Why would AI make your art worthless? I've found it to be the exact opposite! My sales have picked up doublefold because collectors DON'T want AI "art" - they want the real deal.
I can relate. As someone who earned a BFA in graphic design and illustration in the 70s, I had to “keep up with technology all my career. Today, I look back and realize how tech gobbled up so many viable jobs ever the years. I have a real problem with ai illustration. It’s too slick, too perfect, yet fine artists are trying to imitate it. Why? Why are we imitating something designed to streamline and homogenize art? For that reason, I have made a personal vow to create art that can’t be confused with ai generated, complete with mistakes, layers, brush strokes and even metallic paint.
Yes! I think leaning into our quirky human way of doing things is the answer to relate to other humans. As a writer, I see this in writing as well. And I wonder why writers try to make their voice “slick” like AI. I would much rather just read something that says the think with the unique personality of the person.
AI makes everything the same, while Art makes everything beautifully different.
An insidious trend I’m noticing is that as people use AI more and more, sometimes they start writing like AI unintentionally. They start picking up AI type phrases like “and I sat quietly with that information..” Or “this really landed with me.” Nobody overused “quietly” or “landed” in that way before AI. But now it’s becoming a common idiom. I won’t let AI make me the same as everyone else. I’d rather say things full of mis-spellings and curse words than turn into a robot that sounds like all the other robots.
And I say this as someone who is not anti-AI completely. I think of AI like junk food. Sometimes it tastes good, but it’s not nutritious and you certainly don’t want to make it your entire information diet.
A machine can replicate to some degree a Rembrandt, a Stradivarius, a poem, maybe even a meal, but I want things that are made by people. Even if AI can write a novel, it’s just words, there isn’t a soul there who shares my fears, longings, regrets, gets cold or hungry, and wonders what happens to our spirits when we die.
Thank you for this thoughtful post. This artist’s fears are real and your graceful and honest response is a terrific reminder of the value artists bring to our world. Making a living as an artist is hard and also enormously satisfying. Cheers!
I’ve been saying that for a while now. When the world is saturated with AI generated “art”, fine art rendered by a seasoned human artist will be worth even more. Just give it a little time…
AI can only mimic what it sees. The art that is created by a human has one thing that AI will never ever have. It is call a heart and soul. That is only a human trait, PERIOD. Heart and soul allow humans to create on a moment in time and change the creative direction as we see fit with no rhyme or reason. That is the wonderful part of being human that can never be duplicated. So keep at it with our human flaws and produce something that is uniquely yours.
Is it true that AI can now reproduce just about anything an artist creates? Well, yes, and as a working artist, I felt concerns. Even before AI, there were real concerns in the art world. I was an illustrator for many years, and I had these discussions within illustration. Now indeed, commercial illustration has gone digital and is easily replaced with AI. With that, I left illustration years ago and started painting for the gallery. Could AI reproduce my artwork? Of course it can, but I'm also finding that imagery alone is not why serious collectors buy art. Collectors who pay considerable prices for artwork want just that - original art, produced by real artists. Further, the two galleries I've sold through don't sell prints; they only sell originals.
Agree with Clint. Artists panicked during the 1980s when Apple computers got more capable graphics, claiming that their jobs were at risk. The opposite happened. So here we go again. The most important thing I’m doing about AI scraping my images is to apply a software filter to all my art on FASO and elsewhere. These filters do not change the way we see the art, they make it impossible for the machines to see it properly, so they can’t mimic your style and offer that for use or sale. That is the real threat and this is the solution. Then we go on about our unique work without getting robbed by machine “intelligence”.
Thank you for your comment. I haven’t looked into such filters; however, just to let you know, FASO blocks all AI bots. Now, there are probably bad actors who try hard to get around such blocks but our blocker is built with AI so it does block all the big guys, the good actors, and most bad actors.
Look at all the fine artists that you follow - don't they each have something that makes them unique? And the physical item of let's say a painting will never get accurately translated from a printed version of the real thing. There's nothing like the tactile object of a painting which can't be provided by AI.
Art in all its forms is best when it is made with head , hands and heart. A.I. lacks at least 2 of these basic ingredients the same way that TV dinners can’t replicate any meal made from scratch. The reproduction of great art eg The Mona Lisa and Monetization of images has been happening for decades now . The history of classical music and popular composers is similar. For example , composers like Bach or Mozart have been monetized in elevators waiting devices on phones and Advertisements on TV .
Most listeners have little or no trouble identifying the beautifully played music from the synthetic sounds on badly performed records, CDs or otherwise.
We live in an age of consumer products and convenience
Wallpaper is rare as decoration in homes but even rarer is original crafted wood or fabric or paintings
Minimalism is some a style , a trend and slowly people will tire of it . Think of the decorative arts silently wedging their way into our dining rooms with raw edged tables and hand made rugs.
We need to work towards recovering the art classes in schools here in Canada. Rather the death of art classes . All has been proven at Stanford a university to enhance scholastic performance. over 30,000 members of the Stanford Based studies has clarified the Gavin .
I/we as fine artists, can only hope you're right....that the more the world relies on technology to homogenize our lives, the more humanity will need us to communicate. Fingers (and brushes) crossed!
Are you aware that the end goal is to fuse human brain with machine, with AI ? To render humanity obsolete and turn humans into slaves of the machine ? I don't want to get into agendas of the dystopian future here, but we're going to have to fight really hard to maintain our human-ness, and that's not taking into account the young people born into the machine age or of the AI era, they will have known nothing else, easy to manipulate and convert or convince. Stay the course. Until death do us part
Why would AI make your art worthless? I've found it to be the exact opposite! My sales have picked up doublefold because collectors DON'T want AI "art" - they want the real deal.
I can relate. As someone who earned a BFA in graphic design and illustration in the 70s, I had to “keep up with technology all my career. Today, I look back and realize how tech gobbled up so many viable jobs ever the years. I have a real problem with ai illustration. It’s too slick, too perfect, yet fine artists are trying to imitate it. Why? Why are we imitating something designed to streamline and homogenize art? For that reason, I have made a personal vow to create art that can’t be confused with ai generated, complete with mistakes, layers, brush strokes and even metallic paint.
Yes! I think leaning into our quirky human way of doing things is the answer to relate to other humans. As a writer, I see this in writing as well. And I wonder why writers try to make their voice “slick” like AI. I would much rather just read something that says the think with the unique personality of the person.
AI makes everything the same, while Art makes everything beautifully different.
An insidious trend I’m noticing is that as people use AI more and more, sometimes they start writing like AI unintentionally. They start picking up AI type phrases like “and I sat quietly with that information..” Or “this really landed with me.” Nobody overused “quietly” or “landed” in that way before AI. But now it’s becoming a common idiom. I won’t let AI make me the same as everyone else. I’d rather say things full of mis-spellings and curse words than turn into a robot that sounds like all the other robots.
And I say this as someone who is not anti-AI completely. I think of AI like junk food. Sometimes it tastes good, but it’s not nutritious and you certainly don’t want to make it your entire information diet.
A machine can replicate to some degree a Rembrandt, a Stradivarius, a poem, maybe even a meal, but I want things that are made by people. Even if AI can write a novel, it’s just words, there isn’t a soul there who shares my fears, longings, regrets, gets cold or hungry, and wonders what happens to our spirits when we die.
Thank you for this thoughtful post. This artist’s fears are real and your graceful and honest response is a terrific reminder of the value artists bring to our world. Making a living as an artist is hard and also enormously satisfying. Cheers!
Great response written by a real person. Very uplifting. Thanks.
I’ve been saying that for a while now. When the world is saturated with AI generated “art”, fine art rendered by a seasoned human artist will be worth even more. Just give it a little time…
AI can only mimic what it sees. The art that is created by a human has one thing that AI will never ever have. It is call a heart and soul. That is only a human trait, PERIOD. Heart and soul allow humans to create on a moment in time and change the creative direction as we see fit with no rhyme or reason. That is the wonderful part of being human that can never be duplicated. So keep at it with our human flaws and produce something that is uniquely yours.
Is it true that AI can now reproduce just about anything an artist creates? Well, yes, and as a working artist, I felt concerns. Even before AI, there were real concerns in the art world. I was an illustrator for many years, and I had these discussions within illustration. Now indeed, commercial illustration has gone digital and is easily replaced with AI. With that, I left illustration years ago and started painting for the gallery. Could AI reproduce my artwork? Of course it can, but I'm also finding that imagery alone is not why serious collectors buy art. Collectors who pay considerable prices for artwork want just that - original art, produced by real artists. Further, the two galleries I've sold through don't sell prints; they only sell originals.
Agree with Clint. Artists panicked during the 1980s when Apple computers got more capable graphics, claiming that their jobs were at risk. The opposite happened. So here we go again. The most important thing I’m doing about AI scraping my images is to apply a software filter to all my art on FASO and elsewhere. These filters do not change the way we see the art, they make it impossible for the machines to see it properly, so they can’t mimic your style and offer that for use or sale. That is the real threat and this is the solution. Then we go on about our unique work without getting robbed by machine “intelligence”.
Thank you for your comment. I haven’t looked into such filters; however, just to let you know, FASO blocks all AI bots. Now, there are probably bad actors who try hard to get around such blocks but our blocker is built with AI so it does block all the big guys, the good actors, and most bad actors.
Look at all the fine artists that you follow - don't they each have something that makes them unique? And the physical item of let's say a painting will never get accurately translated from a printed version of the real thing. There's nothing like the tactile object of a painting which can't be provided by AI.
Art in all its forms is best when it is made with head , hands and heart. A.I. lacks at least 2 of these basic ingredients the same way that TV dinners can’t replicate any meal made from scratch. The reproduction of great art eg The Mona Lisa and Monetization of images has been happening for decades now . The history of classical music and popular composers is similar. For example , composers like Bach or Mozart have been monetized in elevators waiting devices on phones and Advertisements on TV .
Most listeners have little or no trouble identifying the beautifully played music from the synthetic sounds on badly performed records, CDs or otherwise.
We live in an age of consumer products and convenience
Wallpaper is rare as decoration in homes but even rarer is original crafted wood or fabric or paintings
Minimalism is some a style , a trend and slowly people will tire of it . Think of the decorative arts silently wedging their way into our dining rooms with raw edged tables and hand made rugs.
We need to work towards recovering the art classes in schools here in Canada. Rather the death of art classes . All has been proven at Stanford a university to enhance scholastic performance. over 30,000 members of the Stanford Based studies has clarified the Gavin .
I/we as fine artists, can only hope you're right....that the more the world relies on technology to homogenize our lives, the more humanity will need us to communicate. Fingers (and brushes) crossed!
I so agree with her. As a photographer who does digital cameras, every photo processing software is rife with Al.
Are you aware that the end goal is to fuse human brain with machine, with AI ? To render humanity obsolete and turn humans into slaves of the machine ? I don't want to get into agendas of the dystopian future here, but we're going to have to fight really hard to maintain our human-ness, and that's not taking into account the young people born into the machine age or of the AI era, they will have known nothing else, easy to manipulate and convert or convince. Stay the course. Until death do us part