Proof of Whatever We Can

I read somewhere (excellent citing of sources I know) that in online illustration contests and sites, they’re now requiring videos by the artist while they’re working up a work from sketch to finish. This is what it’s come to as the AI reaps with its merciless scythe of death across the artistic landscape. This got me to thinking a couple of things. The first of which is what other ways will we start requiring Proof of Human.

Mere physicality, although a decent start won’t be much an assurance the thing you own was made by a human. Bear in mind, Microsoft did it with Rembrandt in 2014(!) so something to hang on your wall isn’t going to be enough either all the time, but it’s pretty easy to tell if something was made by a machine so far I think.

One of the advantages of working digitally, besides undo, is the ability to have layers. You’re in your favourite cracked photo editing app and you retouch a bit, but you move things around, and move them around again, and then put some more things in front. However, this isn’t going to work, because of course Adobe allows you to generate in layers. Maybe history? Just about every graphic production app keeps track of the document’s history. But again, I’m sure there is AI that could mask itself. And on and on and on.

So a video then is it I guess. I’m assuming this at some point this might be able to be itself generated as well. Some sort of certificate? Wait, a digital proof a thing is a thing made by a human? You mean NFTs? Again? Who would certify it is the obvious question. Maybe it’s going to come to live painting, with you actually watching the artist, just like you do in the seaside resort, rendering an image and then it being worth something. This would be the best solution in terms of irony though, which means maybe it should be a thing.