Will Artificial intelligence replace artists?
Is artificial intelligence going to replace artists? It might seem like a silly question, but AI is evolving daily, improving, and learning. You can now type words and get an image from it. For free!
What is art?
Art is more than just a bunch of lines and shapes; it’s also about emotion, feeling, and connection. It’s the artist’s emotion when he was producing art and the emotion of the viewer in front of it.
It’s infused with the human element—the artist. So far, AI cannot feel emotion when making art because computers lack any personality or individuality (for now), but AI-generated art can create a sentiment for viewers.
Art vs. technology
Through the ages, art has continuously evolved and adapted to technology. Artists learned, integrated, and used everything around them, from new techniques, mediums, and tools. When photography was invented, some feared disappearing, as the camera would ‘steal’ their job. Now, photography is a form of art, just like painting.
When digital art became popular, some people claimed it wasn’t art, as the software was doing everything, but it needed an actual human to hold the stylus on the screen. And digital art became an art as well. Social media increased the diffusion of this form of fart, making it very popular now.
But Artificial Intelligence art is on a whole different level!
Is AI art real art?
AI art is a new form of expression made by feeding words into a machine-learning program, letting the software output unique images in seconds. The results of the artificial intelligence algorithm are often surprising and sometimes seem almost magical. The technology is still in its early stages, but it’s already been used to make some beautiful art. Machine learning is a branch of artificial intelligence that allows computers to become more proficient at tasks with practice and experience.
AI-generated art is both a great invention and troubling.
Does artificial intelligence create art? Is the final image a result of the writer’s unique voice, or is it just technology automating that process? Who owns rights to such works—the computer that generates them, its human designers, or perhaps even you as its viewer and consumer (imagine buying an AI-generated painting for thousands of dollars at auction)? And how do we understand this new genre to older forms like Impressionism—is it more valuable than other paintings despite taking much less time and skill on behalf of humans involved with creating it?
Recently Jason Allen submitted an AI-generated piece of digital art to the Colorado State Fair’s fine arts competition under the “Digital Arts/Digitally-Manipulated Photography” category and won the first-place blue ribbon. He used Mid Journey to generate this art, then manipulated it in Photoshop. So technically, is it art made by AI or a human being?
How does AI make art?
You have different AI around here, like Mid Journey, Nightcafe, StarryAI, and Dall-E Mini. The easiest to access and use is Mid Journey on Discord. You will create an account, join a room and type your prompt. You can go as detailed and creative as you want: older woman, black, sad, rainbow background oil painting.
The AI will generate four images with different compositions and styles. Then you can choose to make more variations of one image, or several, or all of them. Or ask the AI to upscale one, meaning adding more details. You can make several iterations until you get what you had in mind (or as close as possible!).
Limits of AI
As of today, AI isn’t able to create any image accurately. Portraits always seem the same girl, no matter what prompt you type. Hands and feet are pretty strange, and eyes are awkward, and so on.
If you try to get the perfect match to what you have in mind with your prompts in AI, you will NEVER get it. You can try for hours, define the prompts, and change them… in the end, it’s a machine that creates the image, not your vision of it.
AI is a great creative tool.
Artificial intelligence is just a tool, not a replacement for human emotion.
AI art is a new form of creative expression that allows people who wouldn’t otherwise be artists to create their works. It focuses more on the creativity of the content rather than technical skill and can showcase even our craziest ideas as legitimate forms of artistic output.
Many people believe AI will replace artists, but this isn’t true. AI can be used to make art more accessible and create new experiences for people who wouldn’t usually create or experience art. Still, it can’t replace the creativity of making something unique and personal. As an artist, I believe it’s important to remember that the act of creating itself should never be replaced by technology—it’s always better when we do things ourselves!
While AI is a great creative tool, it can’t take the place of human emotion and personal connection to art. While AI may be able to generate new ideas and help artists with design work, it can’t have a personal connection to the art itself.
Artists need to be aware of the limitations of AI – but they also shouldn’t fear using it as a tool instead of creating their work from scratch themselves. Artistic creativity is about more than just emotion; often, artists add their personal touch on top of what their tools provide them with. I use digital tools to create my composition before painting with traditional paint.
Changing the Way We Think
Instead of ending creativity, AI might help us think in new ways and think differently. We’re in a time of great transition, moving from a world where creative tools were only available to artists with money and resources to one where anyone can use them for free. In this new era, I think AI will help us redefine what it means to be creative.
It depends on how and why you make art.
If you’re a hobby artist and make art for the pleasure of it, you can skip AI art or use it as a source of inspiration for compositions, colors, values… it’s another tool, like a viewfinder, a color wheel, or a brush.
If you’re a professional artist and sell your art, AI can also be a source of inspiration. It will never replace your vision and technique, making collectors buy your art. Using AI, it’s easy to create stunning art. But you still need to have some artistic skills and knowledge of composition, color theory, and design principles. If you don’t have these things, AI won’t help you much.
For digital artists, the border is skinny between manufactured and AI-made. Digital illustrations are pretty convincing from AI, and it’s just the beginning!
However, if you’re a professional illustrator and make art for a living, AI may be able to replace some of your work. If you need to create a lot of stock images or illustrations for clients every day, then it could help you save time and money.
If you’re a designer, AI can be an issue: creating covers for music albums, posters, ads, logos… can be done easily, quickly, and almost for free by an AI. But this doesn’t mean that designers are going to lose their jobs. If you work as a designer in a creative agency, your role is more than just making pretty things: you have to come up with an idea and tell it attractively. AI cannot replace human creativity and intuition!
Conclusion
While I don’t think AI will kill artists, it could change their creative process for the better. Making art for the pleasure of it won’t be challenged by AI. We will still keep it (if we want!). But it is possible that in the future, we will be more concerned with how to make a living out of our creativity. And this could be a good thing for artists, as it will force them to experiment with new ways to monetize their art.
You can watch this video:
