Love Art and Artists More Than You Hate AI

I understand why people dislike AI. There are certainly a number of things that frustrate me about it.

As an artist that spends most of their working hours online, I frequently get asked my thoughts about it and I believe that is because artists have legitimate concerns. Their work has been scraped, their styles have been imitated, and an industry that already makes it difficult to earn a living from art is changing faster than most of us can keep up with. How can we possibly compete with a robot? ThEy To0k OuR JERBS!! (sorry, lame South Park joke)

Those concerns are certainly real, but I think sometimes the conversation gets so focused on hating AI that we lose sight of something more important:

Love artists more than you hate AI.

If you don't like AI-generated art, that's okay. Don't buy it. Don't use it. Don't support businesses replacing artists with it. Speak up about unethical training practices and advocate for protections for artists.

But while you're doing that, remember to actually support the people whose work you want to protect.

Buy an original.

Commission an artist.

Buy a print.

Go to a local art show.

Follow an artist you love.

Share their work.

Leave a comment.

Tell them what their painting made you feel.

Send them a photo of their piece hanging on your wall.

Those things matter.

As an artist, I can tell you that a genuine connection with another person is one of the best parts of making art. Someone seeing something I created and deciding that it means enough to them that they want to put it on their wall is pretty damn special.

AI can't replace that relationship.

And I don't think we should make the mistake of treating every person who uses AI as the enemy, either. Technology is complicated. Artists themselves are going to use these tools in different ways. Some will reject them completely. Some will experiment with them. Some will incorporate them into their workflow.

We can disagree about that, but what matters is that we don't let the argument consume us.

Because if you spend all day telling people how much you hate AI but never spend five minutes supporting an artist, I'm not sure you've actually helped the thing you're fighting for.

Love art. Love artists.

Support the humans behind the work.

And if you want to fight AI, fight for artists—not just against a technology.

That's a much more meaningful fight.