AI doppelgänger experiment – Part 1: The training

Nature of Artistic Style and “Greatness”

• Several argue that artists who fixate on a narrow, commodified style are easy to replace; true “masters” continually change rules and can’t be predicted or cloned.
• Others counter that even highly innovative artists rely on recognizable periods or styles that can be mimicked once enough examples exist, so they are not immune.
• Debate over whether distinct modern styles (e.g., Cubism, Pollock-like work) are in fact easily reproducible by AI.

Economic Impact and Commoditization

• Many see the main threat to commercial illustrators, stock art creators, gig/freelance artists (e.g., Fiverr, tattoo designs, fandom niches), not high-end fine art.
• Some say artists already commodified themselves by selling repeatable styles; AI just accelerates that commodification.
• Concerns that emerging artists will be “kneecapped” as a few dozen public works may suffice to clone a sellable style before they build a career.

Ethics, Copyright, and Style Protection

• Common view: “style” is not and should not be copyrightable; trying to protect it legally risks chilling all artistic borrowing.
• Others want protections against training on specific artworks or using an artist’s name as a style brand, perhaps via trademark.
• Skepticism that technical defenses (Glaze/Nightshade, adversarial noise) can meaningfully prevent training.
• Some note simple workarounds like hiring copyists to train a “clean-room” clone of a style.

Comparisons to Past Technologies

• Parallels drawn to photography, film transitions, and digital tools: prior tech displaced specialists but didn’t kill art.
• Counterargument: AI is “parasitic” on existing media and requires ongoing human output to improve, unlike cameras.

Quality, Creativity, and Meaning

• Practitioners report AI can easily capture superficial style but struggles with deep concept, intent, and precise communication needs.
• Others claim AI is already traversing a “latent space of styles” and that human creativity is just points on a curve; some see this as philosophically bleak.
• Strong pushback that AI output still lacks the depth, surprise, and lived context of human art; accusations that its loudest boosters misunderstand art.

AI as Tool and New Medium

• Many artists use generative models for exploration, thumbnails, and style play, seeing AI as a powerful but dependent tool.
• Some predict a swing back to physical, unscannable, or experiential art as a refuge from commoditized digital imagery.
• There is interest in personal “doppelganger” models (for art and writing), but concerns about compute cost and ambivalence toward the broader AI ecosystem.