Ain't No A.I.

The science fiction future is upon us. Artificial intelligence can write college essays and pass entrance exams. It can drive EV’s, polish floors and crack codes. It’s not a surprise, therefore, that AI can plumb the entire history of human art, and generate infinite images.

We are in a competition.

We know that beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and as humankind evolves (and with it, the definition of beauty), what is traditionally beautiful may become ugly. What is fashionable in the art world may quickly become passé, to be replaced with the new “it” artist.

New ideas bloom. New visions unfold. New art forms explode. Humanity is unstoppable. Can AI keep up? Can it match human evolution? Can it surpass human capability?

Computing power is at all-time highs. Equations can be solved in the blink of an eye. Calculations can be made quicker than synapses can fire. But who would have thought art would find itself in this pickle.

Artists are agitated. Their ideas are swiped. Their names are discarded. The cash flows to the tech guys. Meanwhile, computers churn out countless images that assimilate, regurgitate, or even elevate physical works that take months, if not years, to complete.

This is the future of these artists. They will confront works that mimic, or even surpass their own. They will be compared, rightly or wrongly, with machine-made, created in a twinkling without the technical skill, the painstaking craftsmanship, the diligence and the passion, that are poured into the hours and minutes of art.

And so, we ask Jadon Kilayko, Dan Ivan Sepelagio, Kean Larrazabal, Doods Campos, Paulo Amparo and Red Santillan to stare, without flinching, at AI.

Call it a dare. Call it one-upsmanship. Call it a face-off, with no certain outcome.

“This is what we think of you, AI. You take from us and ours. You pilfer and filch. And so, we are here, looking at you. Today.”

- JT Gonzales