> > Its initial argument, that AI tools don't produce art because they offer meaningfully fewer knobs and dials to creators than a camera
> Chiang is not saying this at all. I'm not sure how you interpreted it this way.
He says this, very explicitly, in his direct comparison with photography. I'm not sure how you managed to miss it.
"When photography was first developed, I suspect it didn’t seem like an artistic medium because it wasn’t apparent that there were a lot of choices to be made; you just set up the camera and start the exposure. But over time people realized that there were a vast number of things you could do with cameras, and the artistry lies in the many choices that a photographer makes. It might not always be easy to articulate what the choices are, but when you compare an amateur’s photos to a professional’s, you can see the difference. So then the question becomes: Is there a similar opportunity to make a vast number of choices using a text-to-image generator? I think the answer is no."
I found Chiang's argument a little incoherent, but I think he _is_ essentially saying this. "Knobs and dials" are the opportunity to make all the little decisions that Chiang's definition of art requires. He says explicitly that someone who has developed "hacks" for an image generator has engaged in the artistic process. I think he uses the term "hacks" to mean that the artist found additional, unexposed controls (aka knobs and dials) over the model.
> Chiang is not saying this at all. I'm not sure how you interpreted it this way.
He says this, very explicitly, in his direct comparison with photography. I'm not sure how you managed to miss it.
"When photography was first developed, I suspect it didn’t seem like an artistic medium because it wasn’t apparent that there were a lot of choices to be made; you just set up the camera and start the exposure. But over time people realized that there were a vast number of things you could do with cameras, and the artistry lies in the many choices that a photographer makes. It might not always be easy to articulate what the choices are, but when you compare an amateur’s photos to a professional’s, you can see the difference. So then the question becomes: Is there a similar opportunity to make a vast number of choices using a text-to-image generator? I think the answer is no."