You may have a fundamental misunderstanding of what art is.
Despite the prevalence of emotion, it is wrong to assume that any human would be incapable of creating art without the help of AI. Art is an inner human behavior. It creates community, expresses emotion, and preserves culture. Because it is such an important part of being human, the act of making art is already accessible to everyone. Regardless of disability, abilities, or experience level, art is for you. This is because art comes in infinite forms. If you can’t sculpt, you can draw. If you can’t draw, you can sing. If you can’t sing, you can write poetry. And these are just traditional forms of media. When it comes to human experience, the definition of art is not limited.
If you are alive and able to share your experience in any form, you can create art. Even the prompt you type in ChatGPT is closer to art than the bot will generate for you in return.
That’s not to say – when placed in wider society – can’t or shouldn’t be more accessible. When public schools are tight on money, the arts are the first to go. Visiting museums or buying art supplies is expensive. Pursuing art as a career does not promise endless hours and money. This means that low-income artists have fewer opportunities to make a living from their art. This problem is actually exacerbated by AI programs that are able to create “art” faster and cheaper than real artists.
Despite the inequity of the art industry, art itself is also indispensable. If you’re human, you can, and probably already do, make art.
On the other hand, AI has no ability to express human experience. Nothing that an image or text generator can create can be considered art, because it doesn’t express what it means to be alive. There is nothing behind AI-generated images. No anger, no joy, no love, no fear. You are able to create better art than Chat GPT because your experiences as a human being are a part of your creation.
Don’t let anyone tell you that generative AI is a good thing for artists. It steals our art and our jobs for its own nefarious purposes, accelerating the destruction of our planet along the way. Art was already accessible.