What's missing from DALL-E is novelty and invention. The greats artists all invented something. Van Gogh's style never existed prior. Neither did Warhol's. When

What's missing from DALL-E is novelty and invention. The greats artists all invented something. Van Gogh's style never existed prior. Neither did Warhol's. When cameras were invented, artists complained and wanted to unionize to prevent their use. Yet we got Ansel Adams out of it. George Eastman helped democratize that process and, in doing so, took most of the art away. His slogan for Kodak was, "You push the button, we do the rest," anticipating the way AI illustration works. But no amount of DALL-E output will ever create art and the reason is in the first paragraph of this story: it all comes from existing images. Photography has become so un-artistic now that everyone is a photographer and photos are staged with Instagram-ready locations before anyone even takes the (exact same) photo. This obsession with tech and the consummate commidification of aesthetics has even leaked into other classic art forms. When was the last time anyone invested in architecture as an art form? Most buildings are vernacular, a kind word for popular and hideous. Don't get me wrong. I love both art and tech. I've sold my art photos for thousands of dollars, and I've spent thousands on tech for making music when I could just sing for free. There's a use for both these ideas, but the invention of a tool does not art make.