Jesus, if there was ever a project I had that has changed in hindsight, here it is. 

 

So, I made this story for a webcomics design class, and at the time, at least for me, A.I. and A.I. art was still just conceptual. I didn't have the realities of either in mind when I made up this story (I did predict the actual working of A.I. art, but honestly, it's not like it's an inteligent process, it was an easy guess). The idea behind this story was more so to address some of the underlying anxieties I, and other artists, have about our craft; "Is my work too derivative, am I just putting together pieces of better artist into something my own, am I a 'real artist'?" stuff like that. The idea was to tie these ideas into what makes an Artificial Intelligence into an Actual Intelligence, and how and why Neinrich is more than the sum of his programming. I wanted to make a proper go of this as a continued series, but I ran into issues since I didn't have the story written out before hand (I've since learned I can't move forward with a long project without that firm foundation). Before I could write it out, I went to grad school, and while that was taking up my time, the modern state of A.I. developed, and now I have no idea how to write this story like I intended. My feelings about A.I. art are pretty conclusively negative, and a good chunk of the conflict in the story seems foolish when in the current context. Maybe after some time has passed, I'll finish this story, but for now, I'm just hoping not to be embarrassed by it.