A Night of Art, AI, and a Little Bit of Panic (On My Part)
January 27th, I walked into the Weston Art Guild, fully prepared to be metaphorically tarred and feathered by a room full of artists. Let’s be real—AI and the art world have been in a bit of a complicated relationship. Between debates over AI-generated images and concerns about creative integrity, I was bracing myself for some tough questions... But here’s the plot twist: They were awesome.
The Setup and Early Reactions
Melanie Margolis had invited me to present at their January member meeting, and I kicked things off with a discussion about AI, data, and how it all connects. I started by showing a graphical representation of the Internet—an explosion of colors and patterns, basically a digital Jackson Pollock—to illustrate how AI is trained on vast amounts of data. From there, we explored how AI functions as a layer between us and the massive ocean of information we've been collecting for decades.
The audience? Super engaged. There were some clear AI users in the room, including people already experimenting with ChatGPT and AI-powered tools like Theobot.ai—a site that helps artists generate titles and descriptions for their work. (Which, funnily enough, I accidentally demonstrated that ChatGPT can already do for free.)
The Demo That Stopped the Room
Now, let’s talk about the moment of the night. I had planned to discuss language models in detail, but one of the members already had a fantastic list of major AI models, so instead, I went down the list, giving my hot takes on each. That naturally led to some great questions about AI-generated writing, and that’s when I pulled out the demo.
We took an abstract painting—the one you see below—and fed it to ChatGPT, instructing it to act as an art critic and analyze the piece.
And the response was incredible.
The AI critique was deep, nuanced, and (dare I say) shockingly insightful. It talked about composition, color palette, texture, and even the symbolic weight of the different elements. It name-dropped Cy Twombly and Robert Rauschenberg—because, of course, AI is pretentious like that.
At first, the artist seemed impressed. The room was nodding along.
Then I hit them with the voice synthesis feature.
ChatGPT read the critique aloud in one of its new ultra-realistic voices. And that’s when I saw the deer-in-headlights look spread across the room.
Two women were literally shaking their heads no, as if rejecting reality itself. Not in anger, but in sheer disbelief.
It was one of those moments where you could see the mental gears grinding—part wonder, part What even is this sorcery?.
An Unexpected Reaction
I’ll be honest: I had walked in expecting resistance. Maybe even open hostility. After all, the art community has valid concerns about AI-generated content and how it impacts human creativity.
But instead of pushback, I got curiosity.
The room was full of thoughtful questions—about ethics, about AI’s role as a creative tool rather than a replacement, about how it might help rather than harm. And at the end of the night?
They asked me to come back for a workshop. 🤯
Final Thoughts: AI and the Art World
This was, hands down, one of the best presentations I’ve done—not because of anything I did, but because of the engagement, the questions, and the way the conversation unfolded.
And honestly, this experience made me rethink AI’s relationship with art. I’ve always viewed AI as a tool for writing, research, and maybe a little photography enhancement. But I never really thought about how it might enhance the traditional art world rather than threaten it.
AI-generated art is a hot-button topic, but what if AI wasn’t here to replace artists—but to collaborate with them? To help with inspiration, descriptions, analysis, or even just breaking through creative blocks?
This is an area I want to explore more. And thanks to the Weston Art Guild, I might just get that chance.
Thank you, Weston Art Guild, for proving me wrong in the best way possible.
What do you think? Is AI a tool for artists, or a threat to creativity?
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