something I am grateful for today

new dishwashing gloves that haven't sprung a leak yet

AI art

Someone posted a piece of AI art somewhere and asked for thoughts and comments. It's the first time I tried to nail down my vague feelings on the subject. Here's what I came up with:

I'm still coming to terms with AI art. On some levels, it's just a new manifestation of something that has long been with us... for example, the human artist who repeatedly paints variations of the same picture and sells prints of them to people who are easily satisfied. It makes visual pleasure affordable and readily accessible. Similar to the way that portrait photographers [as opposed to portrait painters] did. In a way, AI art is a fancier form of clip art, I guess.

This doesn't mean that I wholeheartedly approve of it, just that I recognize that it arises from economic and cultural forces that are not new. It means that original human art will be obliged to become more sincere, less of a commodity and more ars gratia artis. That's bad for artists and their livelihoods, but it's not bad for art per se.