Could AI art ruin future artists careers?
With the hottest topic in the art community being the new AI technology of which can turn your prompts into artistic pieces, many artists are feeling cheated as their art and skills feed into this machine.
Several artists have gone as far as to say AI art will kill their chance at a future career in their passion, but is this the case?
One of the many choices you can go to for AI art is Stable Diffusion, an online application that is free and allows you to enter prompts of which creates an art piece based on those prompts.
This application is heralded as revolutionary, and many people use it as a derivative of commissioned art, but the main criticism of this application, is that its creator has made the AI use art and styles from millions of different artists without their permission.
This has lead to this becoming a controversial topic in the art community, as while many see it as an extraordinary advancement in technology, many others see it as thievery of their hard work.
As a retort to criticism, people would suggest that AI art is similar to photography, as in the talent may be the users (the photographer and the prompt user), but the technology is truly to thank.
However, this was quickly refuted by internet users.
I’m so tired of the ai and photography comparison.
“Artists were afraid of photography too and survived it!”
Photography stole no ones art! Photography is its own medium with a different look! Different purpose! And doesn’t try to copy drawn art! Photography really is a tool!
— Amalas Rosa (@AmalasRosa) March 22, 2023
But how do real artists feel about this new tool?
Many artists are not pleased.
AI-generated art won an art prize in the Colorado State Fair, leading to many artists feeling as though they were scammed and cheated against.
Responses to The New York Times were mostly jokes at the expense of the AI user, such as this image.
— Chris Pugh (@chrispugh) September 2, 2022
When it was mentioned that the category was for Digital Art, one twitter user stated that digital art and AI art are not the same, as digital art required the artist to use digital tools, whereas AI art steals other artists work to create an image.
This fear from artists that they may lose their job does not come unwarranted however, as companies have already begun shifting to AI usage for game dialogue, as Ubisoft have announced they will be using AI to “support their script writers” when making new characters.
If a job such as writing is being taken over already by AI, how long until this leaks into the art used being generated by the AI?
AI art is only becoming more popular with thousands of generations happening each hour across multiple applications.
And while sometimes these pieces are posted for free on social media, some prompt users feel as though they deserve compensation.
It does not seem as though the AI generation trend will be dying down soon, but artists feel worried for their creative future.