What is AI compared to the hand that wields it?

For now, AI is a tool in the hands of a human artist. It has no spontaneity or autonomy 😜                    

If it had, then indeed it would not be a tool, but a co-creator, a fellow artist in its own right                     

OK, I see what you mean. The AI used to generate images is still too simple and straightforward

Yes, it is not AGI, general intelligence, as the chess and trafiic jam examples show                            

It has no independent understanding of reality or meaning?

No indeed, just links between tags and images                                   

So how would you evaluate AI as a tool compared to other technological influences on art?

Well, I’m no art historian or philosopher of art                                    

but I guess the impact will not be bigger than photography, say    

What makes you say that?

Photography didn’t mean the end of art as we know it, it just gave artists a new medium, and painters a new challenge                    

So a picture generated by AI is not essentially different from a picture generated by a camera?

For artistic purposes, I’d go out on a limb and say no …                    

but of course there’s always abuses and counterexamples              

Like what? 😏

Well, there’s been cases of painters just tracing photos, basically plagiarizing the photographer

Right, so the entire artisanal process of using pain and brushes is not what makes the painting art, but …

The creative vision, and the mastery of the tools needed to execute it

OK, so copying a photo lacks both while using AI still needs both?

To create art with AI, yes, I would say you need both your original artistic vision of what you want to create and the skill to make the AI do what you want

Thank you, this has been most informative! 😍😍