Art is Dead Dude: AI-Generated Image Wins State Art Fair

"Art is dead Dude," said Jason M Allen, winner of the Colorado State Art Fair's competition in the category of "emerging digital artists." Upon submitting a work of art produced with AI technology and winning, some artists came forward. They expressed their fears about this new breed of AI image generator, claiming it could take their jobs and reduce the years spent learning their craft to nothing.

In this Slogging thread, our community discusses the role of AI in art and how it influences human creation and jobs.

"Art is dead Dude", Jason M Allen told https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/02/technology/ai-artificial-intelligence-artists.html.

Mr Allen is the winner of the Colorado State Art Fair's competition in the category of "emerging digital artists".

His winning entry "Théâtre D'opéra Spatial" was made using Midjourney, an artificial intelligence system that enables images to be created simply by inputting a few text prompts - for example "an astronaut riding a horse".

Many artists were furious, but Mr Allen was unmoved: "It's over. A.I. won. Humans lost", he told the paper.

Mr Allen earned just $300 (£262) from the contest, but the news struck a tender nerve.

Some artists were already fearful that a new breed of AI image generator could take their jobs, and take a free ride on the years spent learning their craft.

"This thing wants our jobs, it's actively anti-artist", wrote California-based movie and game concept artist RJ Palmer in a Tweet liked more than 25,000 times.

In Twitter posts he highlighted how well the output of AI systems could imitate living artists. In one case he examined, the AI even attempted to reproduce artists' signatures.

The output of these AI systems is impressive, but they are built upon the output of flesh-and-blood creators - their AIs are trained on millions of human-made images.

This article brings forth an interesting discussion on art and how AI can replicate human creation. What are your thoughts on this?

I've seen amazing AI art. I'm especially interested in the systems that can create realistic images based on text. Even though the AI system uses human-made images, they create their own. I wouldn't say it's taking away the artists' credit.

I have to disagree. While I'm worried that AI might become better at certain tasks than humans, I don't think we can program creativity. At least not until we get to General AI. Even so, that wouldn't necessarily mean art is dead. Art in the future may be the creation of AI, i.e. Who can create the AI that makes better songs.

That was partly the plot of this anime I loved: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ybyPB9x8HXc

Sara Pinto, have you tried any of those systems?

Limarc Ambalina let me introduce you to a K-pop band with an AI member: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S6q5pdgUxkE

This blew my mind the first time I heard of it!

I don't think art will die because of AI, but I get how it takes on a bit of the artist's role and how scary it may seem to some artists. If AI could supply most of the creative industry's demand, then yes, artists would lose their income and impact. But while that's not the case, not yet at least, AI is just a tool for creation, Limarc Ambalina.

Mónica Freitas, as cool as the rising of AI artists may seem, it is indeed a matter of solicitousness. Though if we look at this narrative, it is just a fear of the human race of the developments of AI leading to their jobs being diminished. For example, with the upcoming technology of self-driving cars, should chauffeurs worry about losing their jobs? I think the answer to this is a NO. AI is developed to HELP the human race to achieve greater heights, not to endanger their livelihoods!

Made use of dream? https://www.wombo.art/

Mónica Freitas, that's right, and if we strive to remain relevant as innovation increases, there shouldn't be a fear of losing your livelihood because you'll be simply indispensable.

Contemporary art will not vanish or disappear because it will still be relevant in museums or galleries. But the real question is, is the integration and adopting of this new technology and letting artists be aware of AI, aiding them to do meaningful and creative work?

I don't think artists need to worry about AI taking their jobs. I mean, there are AI writers yet, content writers are still in demand.

Mónica Freitas, while AI may become very good at creating art, it still lacks a very important thing that differentiates humans from AI, which is the soul. What makes human art poignant is the experiences they have gone through, which they translate via any medium. That experience gives human art soul.

I think they do though, if images can be created by simply inputting text prompts as opposed to hours of work, it'll only be a matter of time before AI takes over.

Factory workers, pin boys, switchboard operators amongst many others at a time in history weren't worried that machines would take their jobs but look at it today.

While this is true, that humans produce work with soul, I think that technology has a lot of potential, and it keeps improving every day.
Who's to say that AI art can't progress to a point where it's indistinguishable from human art?

Seeing how far technology has come, I'd say it's highly likely.

Human art should be respected more than AI.

Yes, we believe that now. But the sentiment isn't likely to hold in the future.
If AI art turns out to be faster to produce, cost-effective, and just as moving, human art would quickly fade as AI would take over, fast.
Amitesh Anand

I totally agree with this. AI might just be a tool to facilitate better art and faster art creation as I've seen with a bunch of new experiments, but it can never outperform creativity.

Kofo, I don't think AI would outperform or fade human art. Rather it would introduce a new system where the future of art would be completely different and digitized from how it currently is.

In the long run, I believe AI will outrun art. Creativity plays a vital told in art. AI is just a tool that artists can look at to even better their works. I think rather than battle with the fear of losing their jobs, they can also leverage it. One constant thing is change and it is inevitable.

I believe that there exists and always will be a reverence in the souls of art enthusiasts for handcrafted art and crafts. Although technological achievements have significant use and aesthetic worth, paintings and crafts have that artistic grandeur. Art is everything about human inventiveness. Technology is a supplement to it, not a replacement.

Manas Goel, that's a great point! But can we agree that if tech diminishes the need for human interaction, it'll cease to exist? With self-driving cars: if you have one, the need for taxi drivers will likely decrease, which may impact employment rates.

Teri museums and galleries are great but artists extend to graphic designers and musicians. If AI can substitute part of them, won't it make them less "important"? Artists struggle to get credit and social value as it is... I wonder how AI will further impact their situation.

Kofo, great points!

Beautifully put, Janhavi Talhar!

Valid point, GemInRubbles!

Thank you! Mónica Freitas

Mónica Freitas, I did! I don't know how good this site is, but I tried with this one: https://openai.com/dall-e-2/

Also, people have resorted to old tech facilities due to the industrial gap. Thousands of imports were halted at the time international transport stopped. This slowed down technological growth as well.

Sara Pinto, DALL.E - smart name!! There's one called Stable Diffusion and it's more or less the same I think.

One can appreciate the pun haha. Have you tried them out? Mónica Freitas

Only stable diffusion - some creations are fun, others are just weird, Sara Pinto.