The Online Photographer: Synthography
(This is something that I wrote on theonlinephotographer.typepad.com.)
Recently I keep coming across this distinction about the results of AI: that they avoid the process. Uncritical AI advocates only care about the finished result, ignoring the importance of the process.
e.g. AI street photography - the importance of a person being there, noticing a unique scene, capturing the moment, the viewer knowing they’re sharing a special scene that happened.
Or AI “paintings” or similar art - the importance of an artist making thousands and thousands of decisions during the making, of spending hours, days or weeks on perfecting the final result, the viewer knowing they’re seeing the result of not only all the time put into making it, but the years the artist spent on improving their craft.
Or students using AI to write essays - the final essay in itself isn’t the important thing, despite it being the thing that gets marked. The important thing is the process of researching, thinking, synthesising and writing. Learning to think and communicate. Skipping that step just to get a grade skips the learning that is the purpose of the task.