I finally changed my mind about AI art after seeing one gallery number
I used to be the guy in this community saying AI pics are just prompts and nothing else, until I read a piece last month about a show in Denver where someone sold 4 AI prints for $1,200 total and 3 buyers said they'd never bought art before. That made me realize the wall I care about isn't who made it but whether a human looks at it and feels something, and a first-time buyer counts. So here's my real question for everyone: if the buyer feels something, who gets to say it isn't art, you or them?
Think about who actually gets hurt when we gatekeep. Not the big name galleries or the folks selling $50k canvases. It's the person in a small town with no art scene who finds something online that speaks to them. I've watched local shows where the same five retired couples buy everything. If some kid in Ohio buys their first print from an AI artist because it was cheap and they loved it, that's a new person in the tent. You don't grow art by keeping people out, you grow it by letting them in however they got there. The buyer feeling something is the whole point, and nobody gets to overrule their own gut.