How are people feeling about Art AI?

Nathalie Kranich

Heya guys! This topic has been on my mind a bit, so I am turning to my favourite art community to see what other artists are thinking about it!

I'm sure loads of you have seen images from Art AI circling the web recently, with tools like midjourney creating some really stunning images in a slightly surreal fantastical style, for example. Others can conceptualize character ideas or draw up full scenes. For sure, right now, all AI art needs a lot of editing. Faces are very blurry or straight-up abhorrently distorted, there is a lot of odd clipping, the AI often lacks a lot of context and as much as it can mimic some styles, it seems very hit and miss whether it will do so well.

Nonetheless I am wondering whether AI, as it improves, will have a heavy impact on illustration careers. I wonder if especially in the entertainment industry concepting characters and landscapes might fall to machines in the future, with much fewer illustrators perhaps only editing what an AI produces. It feels to me like companies in future could take this shortcut to save money when they perhaps don't have the most specific artistic vision for their project.

I wonder if AI will, in the not too distant future, understand enough context to illustrate even children's books scenes with repeating character designs. However I do think children's illustration would be one of the least likely applications for AI, due to the demand for styles unique to a specific artist.

How do you guys feel about Art AI as an evolving concept? Does anyone feel a little threatened by it? Do you think the human touch in Art is at all replaceable?

I've also wondered if it's not time to incorporate AI into our own artistic processes when it comes to generating ideas and quickly running through different compositions and colours, for example. Is this something to be worked with, rather than against?

lpetiti

The thing is I think AI will never be able to replicate human creativity. If it’s a fad, it will fade and if it’s not it will still not replace humans for the majority of stuff.

Asyas_illos

@Nathalie-Kranich everything I’ve seen created by does not even compare the artists original artwork, not a fan.

Nyrryl Cadiz

@Nathalie-Kranich I'm scared of AI But I think us artists are safe for the moment. My main reason is that AI can't replicate a consistent style over multiple images. All you have to do is change 1 word and your whole image changes. Making a whole book or other project that requires a consistent style or a consistent looking character throughout will be almost impossible

edit: for now at least. I'm dreading the day when they'll figure out this issue. until then, I'm going to continue making art that I love

willicreate

IMO, introduction of AI art isn't too dis-similar to the introduction of photography. 1800's painters had to asked themselves how can they compete with this new technology that can replicate the living world in a few seconds, with fairly well to near perfect accuracy. Some artists invested more in technique and became hyper-realists, others re-examined the world with an abstract mindset, challenging people's perceptions with impressionism, abstractism, dada, etc.

This technology will give new opportunities to technicians, but communication is constantly evolved by artists. AI regurgitates old information, the creative mind invents the new.

The tech will be a great tool to help someone brainstorm on ideas; much like bouncing off ideas with a trusted friend. The AI image shouldn't be a finished product.

Griffin McPherson

I think AI art is here to stay. I can see AI replacing some concept art jobs and I think it will most definitely become a part of the creative process for developing concepts. At the moment AI cannot achieve storytelling and to me this is the big reason why it’s not really a threat to many artists.

I have seen some AI art that is stunning. It really makes me feel and think just as I would with human art, which feels strange but I don’t think it’s bad. Humans and especially artists are adaptable. Every tool that has ever been introduced to the art world has simply made artists more creative. AI art is no different.

burvantill

I think AI can and will become a very useful tool to all creatives. I was a little skeptical of it at first, in regards to using it as a tool (or at all), but after reading Jake Parker's take on it and seeing what he did with just playing around with his Skullchaser character, I decided to mess around with the Midjourney AI. It was a bit daunting. In 10 minutes I received over 100 images that I could use to enhance or inspire my own art, or straight up steal from . The images that I chose to have the AI enhance turned out so incredibly wonderful that I am absolutely positive that I will be borrowing from them for my own original art. The images gave me IDEAS! Ideas that I would not have come up with on my own. I don't think that artists should be worried. I think using AI well, will still take a certain level of creativity. I do think that artists should at the very least play with the beta versions that are out right now, so that you can see what I saw and not be afraid, but quite possibly be excited by the results. =)x

kirsten-mcg

I feel like its a tool that we can learn to use to our advantage. Like so many of you have said already, it can only regurgitate old ideas, styles, themes, etc. New innovations, styles, techniques can still only be generated by real humans. However, I do wonder how much the art world will be changed by it. Will those who learn to use it as a tool be more competitive in the future market, just like it's become necessary to know digital programs like photoshop in our current market? I think as an artist it's important to be adaptable and open to experimenting with new ideas and techniques, and AI (at the moment at least!) counts as one. And who knows? Maybe it will make art created by real people more valuable? Kind of like artisan made bread.

lpetiti

My fiance and I were talking about this subject last night (in the context of the myth that Walt Disney was frozen so that he could be resurrected later, haha). The thing AI can't replicate is a soul or the "human factor" as some would call it. The day AI can...well we should be scared

K.Flagg

This is such a strange topic. I felt really punched in the gut when I first saw AI art. But after researching it a bit I feel artists can coexist with it. It could be a useful tool. I know that it is being used a lot right now for album art by bands and music artists. But I also feel like these artists are not rolling in cash and would not have been able to pay an artist to do the album art they wanted anyway. I think the jobs it is taking away from artists would be the bottom level fiver type jobs. Big projects that require editing and revisions won't be at risk. You still have to have a person that can make creative choices.
The main thing that concerns me is that this will make social media as an artist more obsolete. Its already so diluted and hard to get noticed on social and now we will be competing with accounts that will just post AI art and get more followers than actual artists.

Nathalie Kranich

@K-Flagg Oh yeah, social media is an interesting one, I hadn't even considered that. The AI I have seen seems to have quite consistent "styles" as well so that I'm sure it could post very frequently and consistently to really nail the algorithm. That is a shame, but I admit to me social media is already a bit of a soulless rabbit hole, and as others have said more unique and personal styles with a person's context and humour will surely survive alongside this.

@burvantill Yeah! I've not played around with it yet but I am curious to do so - as much as AI scares me a little I don't think it's ever a smart idea to avoid new technologies. If the world moves on, we better move with it and see what benefit it can give us. I was thinking too that for early thumbnails or colour ideas AI could be really useful at quickly running through a few moods and elements, which could speed up the ideation process a lot.

A friend of mine ran one of my images of a cute monster in the woods listening in to two children in a tent reading a bedtime story, and in one of the AI's image variations the monster was chomping down on the tent XD It can quite accidentally propose new story ideas, which is quite fun.

@Nyrryl-Cadiz That it will learn context is my fear too XD At the moment I'm not worried by it, but technology is moving so fast. We'll always have art for ourselves, but I wonder if we'll soon be competing with cheaper AIs and our income is going to be harder to sustain. Maybe it will be a problem for the NEXT generation.

Thanks for everyone's input, really cool to hear what you think and your experiences with it so far. I also don't think Art directors have to fear for their jobs, but I do worry for the more entry-level concept artists or those trying to sell similarly styled art prints or make a career of their socials.

Christine Garner

@Nathalie-Kranich Just something else to keep an eye on with regards to AI would be the copyright and plagiarism issues. This video (AI Town hall hosted by Karla Ortiz & Concept Art Association) might be worth a watch:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LYO9sii1eKA

willicreate

You can win in a state fairs' art competition with Art AI now.
https://petapixel.com/2022/09/01/ai-generated-artwork-wins-first-place-at-state-fair-enraging-artists/

Better than a banana taped to a wall, I suppose.

Nathalie Kranich

@willicreate Yeah, I saw that too! Felt very iffy about it...If it is in its own category it wouldn't be so bad, and I think it was a fine-art competition which I suppose is very open in terms of medium anyway, so I'm not sure how indicative that is of a wider problem yet.

Refining AI images like that might still take hours. Whether it took the years of painting/drawing/art practice is another question.

It was a very stunning image. Sadly. XD

lpetiti

@willicreate What irked me is the guy thinks the artists that are mad are just being petty. If digital has to be its own category at fairs, then so should AI. I can't tell you how many times my digital work has been "othered" by the gallery/fine art/exhibition set (fine arts deserved financial awards for winning top prizes, but I got told to my face that digital didn't). What exactly is it about AI art that makes it more prestigious than digital then I wonder? Not to sound snobbish, maybe I just don't fully understand the process...but to me the "artist" didn't do the heavy lifting in this piece(?) The AI did

demotlj

I'm so behind that I thought your subject said, "How are people feeling about Art Al (as in Albert?)" I almost went to Youtube to see what this Al guy was posting.

Kristen Lango

@willicreate I really loved reading your response, and the reference to the introduction of photography. Thanks!

Alzamon

I came today to see if the new, big elephant in the room was already being mentioned in these SVS forums. I wasn't disappointed.

Now, while I do have my whole pack of mixed feelings about this whole thing, whatever I could add to the discussion Reimena Yee (a Malaysian - Australian illustrator) already wrote about, and in a much better way, that I possibly could. So I'll just leave the link here.

https://blog.reimenayee.com/the-rise-of-the-bots-the-ascension-of-the-human/

Griffin McPherson

@willicreate wow, that’s the worst. This would be like an art director getting an award for a piece made by a concept artist working under them.

willicreate

Much like an Andy acting as the sole credited artist, leaving the workshop apprentices intentionally undocumented. Maybe Art AI will be the latest ingenuity to the factory system.