What do you need to know about AI-generated art?

In the 2000s, it could be difficult to convince someone or believe that all the complicated and tedious work that people hated were to be replaced in the close future with a small phone or a slim device of computer. With the unstoppable advances in technology, the repetitive and tedious work seems to become the worse performance that the technology can do for us, as creativity and more sophisticated work that we value as crucial basis of human beings now seem to be easily replaceable with the rapid growth of AI-generated arts. 

As the name suggests, AI-generated arts are made by computing methodologies and artificial intelligence¹. Although its association with artificial intelligence creates impressions among people that there might be a complex designing system, algorithms, and computing processes behind the scene, AI- generated arts take similar creative routes to realist artists². Artificial intelligence needs to interpret and analyze existing pieces of art and information associated with them in order to create new art, which is a similar process that many realistic artists take, such as the process of getting inspired by a particular form of art or a theme². In general, the AI algorithm behind AI-generated arts is a tool to be utilized in order to achieve faster and more convenient art production through combining and studying large amounts of existing arts². 

The invasion of technology to the last barrier of values of human beings, which are creativity and sense of self, has always been controversial and sparks various discussions surrounding the issues of ethics. AI-generated art has no difference. One of the recent events that brought attention to many online communities is the AI generated art that won the Colorado State Fair’s fine art competition. This triumph of AI accelerated the anxiety and fear that had seeded in art communities for a long time in an unexpectedly rapid speed. The cruel reality arrived without notice or plan as it left many confused and anxious professional artists to be in a sudden place of competition with the fast-evolving and algorithm-based AI artists. With a commercial environment that values speed and benefits over sense of human-touch, it does bring worry to not only the art industry, but also numerous other innovative professional fields. 

There are also recent discussions involving proposals to ban AI art. This discussion also remains controversial as no one seems to be able to draw a line between what should be allowed and what should not be. The controversy surrounding issues of ethics and copyright often involves large amounts of grey zone and vague lines that do not help with the reality of people losing their jobs or even the sense of self. It is always difficult to say one side of the argument is more correct than the other. There is also difficulty in the ways to measure and deliver the significance of creativity and sense of self to human civilization in contrast to the easily understandable and approachable commercial values and benefits. Even though it is seemingly difficult to conclude whether AI art is a beneficial or problematic form of art, it is still important to continue the discussion and producing potential solutions to arising challenges. 

References

1. Poltronieri, F.A. & Hänska, M. (2019). Technical Images and Visual Art in the Era of Artificial Intelligence: From GOFAI to GANs. Retrieved November 20, 2022, from https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3359852.3359865
2. Kundu, R. (2022). AI-Generated Art: From Text to Images & Beyond. Retrieved November 20, 2022, from https://www.v7labs.com/blog/ai-generated-art