AI is a fascinating tool for creators. Not only does it work as a reference for artists, but it also helps those who are not artistically gifted. It can help people who are not necessarily artists showcase their ideas.
Generative AI is not only fun to play with, it can also help graphic designers do more because it helps them work faster. Backgrounds can be changed with a click of a button, objects can be inserted seamlessly, the color palette can be changed to anything you could imagine.
AI can also be used to edit pictures. People who may not be proficient with things like Photoshop can now remove things from images. Now the average person can remove that annoying aunt from wedding pictures or a photobomber from the only picture where everyone is looking at the camera. It can also extend pictures, that way you can still capture the details that might have gotten cut off.
AI can be a helpful tool for individuals looking for assistance in creating anything they can imagine.
Adobe Firefly is one of Adobe’s latest developments. Its purpose is to “create” or “add on” to existing images by using “AI”. I put these in quotes because none of these things are true. AI stands for “artificial intelligence” and, while this is a different issue for me, every program being called “AI” is not at all intelligent. It’s an algorithm that’s been trained to piece together images from a database, usually not even the creator’s own images, to “create” a new image. My biggest issue with AI is that it harvests from other people’s work. My second biggest problem is that people try to pass it off as their own original work, or the people that argue that they created it because they had to type in a prompt.
A complaint that many people have with AI is that companies are using it instead of actually paying artists. Recently, Wacom, a company that creates products for artists, was under fire because they used AI to create marketing materials for their Year of the Dragon Twitter post. Wizards of the Coast, a company that makes things like trading cards and digital games, admitted to using AI art after they insisted that their work was entirely human-made. Companies already do what they can to spend as little as possible on people, and if they feel they can get away with using free software to “create” images, they will.
In modern times, art is undervalued, and the widespread use of AI “art” will continue that trend. I think everyone has gone to a modern art museum, either with a friend or alone, and thought or discussed how they “could do that themselves.” This idea was reinforced by the NFT trend when people were creating, selling, and trading digital images of what seemed to be the same ugly monkey in different outfits. But that isn’t what art is about.
I believe art is about showing emotion and expressing ideas and capturing beauty. All of that is lost when it’s “created” by an algorithm designed to steal and splice. In 1989, Keith Haring, a gay American artist, created “Unfinished Painting.” It was purposefully left unfinished to serve as a commentary on AIDS and as a reminder of how the AIDS epidemic affected everyone, but especially the queer community. Recently, a Twitter user used AI to “finish” this piece. Allegedly, it’s supposed to have been satire, but the act was incredibly disrespectful and it’s an insult to the artist and every queer induvial who suffered from the AIDs epidemic.
AI is incapable of feeling and thinking, and therefore cannot create art.
