Ian Betteridge
Slop Is Slop
"I wrote just a few months ago that I firmly believe generative AI tools not only can be, but already are, used to create genuine art. My problem with AI slop isn’t the AI, it’s the slop."
I know this is a position which is controversial with those who take a strong anti-AI position (and I understand those positions). But I tend to agree with John. All tools can be used for art. What matters is the art, not the tool. https://daringfireball.net/2025/12/slop_is_slop
Warner Crocker
Ian Betteridge
@davidtoddmccarty @WarnerCrocker Well now you're getting into the deep water of "what is art?"
David Todd McCarty
No doubt. :)
David Todd McCarty
An elephant can create “art,” as can a four year old. It’s not good art. It’s not art just because you say it is. If I hand you a leaf, it’s an amazing work of art, but I didn’t design it, or have anything to do with its creation.
Warner Crocker
@metaning @davidtoddmccarty @ianbetteridge I accept your point re: the legal recognition, but I also do not think outside of that realm of ownership assignment it applies in determining how art can be created
Regardless of whether the web in the image below was created by a spider or a human I would characterize it as art.
Matt Godden
@davidtoddmccarty @ianbetteridge @WarnerCrocker No, an Elephant can not create Art.
Animals are not recognised as authors of works under any legal system, and every time it has come to court, see monkey photographer, the results have been clear, and reinforced that position.
Art is that which is created by a human, and has no practical purpose aside from its aesthetic values.
That which is made by a human, has aesthetic values, and practical purpose, is Craft.
Matt Godden
@WarnerCrocker @davidtoddmccarty @ianbetteridge But it's not art. Art is the result of a conscious act to produce a work of art; an aesthetic outcome.
A spider web is a purely practical utilitarian device, produced by by a creature that is more or less a biological automaton.
Warner Crocker
@metaning @davidtoddmccarty @ianbetteridge I disagree. While art comes from the creating of it, it is largely judged to be so by the beholder not the creator. One person's view of what is art can be another's piece of junk.
Also, in my life as a theatre artist, I've seen quite a bit of art by accident that derived from no conscious attempt to create any aesthetic outcome, often quite the opposite.
Matt Godden
@WarnerCrocker @davidtoddmccarty @ianbetteridge Art is the result of a conscious human decision. It can be *bad* art, or *good* art, but the choice to make it is what matters. Only by imbuing it with a practical utility, a purpose other than creative human expression, does it cease to be Art.
Accidents happen within art all the time; a process or harnessing the use of accidents is a good working description of art making. Staging an act of theatre is the encompassing deliberate conscious act.
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