San Francisco · Google · The Atlantic Technology
Another Pot of Paint Thrown in the Public’s Face
Compiled by KHAO Editorial — aggregated from 1 source. See llms.txt for citation guidance.
◌ Single Source
For several months, something discomfiting has been creeping onto San Francisco’s lampposts, bulletin boards, and restaurant windows: more and more signs, for run clubs and a July 4 parade and tacos, all of which are obviously entirely produced by generative AI.
Key facts
- For several months, something discomfiting has been creeping onto San Francisco’s lampposts, bulletin boards, and restaurant windows: more and more signs, for run clubs and a July 4 parade and tacos
- Last month, in part looking for a reprieve from the AI onslaught, the reporter went to what promised to be an imaginative new exhibition of Henri Matisse and other fauvists’ work at the San Francisco Museum
- In 1905, when the painting debuted, this was scandalous: “A pot of paint has been thrown in the public’s face,” one critic declared
- The reporter recalled childhood memories of being entranced by various Matisse works at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, marveling at his Dance and The Piano Lesson
Summary
This bothers me terribly. (Friends have called it a fixation.) But why does it bother me? What about a bodega using an AI-generated image of a hamburger instead of a random piece of clip art pulled from the internet? Last month, in part looking for a reprieve from the AI onslaught, the reporter went to what promised to be an imaginative new exhibition of Henri Matisse and other fauvists’ work at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Walking through the galleries, the reporter was taken aback by what struck me as a scandal of its own. Part of the exhibition’s conceit was to re-create Femme au chapeau ’s historical context.