Introduction
People keep saying AI art is not art. They say it like it’s obvious. Like gravity. Like math.
It isn’t.
It’s a feeling. A panic feeling.
Art never needed purity. Never needed hands. Never needed pain in the wrists or childhood trauma to qualify.
That story came later. That story was marketing.
Main Content
Control Was Always a Lie
Surrealists already gave this up. They stopped steering. Let the line wander. Let the sentence break itself.
Automatism wasn’t skill. It was abdication.
The artist steps aside. Something else comes through.
That is the point.
AI does the same thing. Set conditions. Release control. Watch something appear that you did not plan.
If that scares you, good. That fear is very on-brand for art history.
Machines Have Been Here the Whole Time
This isn’t new.
Cameras. Plotters. Algorithms. Random number tables. Code that decides for you.
Artists have been designing systems instead of outcomes for decades. Sometimes centuries.
The hand is not sacred. It is just familiar.
AI didn’t break art. It broke comfort.
The Soul Argument Is Weak and Everyone Knows It
“No soul” is just a prettier way of saying “I want to be special.”
Art is not produced by souls. It is recognized by humans.
If it hits. If it lingers. If it unsettles or seduces or disgusts.
That’s the test.
Nobody checks the metaphysics first.
Surrealists trusted the unconscious. That thing is not exactly famous for being rational or morally employed. They still called the results art.
Funny how that works.
Intent Did Not Vanish
Intent did not disappear. It moved.
Into prompts. Selection. Curation. Context.
You choose what survives. You choose what gets shown. You choose what it means.
That is authorship. Just not the heroic kind.
What People Are Actually Angry About
It isn’t aesthetics.
It’s access.
Too many images. Too fast. Too easy.
The gates don’t hold anymore. The mystique leaks out.
If everyone can do it, then what was your suffering for.
That question hurts. I get it.
But pain was never a license.
Historical Context
Surrealists trusted the unconscious. Generative artists coded systems. AI is just the latest in a long line of artists giving up control.
Key Takeaways
- Art is recognized by impact, not production method
- Machines have been part of art-making for decades (cameras, plotters, algorithms)
- Intent moved from execution to curation and selection
- The real anger is about democratized access, not aesthetics
- Pain and suffering were never prerequisites for legitimate art
Conclusion
AI art sits comfortably next to surrealism. Next to automatism. Next to generative systems and chance and machines doing things we didn’t fully intend.
It behaves like art. It circulates like art. It fucks with people like art.
So it is art.
You don’t have to like it. You don’t have to respect it.
But pretending it doesn’t count won’t stop it, won’t save you, and won’t age well.
History is not sentimental. Neither is art.