Is AI the end?
Let’s break down the issue from top to bottom and see. As an illustrator myself I have had to grapple with this technology and what it truly implies. It is certainly a threat to the livelihoods of all artists, but I think it is a multifaceted problem. Hear me out.
We have seen many famous artists speak out against the rise of AI programs like Midjourney and Dall-e (Now on its 3rd iteration) over the last few years. I share a lot of their sentiments as well.
“I would never wish to incorporate this technology into my work at all. I strongly feel that this is an insult to life itself… I feel like we are nearing to the end of the times. We humans are losing faith in ourselves…”– Hayao Miyazaki (Studio Ghibli)
Reading stuff like Hayao’s quote might make it seem true, especially given his legendary reputation… So Is AI the end of art as we know it?
Let’s break it down step by step and make sense of the problem.
Artist’s Rights
First let’s talk about artist’s rights. When you create a drawing or a painting, copyrights are automatically applied to it. With AI generated images, there is no actual artist. This creates a major copyright problem and it lies with the AI’s ability to trawl the internet for all the masterworks of every artist who ever lived and then perfectly memorize them all. It then spits out new remixes for people to sell without the consent of the original creators. The machine and its user get to simply take everything without allowing the artists to monetize their work to even use as the data set. Effectively we have lost the rights to our copyrights when it comes to AI.
It is a quickly emerging tech that we still may be able to get a handle on and regulate, but don’t hold your breath.
If you are a beginner and I’m overwhelming you, just know that there is still hope to become a great artist, but you must learn to think differently and plan ahead for this stuff!
Who’s Running the Show?
Remember, the AI needs a human operator. The human element must provide text inputs with goals in mind. If the operator can’t think of anything cool to type in or doesn’t have a direct use for the art, the AI is essentially useless and doesn’t impact the marketplace. As a human artist, you must do both jobs exceptionally.
As an artist now, it is no longer good enough just to be average. Being able to paint a nice picture is just not going to cut it unless you are a fine artist. There are a lot of studios out there who are actively cutting junior level positions in favor of AI which can crank out concept images in an instant for free. The senior artists then take these AI images as inspiration and build off of them. Besides your art itself, your biggest strengths must be your ability to innovate, visualize, and give an unforgettable experience. This could be through the storytelling in a comic book, a video game, a gallery event, or an animated film.
Silver Lining
There is a silver lining here and that is if you are an entrepreneurially-minded artist, you could “employ” the AI to be your junior level artist in your own start-up studio for very cheap. It could enable you to world-build much faster than before. It could even help you program your video game and much more. What many people do not know is that many AI programs exist that specialize in different creative abilities. In a way it does reduce the barrier to entry as long as you are very skilled in your craft already and know how to compose something great from small parts.
Currently AI is not capable of creating the multi-layered and comprehensive experience that these types of projects require on its own. There still needs to be a human who pieces all of the AI generated content together to make something bigger. On top of this, many people are actually boycotting any projects they see that are blatantly using AI art in favor of hand-made work, which is encouraging.
If there is any confusion by the end of this article, I don’t condone anyone to use AI art as a finished product, only as a helpful reference!
Is AI the End Then?
So… In the end is AI the end of art in 2024?
No… I don’t think that it is by any means… BUT the door is narrowing. It requires us to re-evaluate what we are doing and to become more than just pencil pushers, we have to become the architects of the next big thing. We have to develop our communication skills and our ability to network and make things happen around us.
If it doesn’t make sense to you yet and you are still struggling to draw, I encourage you now more than ever to get the training you need as quickly as possible. You have to compete with actual robots now!
My Ultimate Drawing Masterclass has helped over 131,000 people worldwide, why not give it a shot? I have all kinds of other art courses for different skill levels as well. Check this link.
To your success,
Kevin Gardin
8 responses to “Is AI the End of Art? A Full 2024 Look”
I think you might as well go back in time and say “Is the combine harvester going to be the end to farming?”. IMO it’s just another tool to make use of to be more effective, that is if one chooses to use it at all. Will it put some people out of work and make a the creative field that is already a highly competitive sector even more so as well as raise the bar for entering into the field? Most likely, just like the more efficient modern farming methods and machines requires fewer laborers, and require the laborers to be better educated, so I think it will be with this technology.
I don’t believe that will mean there isn’t going to be room for original good old fashioned hand crafted art. Is it something most if not every artist professional and hobbyist should take into consideration? Most certainly, I know next to nothing about it, but from what I little I have heard of it so far, it sounds like there are some amazing potential in this area.
You could put in another analogy and say did Apple and Microsoft put an end to the field of graphical art when they started developing software for it? I bet you use at least one Adobe program if not many. Imagine if you had to go back to drawing everything by hand. We have been using AI in a small scale ever since we started using microprocessors in our computers, because really what they do is calculate data processes a whole lot faster than any human could but at our commands and we put it together and make the creative choices.
Take the first Star Wars movies for instance. Everything except some very simple 3D was handcrafted. Then later as the possibilities and potential with modern 3D animation grew, they went back and did the first three episodes. Why where they cut in the first place and jumped strait into the 4th, 5th and 6th episode? Because at the time it was way to heavy a load to pull of manually and cost prohibitive. But because of the modern technologies we did get to see the first three episodes as they became financially viable 😉
I could go on like this, but I am sure you catch my drift. And anyways this is just my 2 cents on your very specific question. I realize there is more to it than that especially in regards to copyrights. But the creative field really is just a small part of what will be affected with this technology. It is going to have a significant impact hard and fast and pretty much everywhere at once throughout society and that should raise some alarm bells!
But I also think one of the big questions we should ask is, what will we be able to do with this pretty amazing technology that we couldn’t do before we had this tool available to us… I would imagine the field of science could take quantum leaps with this eventually once it gets more widespread and advances even further.
Hi Lars,
I think AI does go beyond just being a tool like a combine harvester or an Adobe program (which yes I definitely use). It even goes beyond personal computers. All of those things eliminated a ton of jobs, but also created new ones that never existed before. I couldn’t even make this website and talk to you without the computer. But what if I told you that AI wrote my whole blog post and also is writing this reply right now in my tone? Ofc it’s not, but we will eventually get to that point where people are doing these sorts of things. It is capable of doing literally every job, even the most skilled work to the point where it could nearly eliminate all jobs besides the technicians that upkeep it. I think we definitely need to keep an eye on it because it’s potential is essentially limitless.
Without being too doom and gloom, I think there are certainly things it can do that will allow us to make huge leaps especially in theoretical physics and medicine that will completely change life as we know it so it’s hard to put a finger on whether its entirely good or entirely bad. I think the truth is somewhere in the middle!
Yep, 100%. AI replaces human INTELLIGENCE. Comparing it to the combine harvester is like comparing a stick of TNT to the nuclear bomb.
Yes exactly. Our intelligence is what allows humans to be the only ones who can complete skilled jobs. Now that we are introducing something that can simulate our main value (and also never has to sleep so can put in more hours), how do we retain our place in the economy?
I have a Udemy course about Art Therapy. As part of the course I included a lecture called ‘Faking it?’ I then showed 15 paintings that MIGHT have been by Van Gogh etc etc and asked students to say which ones were genuine.
To date none of the students have realised that all paintings are fake.
Hey Christopher. Yeah, I believe it. It’s just insane how far AI has come in the last couple years.
With Mike rapping away there, the next line is inevitably: it doesn’t even matter… I think all these AI music videos are kind of weird. I know, i am a bit late but i only just discovered Linkin Park. I try to find out who they are, who Chester was and i see all those ai videos with him singing something he never sang or with someone he never sang with. Then again, he is dead, but i still see him singing In the End and all the other songs – he did that, his 23 year old self did that, but he isn’t doing that now, when i see him doing it – isn’t that some sort of virtual reality, too?
But you are probably right, we have to get ready for AI. I am a photographer (or i try to be) and i remember when the first digital cameras appeared – how many photographers said, they wanted to stick to film and their analog system . They thought it was not right to edit photos with software. But the dimensions of AI are different, that’s right.
Thank you for your article, Kevin. By the way, i got your video production masterclass – i haven’t started yet but i am looking forward to doing so. Take care
Hey Steffi, yeah I can definitely see the connection with the invention of digital photography and how it was perceived as taking out the human element and the ‘realness’. I think that with AI we are entering a whole new paradigm where you don’t even necessarily need to find a location or take a photo, you just have to think about it and type in what you want and it’ll get produced. It’s even more divorced from reality. The question is, how do we use it to our advantage while keeping our humanity? A certain element of integrity from the human controlling the AI has to persist.