I used to be an "AI bro." A big one at that. I've used all of the major AI software that's currently available. Midjourney, DALL-E, Stable Diffusion, you name it. I've used tons of different stable diffusion web interfaces, including ones such as automatic1111, comfyui, fooocus, etc. I've created hundreds and hundreds of "artworks" that I previously thought were acceptable. Tons and tons of time was spent experimenting on what can be achieved with this technology; but as time moved on, I realized that this is extremely boring: Extremely, extremely boring.

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Waiting for "artworks" to be generated is not fun. And anytime "I" created ai "art", it just felt like I was wasting my time. Something else more productive could be done. Something else more accomplishing. Here's the thing:

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I want to be an animator and artist. It's something I've always dreamed of being ever since watching my favorite movie of all time, Meet the Robinsons. Breathing life into characters and making them feel, act, and resonate with us is something I want to do. The same can be said for artwork as well. But anytime "I" create "artwork" with AI, I feel like I'm not getting closer to my goals. I'm not learning anything. And after spending hours of debating with myself in my tiny cramped room, it hit me:

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We are lazy and uncreative.

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Seriously.

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We are so uncreative that we delegate the creative process to an algorithm instead of ourselves. Some people even go as far as using ChatGPT for prompts, further showing that you are uncreative. We are so lazy that we bat an eye at the creative process and let an algorithm decide the fate of an art piece. We are so lazy to even learn how to draw even the most basic things; just let the robot handle it.

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And don't give me that "we type our prompts" bullshit. You have no bearing or control on the output. It is random. Even when using a ControlNet, you do not have control over the output, because if you did, you wouldn't have to play a game of lottery to find the best output.

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On the contrary, digital or traditional artwork is not random. It is all dependent on skill. I believe creating artwork is one of the most fair things in the universe. In a world of randomness where you don't know what is going to happen to you the next day, what the next project is, what you're going to eat, etc, artistry is not random. Each brush stroke has a meaning, and a purpose. What I love about art is that the barrier of entry is bar none. No matter if you are rich or poor, demonstrably intelligent or ill-informed, you can produce stunning artworks and worlds without the introduction of our world's biases. All it takes is some of your time, dedication, skill, and a pencil and a few piece of paper. If you're born digital like some of us, basic drawing tablets to get you started aren't that much more.

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We are so lazy that we're willing to dump our creativity in favor for an algorithm's because we don't want to spend the time to learn the art form we aspire to be in. This is the biggest sticking point I've seen, and it's a trend in many areas, not just for AI "art." Remember when you actually had to learn python? No, because just let ChatGPT do all the learning and work for you.

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We are entering an age where it is okay to be willingly lazy to achieve the things we want. Not just that, but it's also promoted to be lazy. Have a book report due soon? Just let ChatGPT or Claude do the report for you! Need to come up with some domain names for your own website? Let ChatGPT do all the hard thinking for you!

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Some people might say that "it's efficient." It is not. The fact that you have to go draft, fine-tune (prompt edit), and fix AI "art" goes to show that it is not efficient. Why go through all the lengths of fixing AI "art" when you know full well that the "artwork" will turn out mediocre. Things like light sources not making sense, body proportions being off, body parts being in impossible locations, bad perspecive, inconsistent artstyle- fixing any of these issues is not a simple ChatGPT solution. Fixing any of these things is going to require major overhauls of the "art" piece, which at that point, why not just fucking do the art piece from scratch?? Doing it from scratch is advantageous because: it is your work, not someone elses; it can be copyrighted; you learn new things and better yourself after each completed art piece; you can show it off to others and be proud of what you made; among other things such as it not being controversial since it does not use AI.

Another angle some people throw is that it "allows anybody to create art without having huge time investments" which is another way of saying that we are lazy and don't want to invest time learning art. If you don't have the time to create or learn how to create art, there is another way to create art without the use of AI... commissions! You can commission a fellow artist to create your own vision for you! Not only can you have direct contact with the artist so you and them can see eye to eye on your project, it can also be copyrighted. Not to mention that it also supports the artist's lively hoods and upholds the career that they wanted to pursue. And--the best part--it is not random! You know exactly how your idea will come to fruition since, again, you are in direct contact with the artist who can send you updates every step of the way, and you know the artist's style since you can see their portfolio.

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One thing I always reference now is how real artwork pricing is comparative to AI "artwork." There's a reason why real artwork costs hundreds of dollars to commission: it's because of the time spent on both the project and the experience that got them to this skill level, the passion and dedication that the artist is willing to spend on your commission, and the price they believe that their artwork is worth. On the contrary, AI "art" commissions/artworks are worth pennies because they are so easy to produce and make. Deviant art is a good example. There are AI "artists" that allow you to adopt their "artworks." It's basically another way of saying "I sell the rights of this character/artwork to you." They are all sold at $5 USD. And there are tons of them. Do any of them sell? Fuck no! There is an influx of AI "art" adoptions that nothing ever gets sold, and not to mention that you can make these yourself easily and for FREE! Why the fuck would anyone buy these?

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Another angle I see people say is that it "lowers the barrier of entry to create artwork" they say as they have RTX 3090/4090's in their computers. What barrier to entry? As I stated before, the barrier to entry to create artwork is bar none. At it's most simplest, all you need is a pencil and paper. Hell, you don't even need paper! Cavemen used walls! If their talking about skill, then no fucking duh. In order to create master artworks, you need to be a master at art. Simple as. Again, I stated before, that artwork is entirely based on skill. The more skilled you are, the better your artwork can be. If you're not willing to even go as far as watch a few free art tutorials available on YouTube because it's too "time dependent", then being an artist might not be for you. Better stick to commissioning artworks; there's no shame in doing that! Lastly, it does lower the barrier of entry to create shit artwork fast, that is true.

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One last argument people throw is that "the invention of the calculator didn't affect anything or any jobs; it just made computing faster. The same can be said for AI art." No. The invention of the calculator DID affect jobs, severely. Seriously, 10 seconds of google searching can point you to the answer. There was at one point a job occupation labeled "Computer." This was at a date and time before electronic computers became commercially available, and the job's description is "one who computes." It's a person who performs mathematical calculations. Groups of people, often women, were used to undergo long and often tedious calculations; so much so that the work would be divided amongst them so that it can be done in parallel. The calculations would often be double checked by a third party to make sure the results were correct. The invention of electrical computers/calculators absolutely had a hand in replacing these jobs. Think about it from a company perspective: Why pay out tons of money for mathematical calculations that would take weeks for teams of humans to do, when you could invest in a calculator/electrical computer to do the work for you in mere hours for less the cost overtime? Not only the computer did things faster than humans, it was also nearly error free since the calculations are almost certainly correct. Think. The obvious answer is that a company would pick the computer over the humans, even if it incurred a big initial cost. The same thing can most definitely happen to artists, even if the output that AI generates is shittier than that of a human.

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All of this, and I still haven't even mentioned checkpoint/lora training that steal living artist's work. The SamDoesArt AI "controversy" goes to show that AI bros do not want you creating artworks. They want a robot that creates artworks like you. If that wasn't the case, then why are there tons and tons of artist loras/checkpoints available for download on CivitAI every single day? And don't give me that "you can't copyright styles" bullshit. Your intention is literally to copy an artists style as a form of impersonation.

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I could go on and on, but I don't want this to turn into the bible, so I'll just say this: If you're an AI bro reading this and don't understand anything said here, maybe you need ChatGPT to explain it to you.

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Also as for me, I have completely erased everything related to AI on my system. All the checkpoints, loras, webui's, images, etc. I've also deleted my CivitAI account along with the all models I regret making.

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I want to learn art from scratch the normal way. I don't want to rely on a crutch.