Why artificial intelligence will never be able to create real art
People have always created art: from handprints in caves to bananas taped to walls, the innate yearning for creative expression has evolved alongside technological advancements. This reality has allowed for the creation of entirely new forms of art. Today, with the advent of generative AI, music, videos, images, photos, and films can be synthesized in a matter of minutes. Merriam-Webster chose “slop” as its 2025 Word of the Year; the word is defined as “digital content of low quality that is produced usually in quantity by means of artificial intelligence.” Nowadays, slop can be found in nearly every corner of the internet, ranging from talking cat videos to entire paintings and books generated by insentient machines. Most people do not like AI art. On social media, comment sections of AI “artists” are filled with anti-AI gifs and AI slurs such as “clanker.” Although AI companies keep coming up with new ways to promote their products, most people have a deep dislike of AI-produced content and think it is unworthy of appreciation. True art is something that is strictly human. It is a raw expression of feelings, and it creates a special personal connection between the artist and the audience. When AI creates “art,” it has no depth, no unique perspective or lived experience that the AI is attempting to communicate. Art loses its significance when it is produced by a machine that simply algorithmically arranges pixels to create an image with no real meaning.
People don’t want to consume AI “art” because it’s not the same as real human art. The difference between AI and human-made “art” is simpler than it sounds: a human needs to be involved in the creation of the piece for it to be art. Even if the AI content is prompt-driven, the human creator isn’t directly involved in every step of creating the work. It’s not their art. It’s a piece made by a machine that uses algorithms to draw upon similar examples from the internet. Most of the time, those examples are real artists’ creations that are fed to the model without their consent or knowledge. They use probability to calculate which colored pixel should go where in order to best respond to the prompt. The human is not involved in the creation process at all. The difference between real art and AI “slop” is the effort put in by the human artist. Some argue that AI is a tool to make art, that it makes art more “accessible”. However, this is not the case. There have been artists who have had disabilities all throughout history. Frida Kahlo suffered from chronic pain, and Claude Monet had terrible eyesight. Michelangelo had osteoarthritis, a specific type of arthritis that targets cartilage. Beethoven, one of the most widely recognized composers of classical music, was deaf for a significant portion of his life. Disabled individuals create art all the time and don’t need the assistance of AI to do so.
Additionally, true art has a meaning behind it that connects the artist and the audience. At times, art can even be used in protest. For example, Anish Kapoor’s “BUTCHERED”—1000 liters of red liquid poured on canvas connected to a fuel platform—was installed as a cry for help against the fossil fuels industry’s harmful impacts on the world. John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s “Give Peace a Chance” was originally made as a protest against the Vietnam War, and still remains to be an iconic song today. Protesting and speaking out against an issue you care about is a deeply human thing to do. To protest in the medium of art is also very personal. These pieces were created to serve a purpose and send a message to the world. Works like “BUTCHERED” and “Give Peace a Chance” show the extent of human creativity and passion, and while AI is able to replicate similar works, it will never be emotionally connected to or care about what it’s making, and therefore can never truly create an entirely new idea like human artists can. Instead, AI only replicates and tweaks others’ work. In the end, it’s more than just the final product that defines a piece of art. The passion, effort, and dedication put in by the creator are the backbone.“Slop,” defined generally as “a product of little to no value,” is a great term for the content AI produces, because it cannot be considered “art.” It lacks the creativity, ardor, and effort that true artists put into their work. Imagine a world where every song you listen to, painting you view, movie you watch, and book you read is churned out by an algorithm. It would be bleak, a world where every piece of media is only a slight variation from the last, with nothing truly original. Creative expression is the difference between content and art, and that’s something AI will never be able to replicate.
