, people whose voice and personality come through in their application, those are the ones that stand out. Even if someone might not have quite as much experience as we want them to, their application is still going to stand out simply for the fact that it doesn’t sound exactly like the 10 other applications that I just reviewed.

I’m sharing that example because, as I’m working on this painting, I’m realizing how much of myself and how much of my personality goes into this painting every time I work on it. As I’m painting, I’m thinking, reflecting, having emotional experiences, and listening to music, and all of that is coming through in the painting. Whether the viewer is aware of any of those things doesn’t really matter; I feel that because I am infusing those things into the painting, it has an impact. That impact is going to be received differently by everyone who is able to view this painting, either online or in person. That’s one piece of it.

The other piece is the way the idea evolves as I work on it. This creation started as something very different in my mind. When I had the initial idea, it was so different! The process of creation—it’s like a conversation, a back-and-forth between me and the canvas and the medium that I’m using. And that conversation means that it changes and evolves over time. Where I start is going to be very different than where I end up, and I think that is so magical.

If you’re using AI to create art, I’m sure there’s incredible art being created with AI. I have no doubt about that. That’s all good. I’m just saying that I’m not worried about painting with my hands, from my imagination. I’m not worried about that becoming irrelevant because there’s something about it that could never be captured by a bot or by something digital, which is an entirely different medium. It has its place, and it has its beauty.

I wanted to share all that because these thoughts have been on my mind so much. As I have my day job, which is very technologically oriented, I’m on my computer all day, interacting with people all over the world, and I’m really indulging in the incredible usefulness of AI. Then I’ll often spend the evening disconnected from technology, with my paintbrush and my paint, having a very different experience with my canvas. I think both are incredibly important and incredibly relevant.

I’m so curious to know what you think about all this, and maybe the different ways that you are using AI in your life and maybe in your art. What are the questions that you’re asking? What are you contemplating as you’re creating? Let’s talk about it. Thanks for listening.

Featured image by Fallon Michael on Unsplash.