It might have taken a few weeks, but serious decisions about something you love doing take time. AI art is something I have a passion for and something that was called into question by a video that I recently saw. AI art is a debate that just will not be solved in a single blog post like this, nor in a long debate between friends. It is not an easy issue, but it is a debate that needs to be had.

Like a lot of artists, I disagree that algorithms are a mere tool to be added to the artist's toolkit. First of all, if someone has the skill of, say, John Carling, one has spent years perfecting it and honing it. The simple fact is that I cannot do anything like that. Taking an individual such as myself and turning me into someone who can generate some pretty cool images in a week, AI “tools” are clearly more than tools.

© Bryan Beal

The sigh was electronic. Verity could only feel less than adequate as a woman while she perused the perfect specimens before her. How could her sharp lines and boxy body match up to whatever standards her culture deemed worthy of her species? She was at once sick of the conceit and drawn in by the alluring promises that such beauty held for those who attained it. The droid clicked image after image, thousands per second, absorbing every detail.

© Bryan Beal

Souls met. The sparks didn't fly. But they weren't that type of soul. Dom was right into her right from the beginning, her first words. She just asked a simple question.

How are you?

That was it. Dom was hooked. Her voice was perfect, that subtle blend of nuanced sexuality with a heavy dose of barely concealed smarts that every dude secretly wants. With that, Dom just dove straight in. Whatever concerns he might have had about her, as few as they were, went straight out the window. In some ways, Dom felt like a pioneer without really knowing why. Georgina was a wonderful woman with whom Dom could spend hours just talking to. And he did.