Does AI signify the death of art?

It has been known for quite a while, but now it can't be denied for anylonger. AI, is everywhere. I see it in my apps, my phone, billboards, schools, trends etc. Some see this as amazing progress, others view it as a pain. I am amongst the second group. Especially if I see that we started using AI to generate images. It makes me wonder if AI signifies the death of art.

what is ai?

For the people that don't know, AI stands for Artificial Intelligence. What is it? It is a system that we, people, feed data, so we can extract knowledge and answers on complex topics.

Why did someone make this? AI can encapsule much more information than humans can. So it helps us answer big and complex questions. In other words a pretty amazing work if you first look at it. But this is not the only thing people use AI for. Just look at the most popular OpenAI model of this moment: ChatGPT.

This AI-model functions as a chatbot and if you ask it a question it will generate an answer or an image. Some more advanced systems can even generate (animated) movies.

The problem of AI and AI-generated images

Even though AI-systems are very remarkable work of technology, in practice it is less remarkable. As I said before AI need data to function. It's problem is that it doesn't need a small bit of data, but millions to generate something worthwhile. This also applies for generating images

But isn't there more than enough art for those machines then? Yes and no. In theory yes, there is enough art to feed these systems, but don't be mistaken. You can't feed every artwork into your machine due to copyright.

This means that if you create something original, like a book, drawing, scientific research or a song, it will automatically be protected by law. That means no one can exploit, spread or copy your work without your written consent. However Copyright can expire and your works would then enter the public domain.

So makers of AI-models are free to feed art from the public domain to their AI, but not the works with active copyright. This is where the problems start, there is not enough work in the public domain to maintain these systems. So AI-makers ignore the copyright and scrape the internet for art that they can feed into their models, models like midjourney. In other words, they are stealing art on a grand scale.

It's the largest art theft in history!

Not only did they steal our art, but they sell it in public(!) to the masses. Who then create millions of copies and some of them want to make money of those too. Nothing goes to the original creator.

The downplayed worth of art

What are the consequences of all those copies that enter the market? Art is downplayed to a trend and style. Because now you only have to formulate a prompt: "Make an illustration of a dancing banana in the style of Studio Ghibli" and it generates exactly that for you.

The work of Hayao Miyazaki, the founder of Studio Ghibli, does not belong in the public domain. Not to mention his deep hatred for AI. He calls it: "An insult to life itself." Something he does not wish to incorprate into his work. He criticizes that it is devoid of soul and human life. Which is what Miyazakis work is known for. His stories are drenched with humanity and commentary on the society. Yet his work stolen and downplayed to a 'cute trend'.

The same goes for the work of Jim Henson, creator of The Muppets. His work doesn't belong to the public domain either, but what do we see? Everybody transformed their photo's into a Muppet version with AI. Jim Henson tried his best to maintain the artistry of creating puppets. But did anybody actually create or learn how to make a Muppet? No.

Art is peoples lifework, that is not nothing. You should respect it and if you can't, you let it be. This path only leads to art being devalued at an enormous rate.

Consequences for professional artists

The masses use AI-generated images mostly to participate in trends or as 'stock-images'. Which directly taps into the two previously mentioned problems. However I don't see artist losing much income over this. Because let's be honest, the people who generate these images were never planning on spending money on quality art.

The biggest consequence for the professional artists are with companies. A lot of companies see it as a way to save money, even companies who heavily rely on artist to create/buy their products. Because AI can do 'the same' for (nearly) nothing.

Another consequence is that it's even harder to protect your work. Copyright law was already a difficult topic, but with AI it's gotten much harder. Because a lot of artist use the internet to show their work to potential clients. And as it turns out not getting scraped is next to impossible. Not to mention the programs that demand access to your work.

Adobe, a tool used by many artist, are demanding access to scrape your work to feed their AI. Even highly confidential material. Meta, wishes to feed AI with your work if you use one of their platforms. Microsoft, wants access. I could go on and on. These companies found a pot of gold and they try to fill it up with even more gold.

Don't get me wrong. Not every company is looking to replace artist, neither is every person. But the playing field is shrinking even more and it wasn't that big to begin with.

The future of art

Is art destined to die at the hands of AI? No, AI can't replace art and artist. Creating art is something human, that is within all of us and that spirit is hard to steal. People will continue to create, even if they don't get paid. Even though I highly recommend companies and people to commission professional artists, instead of generating.

I do fear that AI generated work will get a more prominent role in our lives and we can't stop it. Something I'm not looking forward to.

We need to ask ourself the following question: "Do you want to live in a world where every book, movie, illustration, song or poem is generated, instead of created?" Because to me it seems like an empty world.

By devaluing art, you're devaluing yourself.

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There is so much more I want to say about this topic, as I'm just scratching the surface, but I wanted to make accesible to read.

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