Death to the Arts

“If AI art is so perfect, then what's the point in hiring real artists?” As I browse social media. I see increasingly similar opinions to this on my feed and it saddens my art-loving heart to see a medium I truly love and admire to be cast away by AI. With the rising popularity of AI has come image generators like DALL-E 2 and Stable Diffusion, allowing images to be created with a simple sentence prompt. These programs take original art by scraping the internet and reinterpreting to create one new image. The problem with this is that due to the recent popularity of AI generators there are no current laws to regulate and protect Artists work from being plagiarised, and in this case AI uses art without consent to create detailed but morally questionable art, like in the image above. As more people continue to use these generators, the better the program learns. So even if the image above has mistakes in the future these mistakes will soon be obsolete. This is leading to the fear that many artists such as myself share: are the arts dying?

Unlike STEM careers, the arts have always been misunderstood or had their value to society questioned. People always dismiss it because the medium is subjective and its effect is in the eye of the beholder. Art touches a part of humanity that others cannot reach, it provides a way to express feelings, stories and identities in ways words can’t. It's because of Art's unique ability to touch the heart that we fear AI taking over and stripping away this method of expression, purely in favour of convenience. This fear demonstrates humanity's emotional desire to find meaning and connect to others through Art however because AI is inhumane it steals away this chance for connection through art. AI Art produces beautiful works but it’s missing the core of what makes art different; and that’s the heart. It’s unable to relay thoughts and feelings the same way an experienced artist would masterfully express their emotions using purposeful strokes.  As AI lacks human emotion and experience, only by both the Artist and the Viewer being human can the deeper intrinsic meaning of an Art be communicated through the Art.

Many people hold art to a high esteem, however many others don't understand this and cannot see the issue with AI Art and encourage making AI commonplace. I believe everything is okay in moderation, however I’ve seen countless times online of the opposite. Where people would post AI Art and call it “original” and “human art”; which really irks me because the way AI Generators work through stripping and combining the work of human artists without consent is everything but original, essentially discrediting the years of work it took to gain artist skill, just for one empty AI image, inadvertently saying that these hard working Artists have wasted their time. It drives me to the wall seeing people hold AI Art to the same esteem as human created art, that takes an exceedingly longer time to produce. Wouldn’t it anger you if your absolute favourite thing in the world was constantly being misunderstood and mocked despite you knowing they’re wrong? Would you let them continue to treat it like that?

Artists aren’t just fearing the far future, they're scared of how the rapidly evolving world might change everything for artists tomorrow, fearing their skills will be labelled useless by the world and replaced by quicker and cheaper AI. Art as a career has been acknowledged as a financially unforgiving pathway, a notion accepted by artists themselves; thus the term “the Starving Artist” is highly relevant. Unfortunately this term is becoming true with AI. This saddens me knowing that AI’s existence is crushing the dreams and talents of aspiring artists, who could have risen up and produced their newest magnum opus. Throughout my childhood I’ve always enjoyed arts as a main hobby, when I was younger I always wanted to do something creative but now I feel my childhood hopes and aspirations were snuffed out like a candle. I am sure for artists this feels like a direct attack on the soul, the thought of being replaced by a machine is a sure-fire way of killing their spirit.

We’re already seeing the death of the arts, through Artists losing their jobs as we speak! In Viola Zhou’s interview with Chinese freelancer Artist Amber Yu, she talks about her experience about being put beneath AI. Yu explains that “fear of impending layoffs had made her colleagues more competitive; many stayed at work late, working longer hours to try to produce more. “[AI] made us more productive but also more exhausted,” (Viola, Z. 2023). AI is making Artists jobs scarce and unrewarding, struggling to keep their job sustainable. With Amber Yu saying she now does assistant commission work for a tenth of her original rate (Viola, Z. 2023). This entire debate and fear is driving artists to stand up for themselves, whether this fear is exaggerated or not. Which as I see it, it’s not and it's fully in artists rights to be disturbed as this pertains to their job and therefore their life.

Since AI is so good at developing convincing human art, businesses are making the switch to AI assisted work or intending to do so. In pursuit of money and the easy way, company leads are devaluing what makes art so special; throwing away countless opportunities for Artists. While I understand using AI for its efficiency, it's a matter of making a statement and supporting other industries through their business. In a report by Amid Amidi through a survey asking 300 bosses, over 6 different entertainment industries they reported “An estimated 204,000 entertainment industry jobs will be significantly disrupted by generative AI over the next three years.” (Amidi, A., January 31, 2024). Supporting artists' fears of impending layoffs. Artists should be aware of this to plan for their future security!

This survey doesn’t even take into account all of the freelance artists, so the number of those affected would be even higher! Without company support Freelance artists will continue to struggle for work. As said before, 204,000 entertainment industry jobs will be impacted (CVL Economics, 2023), with 3D modelling in both Entertainment and Game Industry tasks will be the most disturbed with over 40% agreeing to this (CVL Economics, 2023). And the runner ups being concept artists and character and environment designers. (CVL Economics, 2023). 

AI Art advocates argue that AI allows people without “talent” to create masterpieces. However there are many things wrong with this. Art is not the easy profession many believe it to be, hence why people pay for it.  To throw away the hard work and effort Artists have put throughout their lives and chalk it up to “talent” is beyond disheartening and shows that people only focus on their own benefit. Art is not supposed to be easy. Not all Art has to look jaw-dropping all the time and nor do people need to be good at it either. It’s all about the freedom of expression, Art is about enjoying the process and having fun. Even if AI continues to become more prevalent in our lives, traditional art will always have its place in people's hearts and to strong-willed artists, the fear of AI won’t ever stop them from achieving their dreams. 

Despite this it's important to use AI in regulation and understand that it cannot be a replacement for human-produced art. A medium that transcends language and culture enables the opportunity to show the world one's skills and thoughts through art, and that heartfelt sentiment can never be replaced. This is a call to everyone to believe in the future, to never give up and continue to make art, because human art has something AI will never have, and that is: heart.

Apa referencing list: 

Amidi, A., (January 31, 2024). New Report Confirms Worst Fears: AI Will Disrupt Countless Animation Jobs Over Next 3 Years.

https://www.cartoonbrew.com/artist-rights/union-study-says-generative-ai-will-disrupt-204000-jobs-three-years-237495.html

Zhou, V., (April 11, 2023). AI is already taking video game illustrators’ jobs in China

https://restofworld.org/2023/ai-china-video-game-layoffs-illustrators/