Is AI art considered 'real' art?

This question gets asked a lot, usually with the answer already implied. We'll be honest about our view: AI art is a medium, the way photography, lithography, and digital illustration are mediums. A tool alone doesn't make something art or not-art. What it's used for, by whom, with what intention, determines whether the final thing is worth hanging on a wall.

A lazy AI image is bad art. A thoughtful AI image — art-directed, iterated, printed with care on archival paper, framed well — is good art. Same with photography; same with painting. The tool isn't the argument.

The critics who say "it isn't real art" are usually responding to the flood of low-effort, derivative AI output on social media. That critique is valid for that output. It's less valid as a blanket rule for the medium. History will sort this out over the next decade; in the meantime, the question for you is whether a specific piece feels meaningful.