Thoughts about AI and Art

Horse laugh. Near Riceville, McMinn County, Tennessee. A few weeks ago I took on the issue of "photographs" created by AI. Are they photographs, or are they not? My position is that they are not photographs. As I wrote before, the essence of photography is that it is photographic. It is a picture made by the action of light reflected from something that has objective reality onto a sensitized surface. Light rays bouncing off something that really exists go through a lens and are recorded onto film, a sensor of some kind, or something not yet invented, but whatever it is, it is "writing with light." The unique power of photography is derived from this direct connection to reality. My friend the graphic designer and artist Michael Largent creates beautiful work by extensively altering photographs in Photoshop. I haven't talked to him recently -- he may be working with AI by this time. His pictures are art, no question. But are they photographs? Just barely, if at all.Could someone using…