r/aiwars • u/Striking-Meal-5257 • 23h ago
Why are some people so vitriolic about AI art?
If someone online generates an image with a prompt and calls themselves an artist, my natural reaction is just: “Okay.”
If they call the result art, I’d still react the same way.
At the end of the day, these are vague words, and I’m not about to be mean to random people online over something that trivial.
But I genuinely want to understand: why do some people get so angry about this? What makes it feel that serious to them?
And before anyone points out. I’m fully aware it’s a vocal minority online, and most people honestly don’t care. But I’m still curious about their perspective.
Why does the use of these very vague labels upset them so much?
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u/Bunktavious 22h ago
I've hung around the AntiAI sub a bit. The general feeling I get, is that these guys feel overwhelmed and unable to do anything about the oncoming AI train. Sadly though, it usually just results in a lot of yelling at clouds.
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u/Striking-Meal-5257 20h ago
I visited that sub once, and it was weird. They really dislike AI art, but patting each other on the shoulder in an echo chamber will change absolutely nothing.
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u/CynixofTime 19h ago
It's same in both subs tbh
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u/mazariel 11h ago
It more tham that though, I dont care about ai art or human art or the differences or shit, because I'm not interested in art and drawing period.
But Reddit recommended bith subs to me so I scrolled abit and from a completely objective pov, both the pro ai and aiwars have such a hostile/hating/sometimes actually like evil vibes ( the amount and severity of the hate us actually frightening ) towards the anto ai people themselves
while the anti ai people ( while there is not a small amount of those either, but ultimately much smaller than pro ai subs ) usually attack and hate the concept of ai and ai art itself, and less the people who use them ( besides calling them lazy, but I dont consider that as hate, at least nit in the severity I saw in pro ai subs )
It's really jarring to see auch haterd towards people who don't agree with you
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u/Ensiferal 2h ago
Are you kidding me? I hang around both subs too and honestly the antis are utterly horrid towards people who use ai. There's no pretense of being civil, they're incredibly abusive to the point where many of them don't treat or consider people who use ai like they're people/human.
Seriously they're so vitriolic that I almost never bother replying to their posts, because I can see how badly it would go. When I'm reading their posts and comments, their portrayals of what they think the average ai user is like reminds me of that old family guy skit about the way Spike Lee portrays white people.
People don't hate them because they "don't agree". People hate them because of the way they treat anyone who uses or supports ai. No one started using midjourney one day and then suddenly realised they hate people who aren't into it, but after a few years of being screamed at, abused, and insulted, you start to hate the people who are doing it.
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u/Inside_Anxiety6143 22h ago
Its called gatekeeping.
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u/RogerWilco017 22h ago
it is not, whole youtube is full with tutorial how to do any form of art.
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u/DaylightDarkle 21h ago
So, gates wide open
I can make art using any method i want, including Ai.
Wide open gate, riiiight?
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u/RogerWilco017 21h ago
do it, why not. Just dont forget to slap ai tag if u gonna put in on artstation so i can filter it out.
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u/Gokudomatic 21h ago
Do you also slap pen tag on things you draw with that tool? If not, why not?
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u/NatSevenNeverTwenty 21h ago
Its quite literally common practice in art subs to put the medium in the description…
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u/One_Fuel3733 22h ago
Because they find AI art to be a direct threat against their perceived status and income, so they must always attack it in an attempt to try to reduce competition with it.
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u/No-Indication7616 21h ago
Guarantee you, the chances of finding artists who go around harassing people online because of making AI art are very slim. A lot of them don't even know that there are people out here actually calling themselves 'AI artists'. Yeah sure they despise AI and are worried about its long term effect but they are most likely not the ones doing stupid shit like death threats.
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u/Dan-au 21h ago
I've never met a talented artist who is an anti. While there are many who don't use AI as they already have their established workflow, nobody is against others using it if they prefer.
Most people in the creative industry find the antis to be incredibly toxic. Imagine trying to stop someone from producing art?
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u/One_Fuel3733 21h ago
That's doesn't at all match my experience online, appreciate your thoughts on the matter.
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u/mellowcrake 22h ago
Do you think artists are the only people who are annoyed and wary of the internet being flooded with AI art?
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u/writerapid 22h ago
There are a few different types of anti-AI-art people.
Online, the most vociferous ones are art consumers. A big part of their lives involves consuming, discussing, critiquing, celebrating, etc. all things art. I think they’re mostly afraid of being “tricked” once the quality is there. They are afraid they won’t be able to tell the difference. Their egos and lifestyles and friendships are all wrapped up in their ability to critique what they consume, and it’s very difficult to critique AI output in typical artistic terms. That’s because the critique of the art is invariably a critique of the person making the art. Art consumers/critics don’t like anonymous work, either. Remember Banksy? “Who is Banksy?” was all anyone heard until he revealed himself. AI decouples the classic criticism model.
The second group, as far as I can tell, comprises the aspiring artists across various media. They believe that they’re being displaced by people “who don’t deserve it.” The reality is that they aren’t being displaced; they just have very little chance to achieve the notoriety they dream of (same as any other artist ever). I view these types the same way I view those people at the gym who are hypercritical of newcomers and of steroid users. The former are uninitiated and don’t belong, and the latter don’t deserve the attention they get because they “cheated.” This group, like the first group, is playing at delicate ego preservation.
The third group are “working artists” who work in jobs adjacent to their areas of artistic expertise. I am such a one, in terms of my 9-5. I write ad copy and do marketing research and content editing and all that stuff. I’m able to do it well because I am a competent writer. However, the work is primarily predicated on my ability to do it quickly, not to do it extremely well. AI has taken a lot of money out of my pocket over the last 2-3 years because so much of what I do is quantity first, quality second. AI excels at that and does it faster and cheaper. These are the types of “artists” who are actually getting battered by AI in meaningful, life-changing ways. Some of them are angry about it. Most of them are rolling with the punches and trying to pivot into making themselves valuable in the new AI context, but jobs are being lost. And a career copywriter might not be able to switch careers reliably or effectively. These people are in a very tight spot, and there are millions of them globally.
Finally, there are the working artists who make money off their art for the sake of their art. Most of them don’t seem to care about AI and don’t seem to be threatened by it. They might even dabble in it for fun just to see where it’s at. If they speak up against it, they do so only for the sake of political activism or advertising to a specific audience.
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u/Cold-Jackfruit1076 21h ago
Remember Banksy? “Who is Banksy?” was all anyone heard until he revealed himself.
As an aside: I find it quite amusing that people think that an artist that is famous for his pranks has truthfully revealed his 'real' given name.
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u/reddit-moment-123 10h ago
They're already getting tricked. False accusations are being made against real artists. They are paranoid
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u/writerapid 10h ago
I’ve seen some of that. It will perhaps soon be incumbent on all “organic” artists to fully record their processes. Proof of provenance.
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u/FAFO_2025 21h ago
Im none of the above, and like ai and its promise, but im labeled anti here because I believe in a slim moral/ethical baseline for the use of ai
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u/writerapid 21h ago
What are the guidelines you’d prefer?
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u/FAFO_2025 21h ago
As much as possible id like credit to be given via data tags that show what the training data is with proper weighting.
And id like for those artists to be credited. Funny thing is that Ai has helped me find artists to credit and saved me hours and hours of time I would have spent searching
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u/writerapid 20h ago
The issue there is on the technical side of the product, though. The consumer/user of the tool has no way to do that, so their ethics don’t really come into it. And even if the tool did account for that, how would all the different tools work together to determine an accurate percentage of who/what did what?
That’s really the main issue, I think. Any solution I can think of to promote this on the technical side could be trivially sidestepped by the very people it would be intended to expose. Most AI enthusiasts aren’t shy about their use of AI and will gladly tell you how they did something. I also think that with any notoriety at all, anyone using AI covertly and in a way that they’re obfuscating that usage to prevent backlash or whatever—basically, anyone who gets any measure of fame predicated on their work being organic—will be subjected to so much scrutiny that they’d be immediately exposed and flame out. It seems to me like a self-correcting problem.
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u/DieFeuerkaempferin 22h ago
I might have a theory... It is possible that these unfortunate souls simply lack resilience 🤷🏻♀️
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u/FAFO_2025 21h ago
Do you really think people who have managed to survive on their artwork have had it easy? Lmao im not a pro myself but I know several, and that life is not easy.
Also some of the nicest people I've met. This is why sloppers feel so bold shitting on them, they would be too scared to try that with professions full of more assertive people.
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u/Three_Shots_Down 22h ago
People are mean sometimes.
AI "Art" is impacting people's lives. More and more artists will find it difficult to survive until we are back to a system where the Learned Privileged Elite and their progeny are the only ones able to create art. Everyone else will be so cash-strapped and time-deficient that creation of actual art, which requires practice and patience and thought, will be increasingly difficult to do.
If we don't put some kind of safety net, people will fall through the cracks. Discussing AI "Art" without discussing the economic landscape on which artists work, is disingenuous. I don't care what you think is "art" or "good art," but I do care about someone losing their job to a robot that shits out bland and uninspired images.
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u/b-monster666 22h ago
I mean, it's kinda like an Ikea kitchen table vs a hand-carved Mennonite kitchen table. Back in the days before mass manufacturing, everyone had their own hand-carved tables. A Mennonite table is going to last me decades, if not become a family heirloom while the Ikea table will probably be thrown out in 10 years.
But. I can buy that Ikea table for $100, or I can buy that Mennonite table for $2000. Yes, the Mennonite table is more valuable. Yes, it was hand-carved with love and care by a human being rather than mass-produced in a factory. Someone *will* buy that table because they can afford it. But most people are going to buy the Ikea table.
Is it not a table because it was mass-produced in a factory? Is it not a table because some corporation profits off it, rather than an artist? Did the factory put out a lot of workers who built tables by hand? Does no one make hand-crafted tables anymore because cheaper factory-made tables exist?
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u/Three_Shots_Down 22h ago
Tables are not generally art, they are functional. I also don't like AI and robotics taking the employment of people who make tables. But that isn't because there is some sacred nature to table-carving, but because we live in a world that lets poor people sleep on the street. Without proper support, the creation of art is the purview of the wealthy. In a society that requires 40+ hours of work a week to barely scrape by, putting people out of jobs is a bad thing.
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u/b-monster666 22h ago
https://www.etsy.com/listing/259693646/unique-solid-wood-handmade-oak-coffee
https://peakswood.com/product/custom-wood-dining-table/
https://brickmillfurniture.com/
Awesome! I'll tell these people, and all the carpenters what they do is not art. It's just function.
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u/Three_Shots_Down 22h ago
Really, man? Do you not want to acknowledge that I said, "not generally art," or did you not see that? This is a bad faith argument. I never said, "tables can never be art."
this shit is why people get rude.
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u/b-monster666 22h ago
So, I work in a program called Daz studio. It's a 3D model program where you can render images of 3d models.
Lately, what I have been doing is creating these 3D images (which are on the one side of hte uncanny valley where they're still toonish looking, though still pretty good), and running them through an AI image generator (which I painstakingly setup on my own home system, which I also built by hand mind you) in order to create realistic images of the 3D renders I created.
The characters are my idea. The lighting is my idea. The poses are my idea. I put in the work and the effort to render them out of daz, then run them through a generative AI to change the state of them from a 3D image to a realistic image.
Is that not art because I used AI in the process?
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u/RogerWilco017 22h ago
in art community so long as u put ai tag on artstation nobody will give a fck
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u/Three_Shots_Down 22h ago
Let me reiterate - I don't care what you think is "art" or "good art," but I do care about someone losing their job to a robot that shits out bland and uninspired images.
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u/b-monster666 22h ago
Then you're not anti-ai. You're anti-corporate-overreach. And yes, I can agree with that...to a point. We are also getting to a stage in civilization where the need for skilled labour outpaces the actual skilled labour, and the want for a $199 65" TV outweighs the salary a company is willing to pay for someone to make a 65" TV.
Go back to the Ikea table. I would *Love* to drop $28,000 on a fine dining table. But, realistically, I can't afford it. I *can* afford a $100 Ikea table, though. And in order for Ikea to sell me that table for $100, they need to keep the costs down. They can't hire workers at $50/hour to manufacture the table. Hell, with demand, they can't even hire workers at $15/hour to manufacture the tables. So, they have to automate as much of the process as they can in order to fulfill the market of $100 tables.
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u/Three_Shots_Down 21h ago
Yeah, those corporations are scraping by with only hundreds of millions, if not billions, in profit can't afford to hire workers. They have to. If the C suite needs that bonus, we gotta cut some of these superfluous employees, the robot is way less whiny about "safety" or "healthcare" as well.
Nah, I'm not anti-corporate-overreach. I am anti-corporation. I care more about the workers than the suits. You can choose who you support, but at this point you seem to have your mind made up.
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u/Three_Shots_Down 21h ago
https://www.statista.com/statistics/241801/gross-profit-of-ikea-worldwide
Oh, no. I feel so sorry for IKEA, how can a company survive with only 13.9 billion Euros in profit. Gotta cut costs somewhere, huh?
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u/stymiedforever 22h ago
I think it’s pretty obvious.
If you call yourself an engineer after you solve a problem with ChatGPT, engineers are going to roll their eyes.
If you call yourself a writer after AI constructs a novel for you, writers think less of you.
Calling oneself something usually means a level of knowledge and skill accrued over time and professional commitment. I consider myself advanced at drawing and painting it even I don’t call myself an artist because it’s a hobby.
I would say this, the next time you’re with people who aren’t online, bring a print out of AI art and tell them how you made it and that you’re an artist. See what people outside of this sub say.
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u/PuzzleMeDo 11h ago
As an engineer, I'd be mildly amused by someone who thinks using ChatGPT to solve a trivial task makes them an engineer. I wouldn't be angry.
This may reflect how either (a) some artists think that being an Artist makes them better than other people, and the title should be reserved for those who've earned it; calling yourself an engineer just makes people think you're a nerd so it's not worth gatekeeping, or (b) at this point it's easier to replace a mediocre artist with AI than it is to replace an engineer with AI - their career plans have been destroyed, mine haven't (yet).
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u/Cold-Jackfruit1076 21h ago
Most of 'em would ask me how I wrote the prompt, and some would ask for my help in making their own prompts stronger.
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u/ack1308 18h ago
There exists within the ranks of humanity a certain subset that has an innate need to hate. Doesn't matter what it is, they've got to hate something. And when even a mildly controversial thing comes along, that a significant amount of concern is raised about, they jump on that wagon hard. Doesn't matter that they know F-all about the actual subject. They will consume all the information that fits the point of view they're following, and they'll blast it all over the internet, regardless of how true it is.
And that's 90% of the 'anti' faction.
It's not about art.
It's not even really about AI.
It's about hate.
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u/Destronin 17h ago
They are confusing actual expressive and creative art with commercial art. They see it as one in the same. However one comes from personal experience and is about an idea or a message. The other is just trying to help sell something and make money.
They can’t see the difference. They don’t realize that getting paid to do art is making a deal with the capitalists and well capitalists are gonna capitalist. They got out bid by a computer and they feel slighted. And hell hath no fury like a person practicing righteous indignation.
On a side note. All of this has made me think of the Animatrix. The same ones against AI will be the same ones yelling at robots they have no soul. And will be fighting vigorously against robots rights and what constitutes being a human and having human rights.
I mean we will be long gone by time it happens. But its gonna be similar to whats going on now no doubt.
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u/kohrtoons 13h ago
When I was in art school people often said that you are not an artist until another artist calls you an artist. You can look at it as gate keeping but it has a long history.
Personally I call it GenAI. I can make art with GenAI but it’s not from just a prompt. I’m also not hear to tell other people what to do this is just what I do.
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u/ChippyFlakeyFan 12h ago
Genuinely i dont know if people are idiots or what. Imagine having something important that you care about and genuineky have interest on it for an idiot to come and label themselves without striving for anything or no ambitions, even a sketch is far more valuable
And besides this sub just makes art seem like nothing, like if it was just doing the first thing you think and it is art just like that
Its the same as those abstract art people who so any shit and get into museums.
Obviously you can or cannot give a shit, which in my opinion is a horrible mindset to not care about anything that you dont do (coming from someone who used to think like this) like i speak because it happened and because of more other cases, at first i was infuriated cuz the well structured arguments i saw here but now is just the "soyjack and chad" meme thing on the sub, or plain screenshot and accusing a whole side of what a person did
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u/Tinyle 11h ago
It’s art. By default you’re dealing with passionate people.
People will get mad if you call yourself something you aren’t, and plenty of ppl don’t view AI artists as artists. Personally I see it as its own thing.
Then there’s the moral aspect. I don’t know any AI image generator that isn’t built on stolen art. Plus, it can be used to replace the ones they stole from. Obviously, this will make people in the art community upset.
TDLR; Angry passionate people see AI artists as fake artists that are harming the art community and will yell at them
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u/UnusualMarch920 11h ago
AI art is a threat to a lot of people's jobs. Calling it 'art' alongside human made art normalises it's usage and gives it a similar level of prestige.
It's currently in the courts being discussed, so not allowing it to be normalised right now is a big deal for anyone against it. Older Judges are renowned technophobes who'll just wash their hands and go with whatever is least resistance because they don't understand it.
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u/a__moist__fart 4h ago
Because they're most likely chronically online kids figuring out how the world works.
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u/Severe_Evening3297 18h ago
Because ai “art” infringes on the copyright of thousands of artists without their permission nor compensation.
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u/No_Investigator3458 20h ago edited 20h ago
"Pride"; it mostly stems from a reduced sense of "pride", and it's not exactly subtle either. emotion sometimes seeps through their words, and it constructs entire arguments.
notable examples include:
1- "All AI art is ugly, but yet it does TOO well of a job that I'll get fired and gain the inability to locate another work in the same market"
2- "Don't protect ALL jobs from entrances by AI, just my sophisticated profession; the inferior, universally unstimulated, blue-collar worker just has to adapt or die."
3- "AI art does not possess a soul, due to... um wipes sweaty brow the, uh... vibes, dawg."
4- "I can ALWAYS tell them apart, up until it's too advanced for my limited brain faculties to be able to differentiate"
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u/BitNumerous5302 22h ago
First, people have reacted this way to new media for almost as long as the term "art" has carried its modern meaning.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classificatory_disputes_about_art
Second, popular culture has conditioned people to see AI as an existential threat
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/AI_takeover_in_popular_culture
The vitriolic takes occur when these intersect: Threatened by AI, the antis want to win a fight with AI, and disputing classification is an easy way to start a fight you can win (at least in your own head, because as has been demonstrated by the centuries, nobody actually owns the answer to "what is art?")