Is AI Art Really Art?

Art requires intention, struggle, and human experience. AI generates patterns from training data—there's no soul behind it. When I paint, I'm processing decades of lived experience. An AI is just recombining pixels.

But the human artist is also recombining—visual memories, techniques learned from others, cultural influences. The AI does the same at scale. The difference is degree, not kind.

We've had this debate before. Photography was dismissed as mechanical reproduction. Found art challenged intentionality. Conceptual art separated idea from execution. Each expansion was resisted, then absorbed.

But those involved human choice. A photographer chooses the moment, the frame. AI art is often just a prompt—where's the artistry?

Art has always been a conversation between tool and intention. The question isn't whether AI can make art—it's whether we're ready to expand our definition of who can be an artist. Or perhaps, what it means to collaborate with non-human intelligence.

The most interesting AI art isn't AI-generated—it's AI-augmented. Human artists using AI as a creative partner, exploring possibilities neither could reach alone. That's where the medium will mature.