The Emotional Intelligence of Art

 Like everyone else, I have found myself spending a lot more time on social media since March of 2020. (Gee, wonder what happened.) One of the very first things that I found myself missing - desperately - was human contact. Hugs, face to face conversations over a good meal or a cup of coffee, concerts, all the good stuff that comes with human experience. However, it would seem that some people... don't miss it. Or maybe they just don't understand it.

Over the last year or so, I have been seeing more and more companies and apps offering A.I. generated "art". I'm not just talking about visual arts. I recently heard an ad for a company that sells A.I. generated books that wannabe authors can put their names on and make a buck. I have seen A.I. generated screenplays that look like they were written in English then translated into Japanese, then into Russian, then into Klingon and back into English. This isn't art. None of it is. It's just regurgitating information the machine can access. 

The people who are gung-ho for this "revolution" seem to completely miss the purpose of art. Art is a vehicle of self-expression. People spend their entire lives honing their craft and pouring their entire heart and soul into them. Yes, the end result is a product that can be consumed by others, but that's not the point. Ask any teenager. They have poems and songs they've written that they will never share with anyone. They're just trying to get what they're feeling out in a constructive way. (Oh, I had entire journals full of poetry and doodles.) 

Art requires emotional intelligence, and I feel that this may be where the keyboard jockeys are falling down. I am not saying this to be disparaging. On the contrary, I am saying this from a place of profound compassion. I understand some people may have difficulty in processing emotion or empathizing with the feelings of others. If this is where these programmers are coming from, I can see why they're only seeing art as product. That's why I feel they need to listen to the people whose territory they're trying to muscle in on. 

As a creative polymath, I have spent my entire life pursuing a number artistic outlets. I write, sing, act, draw, paint, embroider, bead and I even used to dance before my knees eventually gave out. I didn't pursue these to become rich and famous (obviously, as I am neither). I did it because I had passion for these things. I did it because it helped me make connections with other people. One of my closest friends became my friend and soul sister the first time we sang together as teenagers. I did it because it helped me connect with myself. Honestly, writing has been the best form of therapy for me because it's easier for me to write out my thoughts and feelings than it is to sit and talk about them. 

If, as I have surmised, these programmers lack the capacity to express themselves artistically due to certain impediments, how do they think they can teach a machine to do that? You can have a robot take a picture of you and it'll probably look okay, but it will never convey the feeling that cab be seen in a candidate photo taken by someone who loves you. 

Look, I'm not saying the tech bros are "bad" for wanting to get in on the game. Misguided, maybe, but they aren't inherently evil for trying. I just suggest they accept not only the limitations of A.I., but also their own limitations and shift their focus to something that A.I. could actually improve. Art just doesn't fit. 

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