I was talking to an art director and realized that a big part of the draw of generative AI for certain people is not what it makes but how they can treat it. Endless revisions, no clear goals, last minute changes, no pushback and no taste of their own to question the user's vision. They don't care that what they get out is bad (and honestly they probably can't tell anyway), they care that here's a machine that works the way they think artists should work - as extensions of their own will.
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in reply to @johnnemann's post:
Some of that stems from not wanting to treat an artist that way, wanting instead to have a machine that doesnt suffer from frustration to try to get a desired outcome
anyone who operates that way is a shit director and will produce worse work in longer timelines with more peoples' feelings hurt along the way
I don't have the mental resources to expand on this the way that I want to, but there's a lot of "so close" to creative process that is missed with Machine Generation software. Like, in the grand scheme of things you have very limited creative control, the software works more like a Frozen Oven-bake Pizza than it does the raw components that would make one. There's a hint of creative thinking by wanting to create things and damn the consequences if it isn't good, but only just a hint.
Actually intending an output regardless of quality is a fundamental component of the artistic process, and what kills me is a lot of people who advocate for Machine Generation software legitimately only see artistic expression as a commodity. They often lack a perspective into their own motivations beyond the mere economics of exploitation, and that's frustrating because if not for this impairment they'd probably comprehend the software's expressive limitations.
Like. Yes, it takes Time, Skill, Knowledge, and Practice to draw the rest of the owl. No one is saying that's easy except for people who think the Owl should be their property and also sold for a profit. But when Machine Generation fills the role of creative direction, no one but the person pushing the button and the company vending the software benefits all that much. Art can introduce a lot of cool shit into society, express ideas, offer community, so-on and so-forth.
A creativity-devoid Machine Generation is worth even less than the variant JPEG's of monkeys these same people tried to pump and dump for profit two years ago.