With the rise of artificially intelligent image generators like DALL-E and Stable Diffusion, I’ve begun to see the phrase “AI artist” showing up in coverage of these tools when referring to people who use them to create art.

I confess to rolling my eyes when reading the phrase.

I have always considered part of what makes someone an artist is the actual execution of the creative vision in addition to the creative idea itself.

Anyone can have a creative idea but it is the skill required to bring that idea alive that makes the artist; and that skill must be earned through years of practice and hard work.

So, yeah, I’ve rolled my eyes at the idea of “AI artists,” who are using artificial intelligence to create without having to acquire the skill. Until now.

So what does this have to do with reputation, David? Not much, but it’s Music Monday…so chill!

What caused me to reconsider my dismissal of “AI artists” this album-long music video several AI artists created for Pink Floyd’s iconic ?Dark Side of the Moon” album. H/T Laughing Squid:

I was blown away at the creativity involved in this animation.

What I missed is that the skills needed to create this animation were not those I had yet associated with creating art.

The artists involved in this project used their imaginations to create clever enough text prompts to achieve thier visions (and shared those prompts on AI Prompt Discord server).

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The other earned skills they used to generate the video include AI model training and the manipulation of software like Stable WarpFusion.

AI artist Gregory Euclide explains the tools he used to execute his portion of this project in an Instagram post:

huemaninstrument

A post shared by (Euclid) (@huemaninstrument)

Happy Music Monday!