Art defines us. It has been our outlet for all of time, from cave paintings to Monet; little sketchbook doodles to grand, sweeping, story-telling paintings.
Art is accessible to all of us, whether or not we think we have the time or the passion or the energy or the talent. It’s how we express ourselves.Â
Nostalgic craft stores like Michaels have always reignited my love for art and inspired me to try new things, such as the embroidery kit I picked up in the hopes of learning a new skill or my new batch of acrylic paints. Consumerism and capitalism have taken away much of our time and passion for art, but stores like Michaels keep it accessible and easy to pick up. However, once AI becomes mixed in, can it even still be called art?
A couple weeks back, I stopped at Michaels after my normal routine of Trader Joe’s for groceries and wandered around, checking paint prices (insane, by the way), and started to notice a weird pattern in their early-Halloween themed designs. None of it seemed to be actually made by humans.
As soon as I got home, I checked out Michael’s website, which has a whole Etsy-like page called MakerPlace where individual artists can promote and sell their own work, pretty much unregulated. One of the first things I noticed was an AI Content Studio page (“where creativity meets innovation,” apparently). Especially laughable is their supposed commitment to “quality and sustainability” while using blatantly AI products.Â
I could go on and on about how any sort of AI usage simply cannot be qualified as sustainable, especially when talking about something so frivolous a use for it as art, but I’ll keep it simple. AI requires data centers, which are environmental catastrophes not just for the populations of towns affected by their sound pollution and space, but also for their water usage.Â
Even in the store, Michaels makes no attempt to hide their blatant AI usage. One piece in particular, as mentioned by TikTok creator Jack Valentine, depicts a wolf with “3 front legs” as well as a Freepik watermark (an AI image creator). They could have at least made an effort to make it slightly anatomically correct.
As though selling AI slop wasn’t enough, Michaels has even launched an AI shopping assistant to help make your decisions for you. Ask Mike apparently “provides personalized product recommendations and creative guidance based on shoppers’ descriptions,” or in other words, takes all the creativity out of your projects. While this may sound quick and helpful, the entire point of art and creativity is to struggle to create it yourself. If you become dependent on a robot to do your thinking for you, can it even still be called art?Â
Although I would say I’m strongly anti-AI as a blanket statement, using AI in art is perhaps the dead last thing I would ever even consider using it for. It tosses aside the raw humanity and creativity and leaves only a plain, pretty design that lacks any sort of meaning. Not to mention it’s a frivolous use of an incredibly environmentally harmful product. Is your AI picture really worth it?
By no means am I telling you to boycott Michaels entirely, but I do think being aware of what the stores you buy from support is incredibly important, and Michaels has made it exceedingly clear that they simply do not care if their artists are human or not. Instead, try to create something of your own, without being dependent upon a robot to tell you what to use or make.Â