AI can't give you good taste
“What makes AI imagery so lousy isn’t the technology itself, but the cliché and superficial creative ambitions of those who use it.”
“AI image generation is essentially a truncated exercise in taste; a product of knowing which inputs and keywords to feed the image-mashup machine, and the eye to identify which outputs contain any semblance of artistry. All that is to say: AI itself can’t generate good taste for you.”
“As templated tools, the proliferation of AI and the ubiquity of design tutorials make technical skills more accessible than ever, it’s simply not enough to be able to draw or design anymore. Now you need to have taste. Taste is what enables designers to navigate the vast sea of possibilities that technology and global connectivity afford, and to then select and combine these elements in ways that, ideally, result in interesting, unique work.”
“Good taste can seem to emerge naturally, either as a product of a cultured education or innate coolness. In practice, it’s rarely present by accident. Taste takes work. Though good taste is often expressed through a single output (say, interior design or illustration), it’s typically shaped by exposure to a variety of diverse inputs. A common theme heard amongst iconic, tasteful creatives is how often they look outside their own field for inspiration: the architect inspired by nature, the clothing designer inspired by anime, the illustrator inspired by medieval tapestries.”
”I’ve come to believe that developing taste is not so unlike going to therapy; it’s an inefficient, time-consuming process that mostly entails looking inward and identifying whatever already moves you. It’s the product of devouring ideas, images and pieces of culture not because someone you respect likes them, but because you simply can’t look away. Developing taste is an exercise in vulnerability: it requires you to trust your instincts and preferences, even when they don’t align with current trends or the tastes of your peers.”
My favorite snippets from Elizabeth Goodspeed’s piece on the importance of taste – and how to acquire it. She’s talking about generative AI as a visual medium but I believe all of this applies the written work and conceptual output we create with ChatGPT as well.