New/Op-Ed: AI “Art” Stealing From Real Artists – Why Should You Care?
by Andy Ortiz
As Artificial Intelligence (AI) has improved over the past few years and exploded in popularity on the internet, it has been used more and more to create artificial “art” that steals from human beings’ work. As a result, AI is becoming a tool to replace human ingenuity, though it could be used as a tool for advancing it and keeping art uniquely human.
AI isn’t a new thing, you could trace it back to the first computers, and there were functional programs that behaved as assistants for people.
Now, we’re in the year 2024, and AI has gone far past that. You’ve probably heard of fun programs like ChatGPT or Midjourney. They are generative AI programs that can generate responses and images, respectively, according to what a user prompts it to create. It started as a fun thing, and it should have stayed a fun thing.
But starting in 2022, as services became popular, many issues began to form. You see AI “art” running rampant on social media sites such as X (formerly Twitter), where prominent accounts pump out AI images every other hour while people eat it up.
It isn’t just popping up in internet culture, however. About a month and a half ago, there was an incident that went viral. “Willy’s Chocolate Experience,” an event inspired by Willy Wonka, was a supposed “real life” experience targeted for children that was advertised with AI imagery. It falsely advertised a “fantastical dreamscape,” but it ended up just being an empty warehouse with a highly underwhelming display for its high admission price of $40.
Why is this such a bad thing though? St. John Bosco High School’s animation teacher, Mr. Issac Sanchez, understands the pressing implications.
“It’s quite disheartening. The industry as a whole already struggles with workers rights and artist compensation issues,” said Mr. Sanchez. “So to see something emulate an artist and take the place of human work feels as lazy as the change that is promised for those working conditions.”
In today’s world, visual artists and writers aren’t being given that much importance anymore. In a bygone era, the process of creation was so long and arduous that you would have to pay artist and writers for that time. Nowadays you don’t have to pay anyone because AI can make something that looks appealing in a matter of seconds. Demand for 2D artists was already six feet under, and now it has fully ascended into the afterlife.
The moral implications of this issue have a lot to do with what art is supposed to be, namely a human endeavor. Art is supposed to evoke a reaction and emotion in someone. It takes a lot of time to create something that stands out and means something, coming up with ideas to project your intentions on a canvas, paper or digital screen. Art is something that exists everywhere. Bosco art teacher, Mr. Tommy Johnson, recognizes up how prevalent art is in our daily lives.
“Art is everywhere and in everything! From our clothes to our homes, not just what we hang on the wall, but the walls themselves,” said Mr. Johnson.
Things you think aren’t art actually are. Architecture is art. The vase that holds your flowers has a beautiful design that was made by an artist. Pottery and ceramics possess creative and colorful designs. Carpets are full of colors and unique designs and patterns that serve to present your house in a bright and, most importantly, uniquely human way.
Art is a timely process, AI generated images give you a breathtaking piece of “art” from a glance, but you couldn’t say you feel much from it. People should begin thinking about whether art simply exists for you to see it once to say, “Wow, that’s so cool,” or if it’s here to ultimately serve as a symbol of human ingenuity.
Although, one may well think that if AI images are so prevalent in today’s internet culture, they must certainly be good. But that’s not exactly the case. AI, in general, takes from anything and everything on the internet to create a response or generate an image. One piece of an AI canvas takes from many random peoples’ works to suddenly create one singular this piece of artwork that is really a discombobulated mixture of other peoples’ works.
“AI art is only as good as the art it emulates. Those ‘cool’ images were definitely made from the borrowed ideas of others. However, unlike the human concept of homage, this is purely analytic and not based in admiration,” said Mr. Sanchez.
Artificially generated imagery can only get as good as how real people can do it. You could look at an AI “artwork” and not tell the difference. But as with any bad artworks, if you look far away enough and squint your eyes it looks like a masterpiece. On closer inspection, however, the fingers go every which way, the background details smush into each other, the lighting is so intensely bright and the texture is weirdly plastic. Yep, that’s AI.
“An AI artist and I did the same athlete and my art took a month. Yet his took an hour. Both pieces were great, to me the difference between my art and AI is the texture. At least with my art,” said Mr. Johnson. “The question is: what does the consumer like or can afford?”
Since AI imagery is becoming more commonplace, do people actually care about the implications of AI? Obviously not. In the age of social media and the world wide web, people want results quicker. We don’t have time or the want to sit down and practice drawing everyday to get good at it, so why should we? There’s the option to ask Midjourney to make a painting for you at the snap of a finger.
“I think the new generation wants results right away. Thinking of new ideas fast, quick and easy. And they slap a price on it and call it art,” said Mr. Johnson.
For a concerning amount of people, it doesn’t really matter if the AI images have slight imperfections, if they are done quickly and look good at a glance it works. This problem with AI goes far beyond just the realm of art and creativity though.
“Why replace the entertainment industry when you can replace the news, or government, or the historical contexts of visual imaging. It will be used to push artists down, much like the music industry has been benefiting. But I think in practice, it’s beyond the realm of ‘art’,” said Mr. Sanchez.
You can see artificial intelligence in other places too. On social media, there are new and improved deep fake videos of influencers used for scamming. In school, students use ChatGPT to generate essays out of thin air, taken from all sorts of sources throughout the web. We made AI into an everywhere issue, and at this point, there’s no getting rid of it.
“AI has already replaced the real artist because it can be done in a second,” said Mr. Johnson.
So instead we can start to remedy the problem by overturning our use of generative programs from stealers to assistants.
“I do think it could supplement a visual development cycle, much like the ‘mood board’ does. It’s visual media that is in the early stages of development,” said Mr. Sanchez.
For example, one may generate an image to use as a reference photo, or spend time correcting the mistakes that the image has to make it truly their own. Originality comes from taking inspiration from something that exists and making it in your own style. While bearing that in mind, if more people could use artificial intelligence with more honesty and responsibility, we wouldn’t have to worry about fake imagery and the potential end of human art.
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