Hot take: People keep saying AI art is 'just math' and it's missing the point.

I keep seeing this argument that because AI models use math, the art they make is somehow neutral and not really copying. I saw a video last week where a guy said, 'It's just numbers, man, it can't steal a style.' But that's wrong. I watched a friend, a digital painter in Austin, spend three months developing a specific way to do lighting. An AI can be trained on her public portfolio and spit out images with that same lighting in seconds. The math is the tool, but the input is real work from real people. It matters because calling it 'just math' makes it sound fair when it isn't. It ignores where the data comes from. How do we even start talking about paying artists if we don't admit the style had to come from somewhere first?

3 comments

3 Comments

patriciarivera25d ago

Exactly. "Just math" is such a weak excuse. It's a tool that runs on stolen homework.

fionam1125d ago

My nephew's last school project had that same "original" opening paragraph.

seanmason25d ago

Man, it's like saying a factory just uses steel, ignoring all the designs it copied.