Written by Lan Xu 2022 Cohort
AI participates in art fairs.
In August, at an art fair in Colorado in the USA, a digital art prize was awarded to a grandiose work. However, this piece of work was proven to be created by the artificial intelligence Mid journey, a painter AI that can produce tons of artwork according to the keywords given by the user in less than a minute.
After this story was revealed, it sparked controversy among netizens and professionals in a short time for an apparent reason: the author beat other creators who spent so much effort and time on drawing and was recognized by the judges without even realizing it.
Nevertheless, the author stood out and argued that this art fair did not prohibit artificial intelligence, and so the judges finally decided to give him the award.
While netizens criticized the low cost and disruption of the rules with AI painting as “a bad start,” the author himself was indifferent to the controversy. In an interview, he claimed, “The Artworld will have to recognize AI art after all.”
It’s not an art fair that is as influential, as the winner gets only 300 dollars. Still, the issue it raises about the use of AI works has quickly caused a media scramble. The anxiety caused to professional artists is also growing by the minute.
AI used in media
A month ago, Charlie Watts, a reporter for The Atlantic Monthly, used AI Mid journey to draw pictures for an article he was editing, other than choosing images from the photo rights sites as usual. As a result, many of the industry’s leading artists have protested against The Atlantic Monthly, expressing their shock and dismay that a national newspaper and magazine took the lead in using AI instead of paying painters to get their images. Chances are that other companies will mimic them; for artists, the consequence may be that clients will use AI to cut their art budgets.
After being strongly criticized, Charlie Watts admitted his mistake and said he would “never do it again” on social media.
In response, Matt Bos, a well-known American comic creator, explains that “(…) more and more technologies are being created to do basic work and save money for the rich and famous, but most of them don’t benefit the public AI technology is one of those technologies that can help some developers and technicians, but for illustrators, it’s a frustrating development.”
Closing words
AI technology is developing faster than we think. The last time AI painting was widely discussed on social media, it could only create artwork with fuzzy shapes and blurred edges, and it was hard to recognize what it depicted. Only a few months later, it was able to illustrate something that people cannot distinguish as to whether a human or an AI created it.
As far as I’m concerned, the development of AI is inevitable and irreversible. Similar to The Industrial Revolution, when machines on the assembly line replaced labourers, people were bound to seek ways to lower the cost of production. We need to adapt to and keep up with the times instead of rejecting the changes, and artists should learn new skills to meet the market’s demand.