Hot take: The 'AI art' section at the Denver con last week was a total letdown.

Three years ago, I saw a digital art booth there that blew my mind with custom brushes and lighting tricks. Last month, I prepped a new piece for it, spending hours on texture layers. But last week, half the floor was just people typing prompts into a laptop. It felt lazy and stole space from artists who actually craft something. Has anyone else felt their local scene get watered down by this stuff?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_lucas2mo ago

Stole space from artists" is exactly right. It's not art, it's a search engine with pictures. Saw the same thing at a small show back home. Felt like a tech demo, not a place for skill. Takes the soul right out of it.

the_brian2mo ago

Ngl, the Denver con felt like a weird tech fair. Saw a guy just typing "epic dragon" over and over while a real artist next to him had maybe two people look at her painted canvases. @the_lucas is onto something with the search engine thing. My favorite part was the "AI artist" who got mad when his laptop battery died. Real skill on display there.

mitchell.lee2mo ago

Gotta push back on this a little... didn't the same thing happen with photography? People said it wasn't real art when cameras showed up, now nobody argues about that. Saw a guy at that con using AI to make concept art for his indie game, and it looked better than anything I could draw in a year. @the_lucas is acting like tools don't matter, but a paintbrush is just a tool too. Feel like we're judging a new hammer before we've seen what it can build.