I Have Failed.

I started writing online to kill boredom through creativity. But that wasn't the only reason.

I love people as individuals (and sometimes struggle with groups of people). I'm in awe of the essence of a person. There are many ways in which one can penetrate to the essence of a human soul. For me, most of the time it happens during deep conversations. I'm even more enamored when somebody has the courage to show me their essence freely – and nobody does this better than artists.

Posting part of your innermost being in the form of art is an act of bravery. I thought I had done this by writing this blog. Yet I failed spectacularly.

I was always a visual thinker. Ever since I can remember, I was enchanted by great visuals — be it paintings, drawings, cartoons and animation, or video games. I loved the artistry of the people who can bring new worlds to life with visuals.

So many people throughout my life told me that I was horrible at drawing and painting. The main problem is not that they were right, but that I started to believe I couldn’t improve.

It doesn't even matter if it's good or not. If it gives you satisfaction and brings you happiness, who is anybody to judge? Art is extremely subjective. But because I was scared of what others might think, I outsourced a skill I always wanted to develop to a computer and used the generated images as cover images for my blog posts.

I don't think that AI art is a bad thing. But the soul of a work of art is not given by a machine — this is something only a human can do. Everybody leaves part of their essence in their work. So how could I say that I accomplished my goal when I don't create the visuals for these posts myself?

So, from now on, my blog post cover pictures will include only:

• Photographs that I took
• Drawings that I drew
• Paintings that I painted
• Digital art I made

Maybe my stance will change, but right now, I stand by it. Typing in a prompt to generate a picture and then using it as a cover image for my blog post isn't "bringing all of me into it." It's a cop-out for not developing my drawing and painting skills. An excuse for not picking up my camera.

Still, I want to figure out how artificial intelligence can help me develop these skills faster. I still think that there is nothing wrong with using AI to its fullest potential — even when it comes to art. Artificial intelligence is phenomenal for:

• Learning
• Analysis
• Search
• Translation
• Brainstorming

…and many other things. But you have to create the mother lode of your art. For the artist, it’s not in the end result where the magic lies, but in the process. Because the process is where you find struggle, overcome, and improve your skills. Behind the struggle you find satisfaction. This isn’t only true for art, but for any type of work in general. A huge inspiration for me in this regard is Austin Kleon. I love his art — not because of its perfection, but because it is perfectly him.

I think it’s because of the rise of intelligent machines that we realize how valuable human creation is. Social media was a product meant to connect people, yet it’s one of the catalysts of the loneliness epidemic and mental suffering. So it is with generative AI. If anybody can type in a prompt and beautiful artwork appears, the art created by human hands might increase in worth a hundredfold.

One question I struggle with is what is considered art and what is not. For example, coding can be seen as art as well. Who’s to say that writing without AI is more valuable than coding without AI? Some of my friends are phenomenal programmers, and I consider what they do an art form as well. Yet I still tried vibe coding and liked it. But vibe coding doesn’t make you a great programmer, just like generating a painting doesn’t make you a great painter.

At its core, it might not even be about outsourcing art. Maybe the truth is much more fundamental than that. Maybe it comes down to not outsourcing your thinking to a machine. If you don’t use something, it atrophies. If you outsource every single skill to artificial intelligence, these skills will atrophy as well. You don’t want this to happen to your thinking and creative ability.

Still, there’s so much value to get from artificial intelligence. In a nutshell, my stance at the moment is that AI should be used to enhance creativity, not outsource it.

Brace yourself: you're going to get some drawings and pictures that are very funny (for all the wrong reasons) and flawed beyond belief. But at least they're going to be uniquely me. And who knows — maybe my art teachers were wrong after all. Maybe I can improve.