A.I. Art: Path towards greatness or downward spiral?

Uriel Pimente, Staff Reporter

When the idea of A.I. Art was first introduced back in 1973 by Computer Scientist Harold Cohen, it consisted of simple commands like drawing a line with a color on a canvas. Little did we know that this artificial intelligence would evolve over the course of many years. Today, we have been introduced to A.I. art like never before. We are introduced to the possibility of creating potential masterpieces from just your imagination. However, with a “new” invention comes pros and cons that are worth mentioning and discussing. Will it help us innovate the future or will it create problems for what is to come? Before we discuss that, you may be wondering: What is A.I. Art and how does it even work? Do not worry because I will gladly inform you everything you need to know about this topic.

 

A.I. art, or Artificial Intelligence Art, is an art or image generated by computer software using commands The image is created to resemble or create a perfect image of what you requested. For example, if you desire to see an image of a lobster riding a skateboard, just tell the A.I. software that exact description and you’ll be presented with that image. Based on that, you get a decently good idea of how that works. The ideas you can create with A.I. Art are basically endless, the only limit being your imagination. Although A.I. Art is still developing, many images and softwares still have trouble creating the exact image you desire, which causes images to appear blurry, uneven in proportions, wrong colors, and even miss out certain things you requested, however it is still being improved more and more every time. It will only be a matter of time until the full limits of A.I. Art is expanded, and we can create anything and everything in just a matter of seconds.

(Art by Oli_beaugran via Midjourney)

A.I. Art, despite its setbacks so far, has already been making groundbreaking creations, this is just the beginning of the glorious creations that will come in the future. Recently, an A.I. software created an image of what Michael Jackson would look like today if he hadn’t passed away or didn’t go through the surgeries that had drastically changed him. We cannot determine for sure how Michael Jackson would have really looked if he was alive today and hadn’t gone through his surgeries, but the image created by the artificial intelligence gives a really good idea, many have said it even looks and feels real. However, the King of Pop wasn’t the only person who was created like this, many examples include Princess Diana, Elvis Presley, John Lennon, and Tupac Shakur. If A.I. is able to create realistic depictions of once living icons, then imagine the endless possibilities A.I. art can create. A rather controversial example was how a man named Jason M. Allen had submitted an A.I. image onto the Colorado State Fair’s Art Contest and won the first prize. The judges at the fair were not aware that Allen did not create the piece of art with his own hands but rather used an A.I. software to create the piece because it looked so real. When the public realized that Allen’s piece of art was A.I. It sparked negative feedback and many claimed that the piece of art Allen had created was considered cheating as the other artists took time to actually create their art submissions while Allen simply used commands to create this art in a matter of minutes. “I won, and I did not break any rules” Allen says, claiming that he did not hide the fact that his art submission for the contest was created using artificial intelligence and had even told the contest officials about how it was created using A.I. In the end, it is up to you to decide if Allen’s submission was right or wrong. Like I mentioned before, the only limits are your imagination. You have the power to combine two different worlds into one, unite fiction with reality, make opposites attract, everything and anything all at once it is all up to you. With A.I. art, you can create ideas you’ve had stuck in your head, create things that haven’t existed before, expand and improve previous works of arts you feel need to be improved, tell a story with the art you created with the artificial intelligence program. You can recreate the Mona Lisa with your own original twist to it or expansion of it, make the world of a cartoon character intertwine with our own, or create an animal that doesn’t exist. The possibilities of merging our dreams into reality is even better than before.(Théâtre D’opéra Spatial by Jason Allen)(Alper Yesiltas via Instagram)

But what’s the problem? What is wrong with creating an artificial software that creates images and arts with just commands? There are many problems actually. The concept of art being created using artificial intelligence is without a doubt amazing, but this really threatens the careers of many artists in the future. As I mentioned earlier, a piece of A.I. art can be created in a matter of seconds or minutes with just commands you type on the software. While it is indeed fascinating how fast it works, this really hurts artists due to the fact many take hours, days, weeks, or even years in some cases to create a piece they deem of high quality, while the software does it so easily. A.I. Art softwares, websites, and apps are available all over the internet right now so it’s accessible to everyone at the moment, and with all the development and work put on these softwares, everyone will be able to create hyper realistic and accurate art sooner or later. Many artists sell their creations for money to make a living, with A.I. art becoming more advanced and known. There is a huge chance that people will look towards creating, recreating, or making better pieces of art themselves using the software than to purchase an artist’s piece, after all, the consumer will save a lot of time and money by just doing it themselves. Because of this, many will wonder; what is even the point of spending hours drawing and trying to improve your artistic skills just so a computer can outskill you without any effort? Why bother trying to sell your art you spent time, effort, and resources making just so someone out there can replicate or create a better copy of your piece with the A.I. Software? What’s the point of taking art classes for years or going to colleges that offer art programs and spending thousands of dollars and years out of your life if someone can now just do all that work with a computer? These are questions many people and artists have been asking themselves these past few months as A.I. softwares keeps developing and becoming more advanced each day.

 

However with all that I discussed that doesn’t mean all hope is lost, in fact many artists have taken actions to prevent A.I. softwares to have a huge impact towards them. Recently many artists throughout the world have been speaking up against these artificial intelligence art softwares by saying that it will affect their career and business, many even saying that the use of A.I. Art is like cheating as you’re getting the help of the device rather than doing it yourself. The topic of artificial intelligence is still split with positive and negative responses at the moment. As someone who loves to draw and create original pieces of art, I find myself rather mixed with this ongoing topic. I find myself fascinated by how far human science has gone, but worried about the potential effects it could have towards future and current artists. I love the idea that you can create pieces of art that your abilities limit you from doing. I find it nice that people with poor artistic skills can now make something they desire, because their skills set them back before. The idea that imaginations and dreams can be created a lot faster and easier is honestly so groundbreaking. But at the same time, what could potentially happen to all those inspiring artists: they’ll be more demotivated than ever to follow this passion and career because a computer software outskills them no matter the experience and work they put in, many artists sell their creations in order to sustain themselves or their family, their chances of making money to provide themselves will be even lower now because everyone will prefer to create their own art with the software than to spend money on something they didn’t create. Many people draw because it is their hobby and passion, but that passion for drawing could mitigate or go away because of how advanced this software has become. Being able to draw and create art is considered a special skill, but with the advancement of technology, many people will no longer see that as something special because they could just do that themselves with a computer.

(Art created via Midjourney)

In the end, we can only sit and watch for now to see how this affects us, whether positively or negatively. I can guarantee you however, that the passion of creating and drawing won’t die out, we as humans still preserve many things today whether it comes to culture, habits, hobbies, tasks, etc. When email was first created and introduced, a huge part of the world believed that mail and postal services would die out and go downhill, however although it was affected it still stands strong today and it clearly has it’s advantages over email. A.I. technology will definitely affect artists and many other careers involving the field of art. Despite negative setbacks, we as humans always try to make it work, after all, many people out there in the world appreciate the work and effort put into products. Paintings that are just splashes of paint thrown onto a canvas sometimes sell for thousands, but not because it looks good, but because of the message. Although it will indeed be harder for artists to adapt, the love for hand painting and drawing won’t truly die.