I have created thousands of pictures without it, so I think I've earned the right to use AI without apology. Even so, I realize that many regard AI as a sort of cultural blasphemy, and I have no quarrel with them: I felt the same about all computer graphics, thirty years ago. So pictures created primarily with AI will usually be posted in special AI galleries, without commentary and without my signature. Instead they will feature a logo with the letters AIAIO. With a Moo Moo here and an Oink Oink there. That's supposed to be funny.

The ethics of AI art, and of the data mining it entails, are still under fierce debate. I don't like the idea of appropriating the work of others, and I don't like others borrowing mine. I can say only that I have made no conscious use of material from any living artist. The artists whose work I have imitated are long dead, and their reputations are high and secure. Most of my intentionally borrowed material is recycled from my own art, and all of the AI images posted in this gallery have been heavily retouched, color corrected and otherwise altered to add a human touch. None are entirely AI, if that matters to potential buyers.

Does AI actually create art? No: Art is about the expression of human ideas, emotions and so forth. The AI has no self-awareness, no soul, no personality. Heaven help us when it does. However, the same is true of a camera: It's only a gadget, indifferent to its subject matter. Anyone can use it. But nobody questions the artistic worth of a really fine photograph, taken by a person of intelligence and insight. It's all a question of whether the artist, or the gadget, is doing the driving.