Luis J. Gomez says he will keep using AI for promo flyers
A one-word reply, then a long one, after a critic told him to pay an artist or get an intern.
Luis J. Gomez was told to stop using AI for art. He replied with one word.
The critic was @nickologist, posting as Nick Miller, who tagged Gomez and asked him to knock it off. "Dude, please stop using AI for art! You are a creative. your peers are creatives and artist," he wrote, calling it disrespectful and lazy and suggesting Gomez either pay an artist or get an intern to make his graphics.
Gomez quote tweeted it with "No." and left it there for a bit.
Then he explained the rule
In a follow up, Gomez laid out where he draws the line. AI for disposable stuff, humans for anything that sticks around. He said he uses AI for promo flyers and real artists when the art actually matters, and that he thinks that split is fair.
His defense leaned on volume. Gomez says he works with and employs hundreds of artists, listing comedians, musicians, designers and illustrators, and says he puts a lot of money directly into the creative community. His claim is that it is more than anyone complaining about AI art, which is the kind of line that is impossible to check and very easy to post.
The actual argument underneath is about the economics of a graphic with a shelf life. Gomez says the time and money he saves on an image that disappears in 24 hours goes right back into paying artists to make things that do not disappear. And he says the AI is not taking work from anybody who was going to get paid, because it is replacing stuff he would have made himself or would not have made at all.
Why this one lands differently
The usual version of this fight is a brand getting caught with a six fingered mascot. This one is a comedian who runs a podcast network and books a festival, arguing that the flyer is not the art, the show is.
That is also the part people will keep arguing about. A promo flyer is exactly the kind of small paid job that designers and illustrators actually live on, which is the whole point @nickologist was making when he said pay an artist or get an intern. Gomez's answer is that the same budget is still going to artists, just to different ones, for work that outlasts a day.
Nobody in this exchange moved. Gomez posted "No." and then wrote several hundred words explaining the no, which is its own kind of tell about how much the question bugged him.
This is just disrespectful and lazy.
I’ll use AI for disposable shit like promo flyers and real artists when the art actually matters.