Happy World Art Day (And Why “A.I.” Cannot Make Art)
Art is everywhere. Even when we don’t notice it, when it seems to blend into the background of the mundane, most of what humans create is influenced by art.
There is nothing more human than art, nothing more fundamental to our social progress or essential to our development as a species. Art exists not just around us but within us; it gives life meaning.
Art is more than aesthetics: it’s survival.
Art is powerful, not only because it can communicate the depths of a person’s soul to countless others, but because of its ability to connect us with those who lived and died hundreds or even thousands of years before us, those who were compelled to express the world as they understood it and created a powerful record of our shared humanity.
Art, in all its forms, captures our most abstract feelings, emotions, ideas, and thoughts, and transforms them in a way that transcends cultural and language barriers, transmitting what words sometimes fail to convey. Except when words themselves are turned into art, of course.
Art also helps us solve problems, develop critical thinking skills, and process information. It is one of the pillars of community as it brings us closer together.
Art is, ultimately, the antithesis of capitalism, which is why it’s under attack.
It was never easy to make a living from art, but, once upon a time, it was possible. These days, artists everywhere are struggling more than ever, they’re losing hope, because of all the “art” being “made” by “Artificial Intelligence”.
But what this technology is really doing is usurping our creativity and imagination; it’s attempting to take away our very humanity. It’s exhausting and heart-breaking but it will ultimately fail.
Because what these Large Language Models (LLMs) spit out is NOT art—it’s work stolen from human artists without credit or compensation and then regurgitated through “prompts” input by people too lazy, dull, and stupid to make their own art, or too cheap to pay someone else to do it for them.
A machine can never make real art because it can’t conceptualise it. We can argue that some animals make art, but animals are alive. Algorithms are not.
And no matter how much tech oligarchs try to push the idea that it’s something novel or exciting, their slop will never even lick the heels of what a human being can create.
Because a machine cannot feel, cannot contemplate, cannot yearn or love or despair.
And that is where art comes from—from those emotions so overwhelming and deep and unnamable that they must be expelled lest they weigh too heavily on our souls.
Today, on the birthday of master artist Leonardo DaVinci, UNESCO celebrates World Art Day.
So I wanted to take the opportunity to give thanks to all artists, regardless of the medium they use to express themselves and to tell their stories of the world, for keeping beauty alive, for reaching out to connect with others, and for reminding us we’re not alone.
And I also wanted to say: FUCK AI. FUCK LLMs. And FUCK so-called “AI artists”. They’re pathetic and talentless and lack every single quality that makes a person an artist.
To the real artists, keep creating and fantasising and imagining—art is what will get us through.
Laura Restrepo Ortega 