AI in art is going to be a revolutionary technological leap. In the same way nuclear fission was a revolutionary technological leap for humanity. It is easy to compare AI art to Nuclear Fission, since both have the capability for immense value and immense destruction. This post is the gathering of my ideas related to the topic.

AI art in industry is going to be a coin toss. I foresee we, as a humanity, have four big choices ahead of us:

  1. big corporations start to milk it for all its worth and kick all the artists to the curb,
  2. the value of digital art declines fast, since the market gets oversaturated with quick and easy solutions. I.e. commissioned work and artists who do commissioned work get kicked off to the curb,
  3. artists recognize the value of AI quickly as a tool to improve their craft. I.e. Photobashing as an art form starts to skyrocket in popularity.
  4. All of the above.

Which ever it is, it’s gonna be a massive paradigm shift, similar to the dawn of 3D animation and decline of traditional hand drawn 2D animation. I personally fear for independent commission artists, since that market is already saturated and the market value of individual art works is so low, it’s almost impossible to make a living in the western world.

As for AI as an art form, I believe it’s a tool almost like any other. Doing a quick prompt and calling yourself an artist is similar to just scribbling a few lines and calling yourself an artist. Creating good and useful prompts that generate actually good art is also a bit of an artform in itself, although it’s completely random what you get. I personally feel that the biggest artistry lies in the use of AI as high-end sketches, landscape prototyping, photobashing startpoint and references. In essence, using AI as a starting point.

It’s going to disrupt the market and the craft. It’s gonna put people out of work. But it’s also going to elevate the quality and the quantity.

Art is quickly becoming more and more democratic commodity than a rich person’s luxurity. But at the same time, the value of the hand crafted piece will most likely eventually rise as customers and clients move more and more towards the automated pieces. The hand crafted eventually becomes rare and luxurious as there isnt that many people producing it any more.

Steven Zapata paints a more grim picture, which is worth thinking about, in his video The End of Art: An Argument Against Image AIs. A self-learning feed of AI generated images is for sure heavily into the “nuclear bomb”-side of the spectrum. Another good point he raises is that most of these AI companies sidestep copyright laws by using non-profit companies to teach the AI models, and then using for-profit companies to distribute the use of the AI models for the masses. In essence, they are profiting off of other people’s labor. Definitely something we can all agree is both unethical and borderline illegal. Steven Zapata also talks about how the AI companies have decided to respect the copyrights for music industry. So they also know what they do is both unethical and borderline illegal.

Adam Duff talks about identity theft and art forgery in his video AI ART - Where The Line Must Be Drawn. The most important fact he raises is that using AIs to generate images in someone elses style is essentially art forgery. Especially if one claims that art piece to be from that artist, and not generated by AI. Adam Duff also talks about what is art. Essentially the picture is the least important part of art. What should matter most is the artist and their journey. The experiences they have had such that they eventually create the art they create. AI doesn’t have any of those. There is no journey. There are no experiences.

Now DeviantArt has decided to launch their own platform for AI generated art. All the images in DeviantArt are automatically opt-in to teaching the model, with a laborious and difficult process to opt-out your art. Their Terms of Service talk about how the art downloaded off of the site is now tagged with an opt-out field the AI companies should respect. There is no mention how all art uploaded to the site is and can be used to teach an AI model. There is not much you can do as an artist, basically the only realistic option is to delete your profile and vanish from the internet.

I fear for our future. I fear a few years from now art is no longer created by artists. I fear we will lose the humanity in art.