this post was submitted on 29 Mar 2025
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Mental Health

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cross-posted from: https://sh.itjust.works/post/35230638

I love drawing so much and it's taken years to get to a point where I'm satisfied enough to share my drawings. Only thing is now there's AI and I'm disturbed by the fact there's so many people who prefer AI generated art and will feel no remorse using it since it is basically an art theft machine. This whole thing has absolutely demolished my mental health over the last few years since AI generators went mainstream. I'm paranoid as fuck and want to get rid of all my current devices but, I still rely on the ipad heavily for drawing and I did the research and there's literally no work around to avoid my art being stolen in some way by spyware or keyloggers or whatever, the US government...the whatever other governments. Hide your data, hide your art. They stealin everybody's art out here. I just want to be able to live my life and enjoy doing what I do without this ugly, uncanny valley shadow following me. There's like a million communities on lemmy I had to block that are dedicated to posting ai generated art, and feels almost like an act of spite like they made the accounts just to hurt real artists, but maybe it isn't. Maybe they really do think it's real art and anyone hurt by it is just too sensitive.

I'm not alright with AI art. It's digital r*pe, it steals people's livelihood (and money) and most sacred, intimate details, and hard work without their consent. But we are all behind screens so people don't understand how it wrecks people who've gone to school or self taught themselves to draw for ten or more years. I've had periods where I had to rebuild my drawing skills because I lost them during bouts of illness. That is a hard thing to do. I know there are people who never do it.
I feel kind of hopeless at this time. My depression is telling me there's no point, because I will never be able to earn a penny off my drawings. But I heard someone say, so what. Do the thing anyway. Birds aren't paid to sing. They just do it anyway, because it feels good. Drawing makes me feel good. And it's really all I can do as a disabled, severely mentally ill and chronically ill person. I can barely contribute to society and it crushes my self worth. Drawing helps make up for it. People don't need art though so they don't really care as long as at the end of the day they have something to jack off to.

Jesse Gender did a good video essay on why AI art is fcked up titled "How AI is Destroying Our Dreams." The people that need to hear this message the most (the ones that love and regularly use AI art generators) are the ones who would reject it with a whataboutism, which isn't a real argument but a shutdown to the simple fact that AI should be used to help people, like you know, cure cancer and be a prosthetic arm for someone in need, that sort of thing. This is a sick trend....it would be amazing for there to be some kind of digital human rights law set in place that prohibits the use of it. Hard to implement something like that in these times. If you use and support AI art generators, you are not much better than Elon and Trump and need to self reflect, you don't have to live like this. If you want to make art, you can. I cherish human made art even more now than I ever did in the past. The art community is welcoming to anyone with the audacity to put a pen to a blank page.

I don't really believe in talent. "Talent" is a combination of factors including persistence, a genuine love of doing it even though it's hard, curiosity and desire to learn, and privilege--I was very lucky to be given the supplies to make art and improve my skills more quickly. My education was paid for, my family supported my desire to draw at an early age. And there was a period in my life where I had space to explore this hobby.

I know there's nothing I can say to change people's minds. But that is what I feel anyway and might as well say it. I have no animosity for people who studied to work with AI for other reasons like exactly what I mentioned--curing diseases and working for the good of humanity. It's likely they didn't sign up for this to happen down the road. AI art generating is blatant lack of empathy. It costs nothing to get AI to generate art. It costs nothing to be kind either.

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 hours ago

Oh look another entitled artist to block

I wonder how many of you whined when paintbrushes were invented

I love fingerpainting so much and it’s taken years to get to a point where I’m satisfied enough to share my paintings. Only thing is now there’s Brushes and I’m disturbed by the fact there’s so many people who prefer Brush generated art and will feel no remorse using it since it is basically an art theft machine.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago

I feel you.

I never really considered myself a "real" artist until recently (despite years of people telling me I should sell my work). I find physical mediums more satisfying than ever lately, partially because of this. The tangible artifacts of my art with their texture and dust and grit are not reproducible, and I like the process of it, and the community on Mastodon that like and comment on real art.

It definitely feels wrong to train machines to copy the art of anyone. When people copy people it's because they love something about it, there's something that person created or saw that inspires. But when we ask machines to do it it just feels cheap and wrong, it's immitation without any flattery. It's a medium without any message.

I guess one thing to consider is there are thousands of art classes where you can learn to paint in the style of Jackson Pollock, but that doesn't make seeing the real thing less impressive. We all recognize the genius in the technique, and the depth of the details and texture.

In a world where there's only AI art, styles never evolve, AI will never push things or create something fundamentally new. I think that leaves a lot of room for artists with all their unique variations and styles and signatures to stand out. At least I hope so.

I do think AI is absolutely ruining livelihoods, and it's taking things that are fundamentally human and cheapening them to the value of near zero to most people.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 days ago

From the "how are you doing thread":

If it helps, i would never enjoy art made by AI. A huge (arguably, one of the biggest) tenets of all art for me, is the love, effort or creator themselves poured into it.

For example, i absolutely love and adore MASTERBOOTRECORD and i think an AI would never be able to recreate victor's love and sweat poured into his projects.

Same thing with beautiful art. Art is meant to represent a message, and when you look at a work, you see its message. AI does not care about the messaging and undertones of art, it just paints pixels on a canvas, following instructions lifelessly.

I think most are wrong about art, it can never be created by an AI. At least, i wouldn't enjoy it at all. It's just machines following orders but not really thinking about what they do, or making it from the heart.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 days ago

I do not share your paranoia and I feel less despair than you seem to, but I am right there with you about AI art being a real problem. You don't have to be a flawless human being to be right about that.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I don’t know if you are the OOP but the person who wrote this should consult a therapist.

They think their problem is that ai is capable of creating similar or better art, but the issue of the paranoia against governments and tech devices is the bigger issue.

I think the trouble with ai is just a projection surface for paranoid issues.

Please consult a mental health professional.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

The paranoia is definitely it's own thing that I am aware I need therapy for but I don't think that means to completely dismiss any of this as just me being hysterical. The presence of AI art generators is troubling and tons of artists are struggling and truly impacted by it. We feel written off. We feel attacked and betrayed.

I think it's possible for there to be two truths. That yes I do have schizoaffective disorder and that is a personal issue I'm working on. But that ai art generators are also harmful to the art community and could discourage artists from posting to this instance if the ai art generators don't allow them a space to share.

I want to make an argument against this statement. "They think the problem is that ai is capable of creating similar or better art" I did not say this. Ai art is not better, it can never be better without the human behind the drawing. I use art in place of the more appropriate word slop to allow people to read without immediately feeling accused and thus unwilling to see my perspective on this. We can't come to an agreement on things if we are villifying the other person so if they think it's art then I will call it that on their behalf, and then gently guide that person to why it's not. It's just empty without it. And usually the proportions are off or a thumb is mangled.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 days ago

Im sorry for misreading your post regarding ai. The point I wanted to make was paranoia around gov, tech devices and such.

The ai topic is displacing importance for the paranoia.

Please try to put more energy into finding a therapist than into the ai/human art topic.