Midjourney made a photo of my cat that looked more like him than my actual camera

I was always one of those "AI art is just copying" people. But my buddy uses it for his side hustle making pet portraits. He showed me a side by side of my orange tabby Leo. One was from my iPhone 13 and one was from Midjourney. The AI one actually got his exact lazy eye and the way he sits with one paw curled. My photo looked like just another cat. His looked like my cat. That kind of got to me. Is it art if it captures a personality better than a photograph? Or is it still just a copy machine making something that never existed?

2 comments

2 Comments

sean_murray9d ago

A camera captures light, but AI just guesses what feels right.

dakotawells9d ago

Oh man, you hit on something I've been wrestling with too. I think the real question is whether capturing a soul matters more than the method. A camera just records what's there, but AI seems to pick up on patterns we don't even see. Maybe art is less about the tool and more about whether it makes you feel something real. Leo's lazy eye in that AI image sounds more true to him than any random snapshot, so yeah, that feels like something worth calling art.