Art is Dead. AI has killed art.

What is the difference between Leonardo Da Vinci and you?

That may not be easy to answer, so, let me change the perspective.

What is the difference between the paintings created by Da Vinci and you?

Now you can answer. The answer is probably a lot. There is a tremendous difference between Michelangelo’s The Last Judgment and your doodle art. I don’t even think it can be compared. Let’s not talk about my artistic painting capabilities (I am quite bad at it).

Now that we have understood the difference between the two of you, please allow me to ask you another significant question.

What is the difference between the paintings created by Vincent van Gogh and an Artificial Intelligence?

Now I have got your attention.

When I first heard about AI and its potential in learning and taking over jobs, I was terrified. I had already seen the world-famous movie The Matrix where the robots have taken over our world and humans are surviving underground. I thought, yes, this is our fate. We will die just like this. Humans have limits but machines don’t, as soon as they start learning. We will create them — our own anhilation. We will lose to our own creation.

“We will lose to our own creation.”

At that time, and for a long time after that, I only reckoned that machines will take our mechanical and technological jobs until recently I stumbled upon an article, which clearly showed that an AI could draw paintings and it was comparing the AI’s art with those of Renaissance artists such as Da Vinci, van Gogh, etc. To me, it was outrageous. It did put me on the offence. I wanted to shout to the whole world that you cannot replace art made by human hands with that of machines.

What is the difference between us and the animals? We have the ability to think and empathize. We have emotions. Artists such as Da Vinci sure did paint their illustrations using hands but the brush-strokes were moved through emotions. As cliched as it sounds, ask any real artist. Was it just the brush and the colors that made a painting so great? I promise you the answer will be ‘no’ because it is more than a palate of colors and an assembly of bristles. The authentic artists make art their life. It is their form of expression. They cannot dance or sing that good. Their public speaking skills are poor. They may be imperfect in all other ways but when it comes to putting colors on a canvas, they can do what we only dream of.

Art is dead.

Why is art dead? Because AI is here. As amazing and horrifying AI is, it cannot replace the real art.

What is real art? That which is not rendered through brushes or hands. Real art comes through the heart of the artist. I strongly believe in the following phrase/saying:

Only a heart inflicted with great deal of pain can create exceptional art.

I have been fortunate enough to read brief histories of artists like Da Vinci and Michelangelo. They did not have a normal and luxurious lifestyle to create the art they have created. In fact, luxury is the enemy of productivity and creativity. Not all, but most, people born in luxury do not know the pain and toil that goes in creating a masterpiece. There is a reason why every successful (success is not equal to money) artist has the same life story. They suffered through the hands of abusive parents or society. People they loved suffered or died. They did not have roofs to live under or enough money to eat or provide for their family. People, who they expected to be with them, left, when they needed them the most. It is all common in the biographies of great artists.

Through all this, they found a way, at last. They found closure, peace, love, and a purpose in life. What we see today in museums and art galleries isn’t just oil and frames, it is their whole life. They have expressed themselves through their art. A legacy that will never die or be forgotten.

Yes, they were polymaths, but every single person had one major way through which found their calling. They were voracious learners and to share what they learned they painted. They made sense out of life and expressed it to us in the way they were most comfortable with. Art. Paintings. Sculptures. Portraits. Landscapes. You name it.

If you give AI the same brush and a canvas, it can draw something phenomenal that we as humans would be curious about. By making the machines learn about colors, brush-strokes, expressions, and portraits, they may draw a great piece of art but would that be compared to what Michelangelo made? Some of you may even argue: ‘We are not comparing any art. Human art is different than machine art.’ Listen to yourself again and this time accept the harsh truth.

Today, do we have any more painters or artists such as Da Vinci or van Gogh? No.

What happens when AI takes over the art galleries too? There will not be art left around made by humans anymore.

There is a fundamental difference between art created by machines and humans. There is a line that divides the real from the artificial. You just cannot remove that line. It is this line that separates life from death. This line separates the two types of art: one with a soul and one morbid. I emphasize again, no matter how fabulous the AI art may be, it may replace it literally in the world, but it will never replace the true art we have seen.

At least not for me. I still love Mona Lisa.

I am a writer. I am bad at painting but I do treasure and respect the art created by people hundreds of years ago.

What they created can never be replicated in its true nature.

I am so honored to have read and known these influential artists. I hope the generations that come forth will feel the same.

Art is dead but not in me.

Written by Syed (https://medium.com/@idreessyed)