With the advance of AI, I feel my work as an artist is no longer respected. Should I just give up? | Leading questions

With the advance of AI, I feel my work as an artist is no longer respected. Should I just give up? Think back to the reason you started making art, advice columnist Eleanor Gordon-Smith writes, then separate this from the money or acclaim Read more Leading questions I’m an artist in my 30s without any major success. Before the pandemic I had quite a lot of opportunities. Unfortunately Covid and then political and personal matters beyond my control shattered my work and social circles. I lost contacts and had no time for networking. My art evolved with me and has become less conceptual, more narrative and accessible. The most fulfilling moment in the last few months was when I surprised a local cashier by giving her an illustration. Nevertheless, I’ve started to doubt that I can move people with my art. I don’t know how to reach people without spending hours upon hours on social media (which is draining), and the advance of generative AI worries me. There’s little to no money from art and, while I put all my soul and heart in it, my energy (and health) are not infinite. I see other, bigger, known artists also struggling, while their work was used to train AI models without their consent. I keep asking myself: “What’s the point?” I don’t feel art and artists, cartoonists, illustrators are respected in our culture any more. Should I just give up? Eleanor says: Do you remember when you started making art, maybe in childhood? When you first picked up a pencil, something made you want to keep doing it. It probably wasn’t the thought “I want to do this for the money” or “I want others to recognise my skill at this”. Something in the activity itself called you back. If I’m hearing you correctly, you now don’t know whether you want to keep making art given the lack of money, cultural esteem or industry success so far. Of course that makes sense; anybody would find that demoralising. But the strange thing is that money or success or cultural esteem probably weren’t the point ...