AI art may not actually mean the end for artists

The Human Touch- Why AI art may not actually mean the end for artists

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With DALL-E2, Midjourney, Dream all coming up artists might think their jobs are at risk, here’s why that might not actually be the case

Whenever there is a new AI tool or a development in the field, we all think the AI takeover of humans is getting closer. Now with all these new AI art generators coming up it is natural to think that your position as an artist is at risk. I mean it takes the AI mere minutes to generate an artwork that would take hours or even days for an artist.

But does all this really mean the artists’ jobs are at risk?

When you enter a prompt into an AI, it scans and analyses thousands of images, compiles and analyses the data and then gives you an output. And as you enter more specific prompts it alters the image accordingly. The most important thing to understand is that AI needs a data it can analyse to give you an output. And that data has to be original art created by artists.

Machine learning and AI revolve around the idea of recreating the process of learning in machines. Just like how when a baby starts growing up it learns about the world around it more, objects, colours, languages, etc. A similar process is carried out on machines, they are given algorithm which enables them to learn and improve.

Creativity in essence means the process through which something new is formed. This is precisely why AI cannot replace creativity, because it can’t create things it hasn’t been trained to do. The algorithm after all is just an algorithm, it will run the same processes every time. The output of an AI art generator depends more on the prompts and inputs given to it rather than the algorithm it uses.

Every new technology is met with fear and resentment, this was seen even when photography came into the picture because everyone thought that would be the end for artists. Why would one want to see a painting when one can see a photo? But now we see that this is completely untrue and now photography is also considered an art.

When we talk about AI art, we should also think about why art is appreciated by humans. Every piece of art, may it be a sculpture or a painting or a performance, is rarely praised for its perfection. It’s the emotion, the message, the sensation that makes one look at a piece again and again. That’s the beauty of art. This is one of the main things AI art lacks. The human touch, the human feeling.

AI can become an excellent creative aide to artists. Many have used it to enhance their art and images. It could help speed up the process, giving more time to brainstorm and create more work. Artist Zach Doehler has been using his own art to create more art with the help of Midjourney AI. It’s like giving the AI, more of your clerical work which it can do faster and better and thus using more of your time to engage in the creative process.

A more concerning part in all of this is the ethical issues with these generators. AI uses data of pictures and paintings from artists and the internet to begin with. Thus, you could say that it uses the work of other artists without their consent to create its own. These issues are being looked into and addressed by the AI Ethics Lab and many experts are working on it.

With everyone now having an easy tool to create art, it is only natural for artists to feel that their livelihood is at risk. But the creativity of humans, their ability to communicate with other humans through different mediums is unique and can’t be easily replicated by machines.

So rather than looking at AI art as a threat to artists, it should be looked at as a tool, an aide that will only enhance their work but rarely replace the individuality of their art.

- Mahi Shitut