As AI technology becomes more accessible than ever, questions are being raised about how the usage of generative AI affects people on a daily basis. While many people are pointing out ethical and legal issues concerning AI art, the AI debate on the Japanese side of X is taking a slightly different direction, with users proposing that there might be a “gambling side” to AI that’s addicting to the user.
The similarities between AI art and gacha game-like mechanics were addressed when a graphic designer posted their recent AI generated work on their X account with the caption: “I hit the jackpot with this prompt.” In response to that, another Japanese X user quoted the post, saying: “You worded it as if it were a gacha. It’s obvious that generative AI is not about creativity.”
The post amassed more than 14,000 likes and over 770,000 impressions, initiating a discussion about the psychology behind generating AI images. Many X users agreed with the idea that generative AI is like a gacha game – it takes many tries until you’re able to generate the kind of image you want, which puts the “gambling” factor of image generation in the forefront, completely ignoring the creative process of art making.
A published manga artist quoted the post with his opinion on the topic, garnering more than 270,000 impressions.
He expands further on the original poster’s point of view, expressing that, in the midst of the AI craze, many people seem to get hooked on the sensation of generating images, doing it over and over until they hit the jackpot with just the right one – hinting that this could possibly be some type of addictive behavior.
Others disagreed with the post, arguing that the creative process itself, whether it be drawing, painting, writing or anything else, can in fact be like a gacha too, because there is always a huge difference between “what you wanted to create” and “what you ended up creating.”
Related Articles: Persona and Shin Megami Tensei artist Kazuma Kaneko’s new game has a card generating AI trained on his own art
