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You know, I'm skeptical. I quit PoE recently and got back to doing art outside of work hours after a long spell away. I played with the AI generators a bit, and they're really neat, but now I find myself back to the digital paint and modelling tools, because they're still easier.
Part of what makes them easier is an understanding of what makes a picture look good. Practicing with pencils and paints helps build that understanding; I'd imagine working as a promptomancer is going to drive some of the same understanding as well, if you're going to be at all good at it.
Maybe traditional art skills help make better promptomancers? Maybe promptomancy makes learning art skills easier? The generators aren't actually magic yet, and even if they were, painting is fun, and it can turn a marginal AI output into a show-stopper. Is the conflict really so dire?
I remain optimistic, in any case. It's possible, maybe even probable I'll live to see the tools completely surpass me. But there's a kid I'm tutoring in art skills; she's in middle school right now, and by the time she hits college I think she's gonna be good enough to get a paying gig. I'm fairly confident when that happens, there's still going to be jobs for her to get, and she, like me, has an excellent chance of simply surfing the AI wave the rest of her life.
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