Machine-Aided Creativity Isn’t New—So Spare Us the AI Panic
Let’s stop romanticizing the past. Johannes Vermeer, the 17th-century poster boy of “pure artistic genius,” may have been tracing his masterpieces using a camera obscura—a literal box with a lens that projected reality so he could copy it. The revered painter of light might’ve just been an early adopter of mechanical assistance, more technician than mystic.
Centuries later, filmmaker Tim Jenison recreated The Music Lesson using mirrors and methodical setup, showing that Vermeer’s supposedly divine technique could be reproduced with optical tools and patience. The art world winced. Of course it did—because admitting that even the old masters used tech to cheat the grind shatters their precious mythology.
And now, enter AI. Suddenly everyone’s clutching their pearls like creativity itself is under siege. Spare us the moral panic. Machine-aided creativity has always been here. If Vermeer had access to Midjourney or GPT, he would’ve used it—and he would’ve sold you the NFT too.
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