Intro: a variety of perspectives about AI
And in a way, artificial intelligence does democratise art. People who lack the skills or who are prevented by disabilities from creating can now do so — even through something as simple as voice. And if speaking isn’t an option, AI widely opens up other accessible ways to a more inclusive creative process.
There are, undeniably, positive aspects. But perhaps you're missing the key point… and it’s precisely the reason why the creative role cannot simply disappear, even in the age of artificial intelligence.
In this article, I want to go beyond the usual surface-level takes on AI to explore another perspective that technological progress tends to make invisible at first glance.
Because while technology expands possibilities and can improve quality of life, it also pushes us to normalise — and eventually expect — comfortAnd comfort is not always as harmless for human beings as it first appears.
Uncomfortable comfort
If there’s something we tend to attribute to technology, it’s speed: thanks to the inventions of the last few centuries, the pace of life has completely changed and has become incredibly fast. This gives us a huge level of productivity and the ability to get everything we want immediately. But…
We're not used to
waiting anymore.
We take for granted that if we send a message, the other person will reply within seconds, or at most in a few minutes. And what about how great it's to order your favourite dish — the one you never feel like cooking? It arrives right at your door; you don’t have to cook, and you even avoid washing up or tidying up the kitchen…
At the same time a system that pushes you to rush, and yet keeps you from doing anything. Even so, we can’t do nothing either: we need a distraction to which the phone responds with incredible ease.
In fact, although we seemingly have access to infinite inspirational sources, in the end it turns into a time trap, where we spend hours “looking for inspiration” only to realise that we no longer have any free time, or that everything already exists anyway. It's so overwhelming the wide and constant information availability that our brains end up overloaded, and due to this stimulus over-saturation, we lose the desire, energy, and time to do anything outside our working routine.
Moreover, on a deeper and perhaps more subtle level, AI can generate insecurity or a reduced sense of self-criticism, as it tends to confirm the user’s proposed perspective and to replace personal responsibility when making a decision: “I don’t know, I’ll ask AI.” In this way, it gradually ends up weakening our connection with our inner “self”.
The contemporary increasing need for art and artists
Unlike contemporary society and its constant race against time, art is upstream: thought and creation require time, observation, and silence.
Perhaps this awareness has been lost over time, but we should remember that from as early as prehistory, art has accompanied humanity, emerging precisely from the need to express oneself through cave painting.
And art teaches us precisely how to face the discomfort of silence, because it is there that creation is born.
Moreover, today we know that creating, drawing, painting, as well as any artistic discipline, means so much more once we confront the discomfort of silence:
- To create requires courage — we have to go on, and sometimes it feels almost like jumping into the void.
- Creating teaches us to stay with our emotions, to accept that they exist.
- It teaches us to listen to emotions, to people, and to the environment around us.
- It then allows us to give a direction to those emotions.
- Creating teaches patience: deep creation takes time.
- It teaches us to care for the process; in doing so, we also learn to care for others and for the world around us — it teaches us delicacy.
- Finally, creating allows us to Be, meaning to exist as a person and not merely as a productive tool.
Can AI be at the service of Art?
We are deeply concerned about AI being used to create images — images that, to untrained eyes, are accepted as “beautiful” and legitimate. As a contemporary artist myself, faced with this reality, I’ve instead asked: what if we did the opposite? In other words, instead of using artificial intelligence to “create” art, what if we used it not to replace art, but to support it?
Is it possible to use artificial intelligence at the service of art? From this question emerges a creative research such as Arte SyamHope, which has led me to explore whether it is possible to transform this very operation:
So I carried out an experiment: starting from original Arte SyamHope artworks and studies, created using traditional techniques, I asked AI to generate human models that would embody my works.
from IA = ARTE to ARTE > IA
In other words, I reversed the process, using art as a tool for imagining and AI as a tool for copying from the new reality I had created (the paintings).
In this way, it demonstrates a new art function, one that is freed from the act of copying — a role long tied to classical tradition as a means of narrating real and historical events — and returns instead to its original function as a form of individual and social expression.
After this investigation, I deduce the following:
On one hand, if we keep art tied to the idea of creation as an act of copying reality, and to serial and commercial production, we cannot escape the possibility that artificial intelligence may indeed become a tool that replaces it.
On the other hand, by shifting our understanding of art and adopting it as a tool of expression, we free art so that it can fulfil a social function that technology cannot replace.
Leave a comment and let us know how you find this investigation inspiring!
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This article gave me a lot to think about. In a world where everything is expected to be fast, immediate, and productive, being reminded that creation requires silence, observation, and time feels almost revolutionary. What struck me most was the idea of using AI not to replace art, but to support it and expand its expressive potential. It is a perspective that restores value to the human being and to the creative process as a space for growth, rather than mere production. Thank you for sharing such a thoughtful and much-needed reflection.