Part of it is that we find ourselves in the midst of another crisis of painting. There have been several periods like this including a couple of recent ones, but this is the most significant since photography.
This presents us with two options as artists. 1. don't use AI. 2. use AI and buck the authority of art orthodoxy. Seriously, fuck em. It didn't have to be this way. These conditions were never a requirement, but this is the position we are in.
The rebuttal
Dada provides a framework and sociolinguistic context for understanding this conversation. It also provides a rebuttal.
1. There has never been a moral argument made in or about the art world that wasn't self-serving. Arguments around morality are irrelevant. Morality is a disease caused by a rational outlook of the world. Rationalism, especially smug rationalism, is the mortal enemy of Dadaism.
2. Art can be made by randomness and chance completely. By dropping paper shreddings onto a piece of canvas, or by pissing into a jar with a rosary in it. By dropping a can of paint or writing a piece of code to plot lines on a page.
Everything a human being does to express themselves is valid art. Nobody has to like this fact in order for it to be objectively true. Children can make art skillessly. Even elephants, who aren't even human make art.
But, even without a redefinition of art, it's already broad enough that prompting qualifies. (See any and all early 20th century arguments against photography, and the consensus of 1954 and onward)
3. Capitalism is bogus. The job and commission paradigm we've had five centuries to change but somehow still exists is bogus. The protestant work ethic is bogus. Baroque Realism is bogus. Expressionism is bogus. But most importantly, gatekeeping is bogus, and demeaning people who call themselves artists is smug terfy bullshit.
Dada exists to explore the possibilities along the fringes of the things that are and can be considered art. It questions orthodoxies, hard rules, and conformity in a way that's nihilistic and ahistorical from the perspective of art insiders.
It's dangerous to the rules, and dogma, and practice of an art community who has its history in aura and its roots in ritual.
And that's why more AI artists need to read the primary sources and adopt it.
Dada is chaotic justice, free expression, and a big middle finger to anyone anywhere who puts protectionism ahead of creativity.
It's a philosophy to live by.
Dada is life.