I'm not sure how to feel about AI-generated art

AI-generated art is a controversial topic, and I’m still not sure how to feel about it.

A few months back I received an email from a longtime reader asking me what I thought about Trump’s policies. I asked him if I could turn his email into a Letter to the Editor article, and he agreed on the condition I masked his writing style using AI.

After that email, we continued talking about stuff, and the conversation led to the subject of AI-generated art.

That’s when I realized, I really don’t know how to feel about AI-generated art.

If you had asked me 20 years ago what I thought about people who make a career out of doing art commissions, I’d have put them down and said it wasn’t a real job. After being in the workforce for over 20 years and experiencing the bullshit that comes with most employers, I’ve come to realize that I was wrong about artists. There is absolutely nothing wrong or illegitimate about making a living from drawing or doing commissioned artwork. It certainly beats dealing with the bullshit that comes with most jobs these days.

The fact of the matter is, these people are providing a legitimate service that people need in exchange for money. If people didn’t need artists, nobody would be doing it. Are all artists good at their job? Of course not, but that holds true for any industry.

With the advent of AI-generated art, a lot of companies and people in need of art are switching away from human artists to AI, which in turn is making it harder for artists to make a living. Even worse, these AIs are being trained on pictures from the human artists they’re slowly replacing, like rubbing salt on the wound. Some artists have fought back against this, saying that big tech is violating their copyright by using their images for training. Are they right? I’d say yes. But good luck winning against behemoths like Microsoft or Google. And even if you do win now, you can’t stop progress forever. Companies aren’t going to just give up on a tool that allows them to all but eliminate human overhead.

And that’s the biggest problem we face with AI-generated images, and AI in general. People are going to lose their jobs because of this. Right now it’s only affecting a few industries, but you’re naive if you think this won’t eventually affect everything else. AI can write, it can analyze, it can generate images, and can constantly learn and improve. Manual laborers think they’re safe, but they’re already training AI to do that stuff too. Implant that AI into robots and machines and you have a workforce that needs no rest or money, and a shitload of unemployed humans. I’ve seen the footage from companies like Amazon testing robot workers, the tech is advancing at a frightening pace.

Artists being put out of work is only the beginning of this AI trend, and a taste of the future we’re collectively facing if we don’t figure this out now. I totally understand why artists are upset about this.

Now, with all that said, I’m still not 100% sold on the “AI-generated art is evil” argument.

Like I said, you can’t stop progress. AI is here to stay, and, like it or not, it’s still a useful tool with many applications that don’t necessarily fuck over human workers. As somebody who has many ideas for pictures but can just barely draw better than Chris-Chan, having access to an AI image generator is useful. Should I really have to pay an artist to draw every stupid little idea that pops into my head when I’m bored off my ass? I could pay an artist $50 to draw a picture of Kanye West in Space Marine armor fighting the president of Israel outside Hogwarts Castle and have to wait a week or more because they have other clients, or I could plug a few words into an AI image generator and get my silly picture for free (or with a monthly subscription depending on what generator you use).

Here’s that picture, btw, courtesy of R.A.N.T.E.R.:

AI can be a useful artistic tool for someone who doesn’t have the money to commission an artist. Should poor people be limited in their creativity because they can’t afford to pay an artist or don’t have the talent to make something themselves?

I’m not saying AI-generated art is better than human art. Human-drawn art will always beat AI if you want something with detail or emotion. But for something simplistic (usually something that doesn’t involve hands), AI image generators get the job done.

I’ve teased this on here a few times, but we’ve been working with Señor Juan’s uncle Paco to launch an online t-shirt store. It hasn’t come to fruition yet because Paco wants to use AI art for the shirts (and copyrighted characters, but that’s irrelevant here). I’ve tried to explain to Paco several times why this is a bad idea and why he’s better off paying someone to make actual designs, but Paco is so hung up on the idea of saving money not having to pay a human that he won’t budge. Could we use R.A.N.T.E.R. to make him some designs to sell on shirts? Yeah, and I could even probably touch them up a bit myself in Photoshop so they only look half-assed instead of like complete ass. But most AI-generated art kind of sucks (see the Kanye pic for reference), and the only low-quality trash that I’ll let the AJnet name be attached to is this website. If I’m going to help Paco sell shirts, then those shirts are going to be good. There’s a million online storefronts full of low-quality AI slop shirts. I reminded Paco that he’s Mexican, not Chinese, but he didn’t get the joke and still insists we use AI for the shirts. The online operation doesn’t move without my say-so, so until he relents Paco is shit out of luck.

Paco is serious about expanding his t-shirt business and has the money to actually pay an artist (I think he even has one in the family), so there’s really no excuse for him to skimp here. However, I give a pass to the guy who just wants to make a few extra bucks from selling shirts with AI-generated art.

I know some artists might get their panties in a bunch over the idea that someone has dared to try to make money from art without cutting them in. I see them bitching about it all the time on Reddit. Is most of it generic effortless low-quality crap? Yes, and it gets annoying to sift through sometimes. But is it really hurting anybody? No, it’s not. I get why someone looking to make some extra cash for beer money would sell stuff with AI-generated pictures rather than spend money on an artist.

Crybaby artists on Reddit act like these people are singlehandedly destroying the art industry or something. Who the fuck cares about some guy selling his lame AI art on Etsy or Wish? He wasn’t going to commission you anyway, it’s not like you lost him as a client because of AI. At worst he’s just guilty of flooding the market with trash, which sucks but isn’t any worse than what’s currently already happening with most products on Amazon (which looks like a flea market with all the cheap Chinese shit-brands).

So I really don’t have a strong opinion on AI-generated art one way or the other. On one hand, I get why artists are pissed that companies are opting to use it over hiring human artists. But on the other hand, it’s definitely a valuable tool that provides creative accessibility to people who can’t necessarily afford to hire an artist, and I don’t think that there should be a stigma against individuals who want to use it for small projects. We need to find a balance of some sort, and we need to find it before the mass-implementation of AI puts a lot of people out of work. There’s a lot of talk about universal income, and while I’ve seen a couple of okay ideas on how this could be implemented I don’t know that it’s the right answer.

I’m genuinely interested in hearing what others think about AI-generated art, or even just AI in general. I’m sure there’s some good points from both sides that I didn’t mention, so feel free to leave me a comment and let me know what you think.

Angry_Jerk

Adam “The Angry Jerk” Baker is the CEO of The AJnet Organization and Editor-in-Chief of AJnet Magazine. A grizzled internet veteran of over 20 years, he writes about politics, culture, and whatever else manages to annoy him that day.

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