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I very likely wrote some of the posts on /ic/ you’re referring to.
My mental model of the developers/proponents of AI art (and AI in general) is that they believe that they’re genuinely making the world a better place, at least by the measure of their own terminal values. I just happen to sharply disagree with them.
Obviously, posts written on 4chan to blow off steam and commiserate with people in your own camp do not always reflect the nuance and complexity of one’s actual views.
EDIT: Well, since I just brought up the subject of having nuanced views, I should acknowledge that I don’t think the motives of AI developers are entirely pure-hearted in all cases. If you read the /sdg/ and /hdg/ threads, hardly a thread goes by without someone saying “fuck artists” or “it’s over for artcels”. There’s clearly some amount of resentment there for people who possessed a skill that they wanted, but were not able to obtain for whatever reason. As for a broader UN/WEF conspiracy to reduce the global population by replacing workers with automation - obviously I don’t have any concrete evidence of an intentional conspiracy, but I do fear that a future like that is possible, even if no one is consciously intending to bring it about.
I am one to make passing comments of this sort. I am also a "techbro" (their words not mine).
Not because I resent the fact I lack artistic ability or whatever, but because you can only read so many comments calling you a nerd, a virgin, telling you to leave your basement, saying you have no creativity, saying you are responsible for making society worse in every aesthetic way possible, etc. And being portrayed as all those things in movies and other media before you kind of go like,"well fuck them".
The fact that programmers practically automated away artists is the most "schadenfreude" inducing thing to happen in a long time. It's borderline cartoonish. Programmers get mad at artists shitting on them, so they just automate their jobs away.
Ultimately its immature/juvenile culture warring, a lot of people are getting their kicks in while the enemy is down.
So you’re acknowledging that you like this technology because you see it as a way to inflict harm on people you perceive to have wronged you. I say “perceive” because, as far as I can tell as a card-carrying nerd myself, picking on “nerds” hasn’t been a thing in the US for at least a decade, if not more. Working in tech is considered to be relatively high status. There’s also some irony here because commercial artists, who stand to be impacted the most by AI, are also frequently loners and weirdos themselves who spend a lot of time surrounded by video games and comic books, and thus know full well what it’s like to be a “nerd”.
I don’t know why you thought this was supposed to make you appear sympathetic.
Higher or lower status than art? The latter is usually associated with self-sacrifice, of pursuing beauty even at expense of earning potential. So I would say that there is no obvious winner: the engineer can afford to attend to attend an exhibition, but it is the artists work that will be viewed.
Like @EfficientSyllabus says, in «the real world» artists aren't doing too hot, whereas techies are in great demand. But in their own frame of reference, artists are the master race. Moreover, it's not mundane conceit, like low-grade techies' own boasts of having high IQs or earning a lot while creatives flip burgers. It's more similar to Russian ressantiment-powered invectives directed at the West: artists have unusual, rich SOVLS, and their entire trade is about conveying their inner depths to the thankful audience (which is near-universally despised and considered to be scum with trash taste, however – especially in light of their interest in AI content), Techies are the complete opposite of artists: ignorant of SOUL, of beauty and love and other lofty categories, mere bugmen churning out code to make the corrupt machine of capitalism run smoothly, crushing the fragile wonder of the human heart etc. etc.
This is insulting on its face and, what's more, it's laughable chutzpah. There is of course art in STEM and specifically in coding, and it's not lost on developers who wander into artists' dens that there's astounding cynicism, small-mindedness and mercenary attitude among artists. It's a crab bucket where every crab gatekeeps his secrets of drawing some perverted fetish (often a sort of furry or dickgirl) to cater to a niche audience of degenerates.
Thus their scorn.
Why do you capitalize SOUL? Because of that Indy PRG?
Magical Girl Celesphonia?
no, i thought about the one making a big fuss on 'determination'. Undertale
Ah, I couldn't stand its art style, so I don't know anything about it beyond the memes.
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