AI art is any piece of artwork created with artificial intelligence. Though AI has been around since the 1950s, it has only started to gain traction as a creative medium in recent years with the increasing accessibility of AI technology. Today, this medium has over 1.5 million users, creating around 2 million pieces generated everyday.
What is AI Art?
Let’s Play a Game
Below are four different artworks— can you guess which one was created by a real person?
a
b
c
d
The correct answer is ….. NONE of them! All of the works you see above were generated by AI technology.
how it works
Most generators, including DALL-E, Midjourney, and Starry AI, utilize a text-to-image algorithm, generating art pieces with user prompts. The AI uses a system called Generative Adversarial Network (GAN) which has two main branches: one that creates images and another that then analyzes and scores them by comparing these created images to real-life examples. This comparison and scoring process is what allows AI art to be nearly indistinguishable from non-AI-generated artwork.
Controversy
With the rising popularity of AI within the art world, there has also been much controversy on the ethics/legality of its use and whether these images can be viewed as “real art”.
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Because AI-art is created through comparing it to other existing works, some claim that it steals other artists’ work, while others see it as the machines simply mimicking these styles. Another issue is if these works can be copyrighted and who these copyrights would be entitled to— the main debate being between whether the AI itself or public domain should own the copyrights.
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As for whether it can be considered real art, many disagree, arguing that there is no actual effort required to create the art, and AI art is not original, as it uses existing works to generate images. Others disagree, seeing this technology as a tool to help develop the creative process or a new, modern medium in today’s art world.
As AI art continues to win fine arts competitions and be displayed in large art museums, public opinion has only been getting more divided. Can simply typing a prompt into a generator compare to the hours spent creating these works by hand?Impacts of AI Art
Many are concerned with the impact this technology will have on artists, and whether AI will replace them in fields like illustration and design. As AI capabilities increase, the art it produces will only look more natural and lifelike. Many artists view the rise of AI art as a threat, especially smaller creators, as AI is increasingly used for smaller jobs, such as producing book cover art, that they would typically take on. The popular consensus seems to be that human artists will always be in demand, but only time will tell.
(all images are from public domain)
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