People Hate AI Art • Hacker News Board

Re: People Hate AI Art

#41

Post by happytoexplain » Sat, May 09, 2026, 2:49 AM UTC

doginasuit wrote: post #25

People hate AI compositions, especially from a publication. There are many valid uses for AI image generators. My nieces and I have a blast coming up with stories and illustrating them with generated images. It is even better when they hallucinate an extra finger or ear, we can work it into the story. I also like to use AI as a sort of filter on pictures that I took. Make a photo look like a drawing, for example. It…

Right. AI is probably the biggest "umbrella term" we've yet had to wrestle with as a society. AI art as a concept is mostly hideously soulless and anti-human, a disgusting abomination that is rightly reviled, and that's all totally orthogonal to the fact that it's mostly very ugly.

But it's absolutely lovely and heartwarming when my brother uses it to make environment art to go with a D&D campaign for his children.

It's hyper-polarized.

Re: People Hate AI Art

#42

Post by tokioyoyo » Sat, May 09, 2026, 2:49 AM UTC

jatora wrote: post #10

[flagged]

Arguing in good faith - could you link me to some "good AI art" that's supposed to change average person's mind? I personally shrug off AI-generated image, and always think it's lazy cope-out. Because "it feels that way", but also, it technically is true?

Funnily, I only apply this logic to AI-generated images for the masses. If someone does it in one of my group chats, I'd think of it as "ok you spent some time for a small audience, i respect that, here's your well-deserved chuckle". It might be my age speaking out, as I grew up in "organic free range internet, full of ridiculous under construction gifs". But I really struggle to imagine a future where most adults would say AI-generated art can generate any emotions.

Re: People Hate AI Art

#43

Post by happytoexplain » Sat, May 09, 2026, 2:49 AM UTC

csallen wrote: post #40

List of things that the public despised when they were new: - Cars (expensive toys for the rich that endangered normal ppl and spooked horses) - Recorded music (similar complaints about it not supporting artists) - Bicycles (commonly called the devil's work) - Novels (morally dangerous) - Headphones / Sony Walkman (anti-social) I remember when chatting online was nerdy, anti-social, and uncool. Now celebrities casual…

Please, please stop with the AI analogies. Just make your argument on its own terms.

"It's different from X" is no more meaningful than "it's the same as X".

Re: People Hate AI Art

#44

Post by enthdegree » Sat, May 09, 2026, 2:49 AM UTC

People with low social literacy need to hear more that they have low social literacy. Bad behavior is objectively bad, and just because some people have exuses doesn't make their behavior less bad.

Re: People Hate AI Art

#45

Post by tasoeur » Sat, May 09, 2026, 2:50 AM UTC

RcouF1uZ4gsC wrote: post #5

It seems like there might be just a small vocal minority that hates AI art. Most people probably don’t care. I bet there were painters in the 1800s who talked about how people hated photographs and how they were uncanny and creepy compared to paintings.

[dead]

Re: People Hate AI Art

#46

Post by Our_Benefactors » Sat, May 09, 2026, 2:50 AM UTC

p_j_w wrote: post #26

wurtapp wrote: post #15

I think people who don’t like it genuinely don’t understand it enough to be fascinated by it or have some other issue with it that has nothing to do with the content itself

A complete lack of human input and, as such, no genuine human feeling or expression. This sounds like it has everything in the world to do with the “content.”

> A complete lack of human input

Obviously a false statement or the image would not be generated in the first place. You will need to significantly move goalposts for this statement to be truthful

Re: People Hate AI Art

#47

Post by tptacek » Sat, May 09, 2026, 2:51 AM UTC

Corrected: a certain type of very loud and very online person in your audience hates AI art and thinks less of you for using it.

But that doesn't matter, because the game theory they outlined is directionally right. The cohort of people who hate AI art is relatively small. But the cohort of people who love it is even smaller. People can generally spot it, and most people are indifferent to it.

Having said that: I think it's also true that people are generally indifferent to any of the "casual" art in online writing and publications. It's overused and a crutch.

A hero image at the top of a post: good, can be great, do it, make sure it's not AI. But like, a random dinosaur giving a thumbs up in the middle of the post? Don't do that at all.

Re: People Hate AI Art

#48

Post by NDlurker » Sat, May 09, 2026, 2:51 AM UTC

rlt wrote: post #19

Most “AI art” is art like “clip art” is art. This is a phase that will pass. There will be (and already are) legitimate artists who leverage AI as a creative tool like any other medium/tool (Photoshop, cameras, paint brushes, etc). I respect them even if others immediately dismiss anything AI related.

AI has completely replaced clip art at my job. I miss those old clip art CDs from the 90s

Re: People Hate AI Art

#49

Post by tardedmeme » Sat, May 09, 2026, 2:51 AM UTC

photonair wrote: post #34

It's inevitable that AI Art will be used everywhere and haters will get desensitized due to over exposure. There is a right time and place to use real artwork vs ai art as long as someone doesn't try to claim ai art as real.

This is a good prediction that is likely to come true. Almost everything else is already slop and we're desensitized to it. Almost all products in stores, almost all websites, almost all apps, almost all video games are slop. We still recognize the good ones that aren't slop but we're accustomed to most things being slop, we don't get angry at those things, we buy enough of them for them to make a higher ROI than the good things.

Re: People Hate AI Art

#50

Post by happytoexplain » Sat, May 09, 2026, 2:51 AM UTC

Unai wrote: post #39

aggakake wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Demanding a rational explanation for why something is considered tacky is a tacky look

This community is mostly based around sharing ideas, not feelings.

That's a fallacy. This community is rational. Feelings are exactly as rational as ideas. You can use feelings to express irrationality - but as humans, we are 100% composed of feelings. Every rational thought we have is rooted in feelings. It's completely valid and interesting to talk about the feelings of some technology's impact, especially regarding visual art.