Thousands of people on X just confidently explained why an AI-generated image was inferior to a real Monet.
Just one problem: It WAS a real Monet.
The image was an image of a real Monet, identified as from his Water Lilies collection from around 1915.
SHL0MS posted that he generated the image in the style of Monet, asking users to describe why the "AI image" is inferior in as much detail as possible.
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Conceptual artist SHL0MS’ latest experiment says less about AI art and more about the reflexive hostility baked into the tech, with critics lining up to trash an artwork the moment they thought a machine made it.
Good morning, {{ first_name | AI enthusiasts }}. Thousands of people on X just confidently explained why an AI-generated image was inferior to a real Monet. Just one problem: It WAS a real Monet.
Why it matters: This Monet-gate was one painting, but the reflex it exposed runs through the entire creative world right now. For a growing crowd, the word 'AI' alone triggers backlash regardless of context — and that knee-jerk hostility is only growing as the tech changes the world around us and embeds deeper into everyday life.
The saga aligns with 2024 research , with Norwegian researchers finding people actually prefer AI art but show a clear negative bias against it.
The image was an image of a real Monet, identified as from his Water Lilies collection from around 1915.
The post received thousands of responses calling the image ‘emotionless’, ‘slop’, and critiquing specific features like depth, reflections, and composition.
SHL0MS posted that he generated the image in the style of Monet, asking users to describe why the "AI image" is inferior in as much detail as possible.
The Rundown: Artist SHL0MS sparked a frenzy on X over a post that presented a real image of a painting from famed impressionist Claude Monet as AI-generated, sparking critiques of the work and shining a mirror on anti-AI bias seen in the creative world.
Unwrap is offering free trials to Rundown AI subscribers — grab 15 minutes with the team to get set up .
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THE RUNDOWN ROUNDTABLE
Image source: Ideogram / The Rundown
The Rundown: The Rundown Roundtable is a weekly feature where we poll members of The Rundown staff about how we use AI in our work and daily lives.
Billy, University Educator: I made Claude Code my apprentice CAD designer because I don't know anything about engineering.
My wife needed a ring container to attach to her water bottle at the gym. I drew my idea for a threaded container and told Claude to prototype it. The first few prints were rough. But after the 8th prototype, we had the perfect design.
Rishi, Growth: YouTube is one of the best free education platforms out there, but the problem is that it takes a ton of time to sit through long videos just to find the few ideas that actually matter.
That’s where Gemini has been really useful for me. Since it’s built into Google, I can use it to quickly summarize a specific YouTube video, or even scan the last 5–10 videos from a creator to pull out the key takeaways.
