AI generated art has come a long way. I remember back when I was in high school and discovered Google Deep Dream. It used artificial intelligence to modify images based on algorithms, often morphing them into a new visual experience. I found this fascinating and almost futuristic, and was excited to see AI developing into new territories.
While Deep Dream was interesting, that was years ago. Nowadays, we have powerhouses in the AI art world, such as DALL-E 2 and Midjourney. These AI programs are able to take prompts and create images out of them, including art. I’ll spare you the details, as I’m sure you have heard of AI art before and might not wish to hear the technical details and jargon. Just know that AI has come a very long way.
While this technological advancement is entertaining, interesting, and exciting all in one, it can pose a lot of problems. Here are a couple of concerns that I have seen shared by the online community surrounding AI art, and art in general.
AI art is taking opportunities from “real” artists
Because AI art can be so visually pleasing, there are times when it can lead to less work for artists. For example, someone looking to obtain a piece of art for personal purposes may opt to generate an image, rather than commission an artist. This lowers the demand for artists who spend time and effort to craft an art piece. Recently, an AI generated art piece won a digital art competition, to the dismay of other competitors and judges alike.
Ownership of AI art can be confusing
Something that we have seen regarding AI art is commercial use. This is fine, as the ones behind many of the big AI programs welcome people to use their creations. However, it seems that there are people that use AI art for less ethical purposes. People have been found to take work-in-progress art pieces from others and use AI to complete them. They may then try to pass these images off as their own works. It is also possible to use AI to add to or even extend existing artworks. Artists have expressed dissatisfaction towards this (this is an understatement).
Obviously there is much to address when considering the ethics of AI art. As the AI continues to grow, hopefully these issues can be addressed. What other AI-related concerns do you see? I would love to know!
3 Responses
AI-generated artwork has already made its mark in the world of art and because of this booming crypto industry and NFT technology, we will see much more to come in the future!
AI images are outstanding, and it is unbelievable how far it has come. However, I also agree that it seems as though that AI is taking work from artist who are struggling to get jobs.
Both of these images are fascinating to look at, I can definitely see it becoming even more dominant than it already is in the art space years from now.