What art classes taught me about AI

Hi {{first_name|friend}},

First, Happy Halloween!

I picked up drawing this year for the first time in decades, and it changed how I think about AI and creativity. The designer behind the popular Super Smash Bros video game said something this week that lines up with what I've been learning in art class.

My Take

Masahiro Sakurai, the designer behind Super Smash Bros, is right about AI & creativity AND it's exactly this point that makes it a great artistic practice partner.

He shared his view this week that AI will churn out thousands of games lifted from games that already exist & the next original one still has to come from a person. It doesn't exist yet, so there's nothing to copy.

But I look at it this way too.. imitation isn't the enemy of originality; it's how every artist starts.

I picked drawing back up this year after not practicing for decades. After 3 classes, almost everything I've drawn is a copy: a photo, my instructor's template or a well known artist's work. That's part of the process of learning to draw to be able to trust what your eye and hand can do.

Many of us learned our work the same way. We copied the format of a senior colleague's proposal or the way our first boss wrote to a client, until we had our own way of doing it. AI can play that senior colleague now, on anything you're learning.

I haven't used AI for any of it yet. But if you're learning something new, AI is a great imitation partner. Ask it why a shading technique works or have it show you five ways to compose the same scene. Practice is a job it's built for.

Ask it to coach you instead of finishing the work for you. If you're learning watercolor, ask why your washes keep going muddy and for two exercises to fix it, then do the exercises yourself. If it's Spanish, ask it to quiz you instead of translating for you.

Then one morning I drew the Ventura pier jutting into the Pacific, from where I stood. All those hours of pen and ink hatching, copied from artists better than me, helped. The copying practice is what made my attempt better than without it.

I think this is the split Sakurai is pointing at. Practice with AI but build your originals yourself.

Brett

Try This Today

Use AI as a practice partner for something you're learning.

1. Pick one thing you're learning right now, like drawing, guitar or Spanish.

2. Open ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini and type: "I'm a beginner at ___. Explain why ___ works, then give me 3 short exercises to practice this week. Don't do them for me."

3. Do the first exercise yourself today.

4. Come back and tell it how it went, then ask what to work on next.

Watch: the 4 basic things I set once after the PHP scare

@aiover50

#creatorsearchinsights #aitechnology The internet had a bad week and almost nobody noticed. 4 basic things I set once and stopped worryin... See more

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Tell me

What's something you're learning right now, AI or not? I read every reply.