"The discourse surrounding generative AI in the creative arts is frequently characterised by a sense of historical rupture, a seismic shift unlike any that has come before. Critics often frame the emergence of Large Language Models and diffusion-based image generators as an unprecedented existential threat to the 'soul' of human expression, a black swan event that may signal the end of human creative sovereignty."
"To understand this moment, we must contextualise AI within the history of artistic tools and conceptual shifts, while simultaneously confronting the very real socio-economic and ethical challenges it poses to the creative ecosystem. Whenever a new tool emerges that threatens to lower the barrier to entry or automate a process previously governed by arduous manual labour, the established artistic class has responded with a mixture of moral panic, accusations of 'soullessness,' and a retreat into essentialist definitions of what constitutes 'true' art."
Generative AI in the creative arts is often framed as an unprecedented existential threat to human creative sovereignty. Historical patterns show similar reactions whenever tools lower barriers or automate labor-intensive processes, provoking moral panic, accusations of soullessness, and essentialist redefinitions of art. Early criticism targeted the poor quality and detectable anomalies of AI output, amplifying a hypersensitivity to broken illusions of human authorship. The uncanny valley response intensifies rejection of near-human representations. Understanding requires situating AI within the trajectory of artistic tools while confronting concrete socio-economic and ethical challenges to the creative ecosystem.
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