Is ai art actual “art” ?

Like most things, it depends on how you look at it.

Does using text to image programs like stable diffusion or midjourney make creation of images too easy?

I don’t know. Does listening to an audio book count as reading? Does photography count as art? What about collage? Does imitation of another artists style sully the work? What if you develop a style by blending a few or a bunch?

I lean into the camp of it being a useful tool for the creative. Maybe it falls into the craft side of arts and crafts, rather than the art side.

I do know that I can use these tools to create images never before made, based on what I tell it to do. Sometimes I get a good approximation of what I want, sometimes I get some happy accidents, sometimes I get inspiration to build something new,and sometimes I get something to just delete and start fresh from a new perspective. If that isn’t art, I’m not sure how I would define it.

Some sample prompts and images I have used in the last couple of days –

!paint blue and gold vintage 50s style robots in desert city , fantasy art, high quality, highly detailed, elegant, sharp focus, concept art, character concepts, digital painting, mystery, adventure, wide angle, many reflections, 8k, ultra-detailed –landscape

!paint red blue and green vintage 50s style robots in desert city , fantasy art, drawn by erol otus, high quality, highly detailed, elegant, sharp focus, concept art, character concepts, digital painting, mystery, adventure, wide angle, many reflections, 8k, ultra-detailed –landscape

!paint bronze droid in desert city , fantasy art, high quality, highly detailed, elegant, sharp focus, concept art, character concepts, digital painting, mystery, adventure, wide angle, many reflections, 8k –landscape

!paint bronze droid in insanely detailed still life of retro kitchen by Craig Mullins by narokdik , crypto art , pop art , extremely bright and colorful, funky art, shade the changing man, juxtaposition art , 8K upscaled, Heavy metal (Richard Corben) Greg rutkowski | great field of view , physically impossible city in background –landscape