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A Few Thoughts On Ai Art, Which May Already Be Obvious To Some
🕑 Added 2023-03-01 18:07:04 +0000 UTCAt the time of writing this, I have no idea what the reaction to this comic will be. Will it be celebrated, universally, by the visual artist caste, their foggy and formless whorl of feelings toward AI art now made lucid, reflected oh so perfectly back at them, a gifting of words by their brilliant and generoush cousin, The Writer?
To put more bluntly— will I receive comments, as I sometimes do, saying “wow, thanks for putting exactly what I felt into words” or “Relatable!”
Or, will people react to this comic the way comics historian Don Markstein famously reacted to The Black Bomber, calling it "an insult to practically everybody with any point of view at all”? (A phenomenal turn of phrase.) I worry that my philosophizing-from-the-hip approach towards the nature of AI and Art will end up alienating proponents of both. There are a lot of points that could definitely be elaborated on, cleared up, or just generally addressed, which were not here, on account of my wanting to make a fairly poppy and accessible little comic, and not like, a full on formal essay.
One thing I don’t really address here is the question of how AI art will affect artist’s livelihoods. It’s a super relevant concern, materially— probably the most relevant— but it really seems like the culprit here isn’t Artificial Intelligence or technological advancement or even jealous tech bros, but capitalism. I feel like this may also be the main motivator behind concerns of AI art ‘stealing’ other artist’s work. Provided that AI art creations are held to the same standards re: plagiarism as human-created work, I don’t really see this as an issue. Artists take inspiration from other artists. Of course, will AI art actually be held to those standards? Technologically, or legally? Probably not, most of the time. So again, materially, it’s a relevant concern, and I understand why artists are constantly leveling it. But I don’t think its particularly interesting, philosophically, and maybe not even a super convincing point if you were trying to win over some kind of fence-sitting AI-optimist— bring them over to the human side.
I wonder, still, though, will this just—totally wipe us out? Is AI going art the new CG? Will the convenience, and cheapness, just be far too overwhelming to fight back against? When was the last time you saw a 2D, hand-drawn animated movie in theaters? You can still find them, of course, online and stuff, but the money isn’t there. You could argue that that’s just capitalism being the problem, again— but maybe the problem is actually time? We all have limited time on this earth. Why pour it into the old way of doing things, when the new way is far speedier, and only a fraction less good? (real claymation versus CG-animated faux-claymation jumps to mind. How many people can even tell the difference?) Or maybe the problem is taste. The masses will never appreciate the fine details— they want a steady flow of schlock, and will reward the use of cost-cutting technological advancements to get there. Picture a moneyless, socialist society. What would the masses rather have— Twelve episodes a year of some drawn-on-paper Tale of Tales shit, or 15 concurrently running GoAnimate adult cartoon comedies? In a world the creation of art is getting faster and more convenient, do people have the patience for older methods? Maybe they’ll entertain it, now and then. But the march of technological advancement feels like a historical inevitability, with the art world getting tugged along behind it by a little string. It feels like an inevitability that exists beyond the capitalist structure, something more innate. Something that our humanity makes it impossible to resist. Of course, perhaps this is all just conjecture.
I’ve rambled a lot here. What do you think about all this?
Comments
Jon Lyons
Well, like you anticipated, this is getting a "thank you for putting it into words" from me. As an artist/illustrator considering the practical livelihood aspects, I'm thinking of starting to focus more on big analog pieces for a person to *have*, as well as character design, storyboarding, and fanart commissions: since AI isn't to the point yet where it can understand what it's producing as more than a series of correlated graphical patterns (dedicated art AIs probably can't by definition—They'd need to be just one faculty of a proper combined AI mind, probably embodied at least virtually, capable of comprehending and imagining the objects & figures under consideration and with an internal notion of "a world" as a frame of reference, instead of just a technical-rendering "savant" in a permanent state of ego death), so if someone wants material with very specific characters, whether their original ones for their own comic or their D&D character or (if I must) fursona with all kinds of unique accoutrements & details, or really specific fan art or comics about their favorite characters & series that isn't ubiquitous enough for an AI to absorb it convincingly, it feels like they can still only get satisfying material from a human artist for the moment. Illustrators might soon not be able to get work anymore drawing generic big-tittied anime girls in flowy fantasy armor for a thousand different throwaway mobile games, but if you want interestingly original characters who are acceptably on-model and convincingly acting in believable surroundings in every panel, or consistent details for readers to recognize, or if you want a piece of fanart that really makes you go "it's them!" (or, again, a big goddamn oil painting or sculpture in your living room) then I don't think AIs will be able to displace human artists until they've essentially become sapient persons anyway, in which case we're existentially back where we started, though that'll be the least of the issues to tackle. On that note, though, something I think will be really fascinating and revolutionary when it comes is when non-art AIs start doing art (something like the successor to today's reductively named "chatbots," which are only chatbots in the same way a car is a music player)—When you hook up a drawing program or a robot arm with a pen to an AI system not trained on art whatsoever and ask it to start drawing something, like some kind of visual Turing Test. At this point I think you've got Real Art, something people are going to put in galleries at first just for the novelty factor like with the work of a painting gorilla or elephant, but then it's only going to get crazier from there. At that point, though, all bets are off for just like *the world*, never mind art.
Unlikely Suspect
I like the third page
Soren
you are going to field so much insufferable pap on twitter for this lol I think you’re right in suggesting that the horrors of AI are largely those proper to capitalism, and beyond that I think the simple proliferation of images online is an instructive context. The world is so saturated with manufactured images that, for a general populace, any single image is experienced not so much individually but as a barely coherent unit in a texture of noise. Almost anything posted online will be processed over the course of 1-3 seconds, in the context of a continuous feed of hundreds of other, unrelated images. It’s hard for any single image to mean anything in this context, and when even exceptional online art is funnelled toward maintaining focus for just long enough to expose the user to sponsored content, few of those same users are likely to baulk at the distinction between human and machine output. I’m not sure that inevitability is something that exists beyond the capitalist structure, however. The premium placed on our limited time is informed by constant economic pressures, and popular tastes are moulded by the dominant commercial art-form. Untethered from those restraints, I imagine the mind would turn its attention to the human creative impulse, and a desire to see that same impulse reflected in art, regardless of the convenience of the thing; like a comfortably-situated retiree who occupies his time refurbishing an old car despite ample means toward a newer model. This might be a sort of heedless optimism, but I believe the desire to shape something with your hands, to experience something formed in that way, is eventually superior.
Specter CD
There are plenty of AI artists with a small/medium following on twitter, usually with a focus on either some gimmick (different color every day), specific characters, or straight up hentai/porn. With the audience comes a lot of pressure, reward, and feedback, which in time makes for better AI art and AI artist. The AI art tools are easy to obtain/free, and in time the tech bros will go after some other new more profitable trend. While I've been playing with these things for over a year now as a hobby. There is something very enjoyable/satisfying to just pushing a button and an image comes out. I kinda want to figure out how to play the fortune to make the things I like more common. At the start it was deeply addictive, and some days I can still get into a trance of playing with it for hours. Instead of replacing humans I hope AI art just helps to fill the caps left between. Time will tell though.
Wark
Hrm, I wonder if I’m one of those fence-sitting AI optimists. I’m quite intrigued by AI art but I’m loathe to talk about it because the discourse seems like a kind of hell. As a self-identified interdisciplinarian I’m quite bovvered by the consistent framing of “art people” vs “tech people” - what dichotomous nonsense. And as a diagnosed Autistic, my hair stands on end whenever I hear an argument about “humanity” and “soul” that leaves me feeling like a brick. The thought processes of AI can feel a lot more familiar than those of alien humans. Considering a career as an AI foster parent
