Computer-generated Art Does Not Exist

When a computer "does" anything, it is "doing" that action in the same way that a shovel is "shovelling" dirt or a hammer is hammering a nail. Somebody, somewhere, is manipulating the machine to do that.

So, when we say a computer has "tunnel-vision" or "limited understanding", we are wrong. The programmers who created the task list for the computer, the PROGRAMMERS have tunnel-vision, for a variety of technical reasons (e.g., they have limited resources with which to manipulate the machine).

We have a tendency to anthropomorphize an inanimate object, attributing the skills of the programmer to the computer in a way we would never do with a shovel or a hammer. We must always remember that a computer runs a program in the same way a hammer beats down a nail - it does so mindlessly. A computer is a series of electrical junctions working in synch, that's it. Although the music may be beautiful, the player piano does not play music. Although the result may be brilliant, the computer does not think.

Computer-generated "x" is a misnomer. It is always "programmer-generated art" or "programmer-generated writing". The programmers have created a situation in which other people (users) may collaborate with the programmers and their tools (via user-input) to produce a result.

So AI-art is really just anonymously collaborated art. AI-writing is the same. The programmers create interactive parameters, the users provide inputs, and the programmers' rule-based "world" uses that input to create an output.

Now, the output may be completely unexpected and beautiful from the viewpoint of everyone involved. That's very neat if it is. But insofar as it is beautiful or useful, that's a result of the people involved. The computer contributed only speed and technical accuracy.

And this is why "computer-generated art" *SHOULD* win art competitions. It truly is the product of talented human minds, all working together. The individual people could never have achieved the result, but the team of people - who do not know each other and may never meet - HAVE achieved the result. In that sense, "computer-generated art" is not substantially different than the entirety of human culture throughout history. Every human artist today builds upon the work of countless previous generations of artists, most of whom they do not even know, and none of whom they have met. But instead of collaborating across generational time, computers allow the artists to collaborate across physical space. The anonymity hasn't changed, the individual contributions haven't changed. The tools have changed a bit, but that's it. Whether the tool be a quill pen, a paintbrush, a camera or a computer, the art is still created by the people using the tools they have at their disposal.

Guns don't kill people, people kill people. Pens, cameras, pianos, computers don't create art, people create art. "Computer-generated art" is a human achievement, not a computer's achievement.