Beyond AI Slop: Artists Turning Generative Tools into Sotheby’s-Caliber Work

AI’s messy reputation and a shifting narrative

Generative AI art has been widely mocked as “slop” — a flood of odd, meme-like images such as Shrimp Jesus and Ballerina Cappuccina that seem to trivialize artistic practice. Yet amid the low-effort churn there are creators who use AI with deliberate intent. These practitioners are attracting followings, selling works at auction, and placing pieces in gallery and museum collections.

Accessibility as both strength and liability

One of the defining features of generative tools like Midjourney and DALL-E is how accessible they are: with little to no training, anyone can generate images and videos in seconds. That ease helps explain much of the backlash. Platforms such as Instagram and TikTok can be swamped by vapid output, and businesses may opt to generate visuals in-house rather than hire trained artists. At the same time, accessibility opens creative doors. Henry Daubrez, who made AI visuals for a bitcoin NFT titled The Order of Satoshi that sold at Sotheby’s for $24,000 and is now Google’s first filmmaker in residence, argues that generative AI lets people who never had the time or confidence to pursue creative media begin to express themselves.

Tool, collaborator, or new medium?

Many artists treat AI as another tool in the toolbox. “Sometimes you need a camera, sometimes AI, and sometimes paint or pencil or any other medium,” says Jacob Adler, winner of Runway’s third annual AI Film Festival for his piece Total Pixel Space. For Adler and others, AI is an added option for making work rather than a wholesale replacement for traditional practice.

At the same time, AI can act as a collaborator rather than a simple instrument. Kira Xonorika, who describes herself as an “AI-collaborative artist,” values the unpredictability of generative models. Her short film Trickster became the first piece using generative AI to enter the Denver Art Museum’s permanent collection. For artists like Xonorika, relinquishing some control to the machine can expand and complicate creative ideas in productive ways.

Taste, craft, and the role of the artist

Accessibility does not equate to automatic artistic genius. Daubrez cautions that while prompting tools remove technical barriers, producing genuinely interesting work still requires imagination and sensibility: “I don’t think [generative AI] is going to create an entire generation of geniuses,” he says. The new era, he predicts, will be driven by taste — the ability to evaluate and curate AI outputs into something meaningful.

Beth Frey, a trained fine artist who shares her work on Instagram under @sentientmuppetfactory, found early AI glitches compelling—the deformed hands and uncanny faces were part of the appeal. As models improve and those errors vanish, she’s had to adapt her practice; “The better it gets, the less interesting it is for me,” she says, noting that artists must work harder to coax the unexpected out of modern models.

Recognition and resistance

A handful of AI-assisted creators are already seeing recognition: sold NFTs at major auction houses, museum acquisitions, festival prizes, and large social followings. But acceptance remains uneven. For many observers, “AI art” and “AI slop” are still interchangeable terms, and pioneering in such a contested space can be emotionally complicated. Daubrez describes the experience as “sweet and sour”: rewarding when the work is acknowledged, frustrating when the medium as a whole is dismissed rather than treated as one tool among many.

What this means for the art world

Generative AI is forcing art institutions, collectors, and audiences to reconsider definitions of authorship, craft, and value. Some artists will use AI merely as a shortcut; others will integrate its unpredictability into serious practice. The trajectory will likely favor creators who combine taste, intent, and an ability to shape machine output into coherent artistic statements. As the tools evolve, so will the conversations about what counts as art and who gets to make it.