Summoning the Demon?
We have all seen the plethora of AI generated images flooding the internet. Some are attractive (as if they were trained on romance novel cover illustrations by Pino). Some have bizarre artifacts: too many or too few fingers, giraffe-like necks, etc. Artists worry that AI will make them obsolete or at the least drive down the value of their work. (BTW if you want to become wealthy, become an investment banker or a politician…not an artist!) However, this technology is in its infancy. I can foresee a day when it becomes so “good” that its use is almost impossible to detect.
Recently the Art Renewal Center Salon, arguably the largest annual representational art competition, was forced to rescind an award when a "painting" was revealed to be an AI creation, which violated competition rules. For more info about the brouhaha, look at AI and the 2024 ARC Salon.
The Witchling - Alyson Barton
The YouTube video by content creator, “Jakedontdraw” analyzing the violation is embedded in the link above. It has already had over 174,000 views in the month since it was posted. The odds are this will not be the last time that someone tries to cheat his or her way to success!
Most of the viewers seem to be appalled! And rightfully so given that the artist:
- Violated the clear rules of the competition
- Was dishonest about it.
However, this raises a couple of questions: Are all uses of AI “cheating”? What about works that are entirely created by the artist’s hand, but that may have an AI “look?” After all, artists absorb, consciously or sub-consciously, what they see around them. As Anthony Waichulis points out above, “More and more traditional and digital artists are being wrongly accused of ‘using AI.’ As many of you recognize, such accusations can have serious consequences for an artist’s career and reputation.”
The arguments against any use of AI seem to boil down to:
- It’s dishonest!
- It takes no artistic skill. Becoming an accomplished artist requires years of dedicated study and practice. The sheer laziness of the AI shortcut is an affront to whatever remains of our Puritan work ethic.
- While the painting might look attractive at first glance, upon closer inspection the strange AI artifacts just look…weird and unreal. (The implication is that ultimately art viewers may lose the ability to tell the true from the false.)
- The implied, underlying fear is that the programs will ultimately put human artists out of business.
However, I’m reminded that throughout history new artistic techniques and approaches have often been met with disdain. For example, the Impressionists were initially ridiculed for their sketchy lack of finish, broken color, and “modern” choice of subject matter. The very term “Impressionism” was initially meant as a slur!
Impression, Sunrise - Claude Monet
Traditionally trained artists (including me), regard painting from a photo reference as inferior to painting from life. But nowadays, virtually all artists use a photo from time to time. (It helps to understand rapid movements, or to see a fleeting expression or light effect.) Try to get a five-year-old to sit for a three-hour pose!
Purists may frown on the use of modern tools like Photoshop to compose paintings. Can I make thumbnail sketches to figure out where to place my center of interest? Sure! Can I do it 10 times faster by putting it in a layer in Photoshop and moving it around with my cursor? Of course!
I don’t believe that it’s somehow more virtuous to do things the hard way if there is faster method. After all, the old masters used whatever tools they had at their disposal, including students and assistants to handle the grunt work so the master could apply his skills to maximum advantage.
My take on the use of AI is that it can be a tool to help generate ideas, test out compositions, or serve as a reference. But like any tool it should be used in an honest manner. If a competition says images created in AI can’t be used, they can’t be used, period! And certainly, don’t lie about it! Just as the AI programs are getting better and better at image creation, so to the AI detection programs are rapidly evolving as well!
As an afterthought, the greatest threat is not the lack of artistic integrity; it’s that AI decides that humans are a danger that must be eliminated! (You saw The Terminator, right?)
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