How artists and critics think AI art will transform the industry | Art Works

Summary

The script delves into the burgeoning field of AI-generated art, exploring its rapid evolution and the ethical dilemmas it presents. It discusses the ease with which AI can mimic existing art styles, raising questions about originality and the essence of art as human expression. Highlighting the work of artists like Sam Leach, who incorporate AI in their creative process, the script also addresses concerns about AI biases and intellectual property rights. It ponders the future of artists in the face of AI advancements, suggesting a need for legal and ethical frameworks to guide this technological shift.

Takeaways

• 🤖 Artificial intelligence, particularly in visual art, is experiencing rapid advancements that could redefine the field.
• 🎨 AI's presence in art is not new, but recent developments have made it more accessible and controversial, challenging traditional notions of art.
• 🖥️ AI image generators like DALL-E 2 allow users to create unique images by inputting text prompts, raising questions about the role of human creativity.
• 🚀 The ease of generating visually appealing images with AI has led to a surge in 'Fanboy art' and style reproductions, blurring the lines between originality and imitation.
• 🤝 AI technology is evolving quickly, with new programs and capabilities emerging that can produce a wide range of artistic outputs.
• 🎭 Some artists, like Sam Leach, are integrating AI into their creative process to explore non-human perspectives and broaden human understanding.
• 🧠 AI's ability to learn from data sets and generate art raises concerns about biases in the AI models, which reflect the data they were trained on.
• 📚 Intellectual property issues arise as AI-generated art can replicate styles and use data without consent, potentially infringing on copyrights.
• 🔮 The future of art and artists is uncertain as AI's capabilities grow, with some fearing replacement of human labor in creative fields.
• ⚖️ The legal and ethical implications of AI in art are complex and require further exploration to ensure fair use and recognition of original creators.

Q & A

What is the current perception of AI's role in art creation?

AI's role in art creation is seen as transformative and potentially revolutionary, with the technology progressing at a rate that is hard to fathom, affecting various fields from visual art to music and poetry.

How did AI first enter the art world?

AI first entered the art world in 2018 when an AI-created portrait was sold at auction, marking a significant milestone in the integration of AI and art.

What are the three main AI image generators mentioned in the script?

The script does not specify the names of the three main AI image generators, only mentioning that there are three main players in the field, with many big tech companies working on their own versions.

What ethical issues have arisen due to the use of AI in art?

The use of AI in art has raised ethical issues such as biases in AI models, intellectual property concerns, and the potential for AI to reproduce styles of established artists without consent or compensation.

How does the AI art generator 'dally' work?

The AI art generator 'dally' works by using keywords or prompts input by the user to draw from billions of images scraped from the internet to generate a unique piece of art.

What is the significance of the AI-generated portrait that sold at auction in 2018?

The AI-generated portrait that sold at auction in 2018 was significant because it was the first AI-created artwork to be sold, indicating a shift in the perception and value of AI-generated art.

What is the role of human interaction in AI art creation?

Human interaction is crucial in AI art creation, as it is the human input of prompts and parameters that guide the AI to generate specific images, thus making the human a co-creator in the process.

How does AI artist Sam Leach use AI in his art-making process?

Sam Leach uses AI by feeding a data set of images into a custom-made AI program, which then generates images that he paints, allowing him to reimagine and translate the AI's output into a more fully finished painting.

What are the potential implications of AI-generated art for professional artists and illustrators?

AI-generated art could potentially disrupt the work of professional artists and illustrators by offering quick and easy alternatives to traditional art creation, raising questions about the value and authenticity of human-created art.

What are the concerns regarding biases in AI models used for art generation?

Concerns regarding biases in AI models include the reflection of racial and gender assumptions in the generated art, which can perpetuate stereotypes and skewed perspectives due to the data sets used to train the AI.

How does the script suggest the art world should approach AI-generated art?

The script suggests that the art world should engage with AI-generated art by understanding its capabilities and limitations, addressing ethical concerns, and considering the legal implications to ensure a responsible and creative integration of AI in art.

Outlines

00:00

🤖 The Rise of AI in Art

The paragraph discusses the pervasive influence of artificial intelligence (AI) in various sectors, including visual arts. AI, which has been developing since the 1960s, is now integrated into our daily lives through robotics, surveillance, and voice assistance. The rapid advancements in AI, particularly in generating visual images, have led to significant cultural impacts. The paragraph highlights the historical entry of AI into the art world in 2018 with the first AI-created portrait sold at auction. It also mentions the recent controversies and ethical dilemmas posed by AI image generators, which have become more accessible and are being developed by major tech companies. The narrative continues with a first-person account of using an AI art site called 'dally too,' where simple keyword prompts can generate unique pieces of art, raising questions about the authenticity and originality of AI-generated art.

05:00

🎨 AI Art: Creativity or Reproduction?

This paragraph delves into the debate surrounding AI-generated art and its classification as 'art.' It presents the perspective of Hillary Camperland, a motion design and 3D animation director, who discusses the ease of creating visually appealing pieces using AI tools. The paragraph contrasts the reproduction of existing works, often fan art or style mimicry, with the potential for AI to create novel and unseen imagery. It emphasizes the role of human interaction in shaping AI output, suggesting that AI is merely a tool extended by human creativity. The discussion also touches on the ethical and legal challenges of AI art, including intellectual property rights and the potential biases in AI models, which reflect the data used to train them. The paragraph concludes with the view that AI art should not be dismissed as inhuman but rather seen as a product of human ingenuity.

10:01

🤔 The Future of Human Creativity in the Age of AI

The final paragraph contemplates the future implications of AI on artistic professions, particularly the potential displacement of human labor by AI. It raises concerns about the value of learning traditional artistic skills in a world where AI can quickly generate art. The paragraph suggests that AI's rapid development might necessitate a reevaluation of legal and ethical frameworks to protect artists' rights. It also speculates on the inevitability of AI's integration into art creation, questioning whether resistance or adaptation is the best approach for artists. The narrative concludes with a hypothetical scenario where even the show itself could be replaced by an AI-generated equivalent, reflecting on the profound and imminent changes AI might bring to the creative industry.

Keywords

💡Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Artificial Intelligence refers to the simulation of human intelligence in machines that are programmed to think like humans and mimic their actions. In the context of the video, AI is revolutionizing various fields, including visual art, robotics, and surveillance. It is portrayed as a transformative technology that is expanding the boundaries of human creativity and raising questions about the nature of art and human expression.

💡Visual Art

Visual Art encompasses various forms of artistic expression that engage the viewer's sense of sight, such as painting, drawing, and sculpture. The video discusses how AI is being used to create visual art, challenging traditional notions of what constitutes art and who can create it. AI-generated art is a central theme, illustrating the intersection of technology and creativity.

💡AI Image Generators

AI image generators are tools that use artificial intelligence to create images based on textual prompts or descriptions provided by users. The video mentions platforms like DALL-E 2, which can generate unique artwork from simple text inputs. These generators are democratizing the creation of visual art and raising ethical questions about originality and copyright.

💡Ethical Worms

The term 'ethical worms' metaphorically refers to the complex ethical issues that arise from the use of AI in art. The video suggests that AI's ability to replicate styles and create new images from existing data raises questions about the ethical use of technology, including issues of consent, copyright, and the potential for perpetuating biases.

💡Human Expression

Human expression is the conveyance of thoughts, emotions, and ideas through various mediums such as art, music, and literature. The video explores whether AI-generated art can be considered a form of human expression, given that it is created by algorithms rather than by human hands. It questions whether AI can truly replicate the depth and nuance of human creativity.

💡Intellectual Property

Intellectual property refers to creations of the mind, such as inventions, literary and artistic works, designs, and symbols, which are protected under law. The video discusses the challenges of protecting intellectual property in the context of AI art, where AI can replicate styles and create derivative works that may infringe on the rights of original artists.

💡Algorithmic Assistance

Algorithmic assistance implies the use of algorithms to aid in the creation of art or other creative works. The video mentions a game designer who won an art prize with the help of AI, highlighting how algorithms can be used to augment human creativity but also raising questions about the authenticity and originality of such works.

💡Prompts

In the context of AI art, prompts are textual descriptions or keywords that users input to guide the AI in generating images. The video explains how entering the right prompts is crucial for creating desired artwork with AI, and it illustrates the creative process involved in formulating these prompts to achieve specific artistic outcomes.

💡AI Artist

An 'AI artist' would be an entity that uses artificial intelligence to create art. The video discusses the reluctance of some individuals to identify as AI artists, reflecting on the debate about the role of AI in art and whether AI-generated works can be attributed to the AI itself or to the humans who program and interact with it.

💡Bias in AI

Bias in AI refers to the倾向性 or prejudice that can be present in AI systems, often as a result of the data they are trained on. The video points out that AI models, which are trained on data sets that may reflect societal biases, can perpetuate stereotypes and skewed perspectives. This bias can influence the art generated by AI, leading to important discussions about the fairness and inclusivity of AI technologies.

Highlights

AI is not just having a 'moment' but is experiencing an existential shift in its development and impact.

AI has been in development since the 1960s, but recent advancements have made it ubiquitous in various fields.

AI is now present in robotics, surveillance, face recognition, voice assistance, and even creative fields like music and poetry.

The rate of AI progress is hard to comprehend, especially in the realm of visual art.

AI's infiltration into the art world began in 2018 with the first AI-created portrait sold at auction.

AI image generators have become more accessible and are being developed by major tech companies.

The ethical implications of AI art are being questioned, challenging the definition of art itself.

AI art can be easily generated by entering keywords or prompts into AI sites like DALL-E 2.

Most AI-generated art tends to reproduce existing works or styles rather than create original content.

Understanding how to use prompts effectively can lead to the creation of unique and never-before-seen art.

Hillary Camper, a motion design and 3D animation director, discusses her experience with AI tech.

AI art can be seen as a tool for artists to extend their creativity and produce new works.

The debate on whether AI-generated images can be considered 'Art' is a central point of contention.

AI is a product of human creation, written and curated by humans, thus linked to human expression.

Sam Leach, an artist, uses AI to explore non-human perspectives and broaden our understanding of the world.

AI models may reflect biases present in the data they were trained on, including racial and gender stereotypes.

Intellectual property issues arise as AI-generated art can replicate styles of existing artists without consent.

The future of artists and illustrators is uncertain as AI technology advances rapidly.

The legal and ethical considerations of AI in art need to be addressed as the technology progresses.

AI's impact on the art world is inevitable, and it may change the way people think about art creation.

Transcripts

it's tempting to say that artificial

intelligence is having as they say a

moment but that would be really

underselling it there's something going

on that feels existential this

technology has been in development since

the 60s but today AI is all around us

from robotics surveillance face

recognition and voice assistance to deep

folks and AI composed music poetry even

screenplays

it seems to be progressing at a rate

that is truly hard to Fathom and nowhere

is this more apparent than in the realm

of visual art the development of AI that

we've seen explode over the last year

does have the potential to be a

watershed moment in the creation of

visual images

and the kind of effective that could

have on culture AI first infiltrated the

art World in 2018 when this work became

the first AI created portrait to sell at

auction fetching a tidy sum in the

process

then a few months ago a Us game designer

controversially won a state art prize

using some heavy algorithmic assistance

for this work

the recently pin quality and

accessibility has come about due to the

latest batch of AI image generators

there are currently three main players

but many of the big tech companies are

working on their own versions and it's

smashed open a can of ethical worms

testing the parameters and the Very

definition of art itself but before we

dive into the moral complexities of AI

art let's try to make some

okay so I've just logged into one of the

latest AI sites this one's called dally

too and apparently all you have to do is

type in a bunch of keywords also known

as prompts and it'll draw from billions

of images scraped from the internet to

generate your very own work of art

all right

future hours

playing table tennis

Style

so what I've discovered is that it's

remarkably easy to make something

eye-catching even interesting that also

happens to be something I'm not really

comfortable calling capital a art and

this is fairly indicative of what's out

there

foreign

most of the work that's being produced

is sort of Fanboy art that it's about

reproducing stuff that already exists so

you've got people trying to reproduce

you know Keanu Reeves I don't know why

he's so popular but he is or there's

like this kind of fetishist stuff with

like Halle Berry and then there's a kind

of level where people are intentionally

trying to reproduce the style of say an

illustrator or an artist that seems like

a bit of a dead end to me and then the

next level is where people are trying to

use these tools to produce things that

have never been seen before because if

you train yourself to understand how to

enter the prompts

then you can get incredible results

I'm Hilary from

sick weird AI

Hillary Camperland is a director with a

background in motion design and 3D

animation who's immersed herself in the

recent way of AI Tech so often to make a

prompt work out well it sort of has to

be a bit like an over egged coffee order

you have to produce a long string of

texts so this one for instance is lots

of 3D Twisted animal balloons hairy

octopus collectible toy large eyes

glasses this one above here was a

porcelain sculpture of a futuristic

Woman made of splashing flowing twisting

milk

I really like the ability to create

anything you want it has that sort of

instant gratification to it every week

there is something new with this

technology you know new programs that do

new things yeah it's it's moving very

fast part of Hillary's interest in the

tech is sharing images and ideas with

the wider AI community so let's start

with Beth Frey so she's a visual artist

from Montreal and I love her work

because it's just absolutely bonkers

there's a guy in Melbourne who's an

architect so and I really liked what he

was creating and I could really tell

that his prompts came from the fact that

he was an architect in the first place

so there's people doing all sorts of

things with it and it tends to be just

just because just because we enjoy what

it what it makes so would you call

yourself an AI artist definitely not

definitely not I mean

you've got to admit that at least 80 of

what's going on is still the computer

Hillary's response here leads us to one

of the main flash points in the AI

debate can an image made by algorithms

actually be called Art or does it take

us further away from a common idea of

what art is all about human expression

I'm fine with this being labeled R

because to me art is a word that's

extremely malleable and it can be

applied to anything it doesn't have a

value judgment attached to it in my view

a lot of people look at AI as this kind

of inhuman thing that produces uncanny

images that have no connection to the

world I feel like that is undervaluing

or ignoring the fact that AI is produced

by humans it is a software that has been

written and created and curated by

humans now the AI doesn't do anything

until you interact with it we're not

looking at the technology just sitting

there on its own creating culture we're

doing it we're the ones who are

producing it

the thing that excites me is where an

artist

or a filmmaker or whoever brings their

their eye their aesthetic their approach

and uses that tool to to extend it and

to create new things this is actually a

slime mold sitting inside inside a

helmet and like the slime molds I find

interesting because that's Sam Leach is

an artist who's won both the win and

Archibald prizes he's always been drawn

to the intersection between science and

art and a few years ago started using AI

as part of his art making process

so that's as it was generated by the

computer yeah that's then been

translated into the more fully finished

painting

for a 2020 exhibition titled fully

automatic Sam decided to let AI

determine what he should paint next that

process involved feeding a data set of

images consisting of his own paintings

plus picture Source from art history

science and architecture into a custom

made AI program then painting some of

the images that emerged so they're quite

pixelated yeah what I ultimately found

was for making paintings that low

resolution was more helpful it allowed

me more scope to reimagine what was

being presented because I still want to

have the handmade quality of the of the

painting that's important so it

essentially leaves more up to your

imagination yeah

I'm really interested in non-human

perspectives on the world so looking at

how animals see the world or you know

now that it seems to be possible for how

machines see the world and using those

perspectives to broaden our own our own

view so being able to take that that

mathematical intuition and combine it

with my own biological intuition I think

produces something something interesting

Sam's latest exhibition titled

everything will probably be fine looked

more critically at the very AI models

being used and how they might shape the

future

the big models are owned by just a

handful of Mega corporations reflecting

a fairly small mindset and a fairly

small approach to to building these

building these models so there's

definitely going to be a bias and a skew

happening

such biases including racial and gender

assumptions are reflective of the very

data sets that have been used to teach

the AI which means that stereotypes we'd

hoped to leave in the past might be

recurring under our noses

that's been massively accelerated by by

AI which is kind of fascinating and

scary and that's a vital role of artists

to explore that and expose it and help

us help us to understand it bias in AI

is one problem another huge issue is

intellectual property that's because

these data sets include people's faces

and artists work all scraped from the

internet under the guise of research so

it's all too easy to lift the style of

an established artist without consent or

compensation

so you can copy the French comic artist

Mobius almost exactly or the or Chris

Foss covers from 70 sci-fi paperbacks or

you can copy you know Japanese manga

artists if you're just doing it in

tribute fine it just lives on the

internet what happens next though is the

question because

are you going to try and pass it off as

their work are you going to try and pass

it off as your own original output

you can be sued for copyright and

infringement if you recreate the work of

an artist not copying their work but

doing it in the style of okay so there's

a few you know warning signs on the road

and what if the road ahead for artists

and in particular illustrators whose

labor might easily be replaced by a few

prompts in a well-oiled machine the

technology is moving so fast that even

in the time it's taken us to make this

story there have been some major

upgrades including text to video I feel

like for certain professions producing

artworks in a commercial setting that

could be it could be problematic but on

the other hand these things always have

a way of of generating their their own

work there will be certain jobs that

could just you know you can create the

work so much quicker in AI there's still

a human element that I don't think the

computers can quite touch it does worry

me a little bit that

what happens if children in the future

decide that it's not worth learning how

to draw because well I can just prompt

something so quickly designers that I

know are resistant to using it but for

me it's a question of you know is it

coming regardless should we be ahead of

the curve and trying to get on top of it

or or should we be resisting it as

artists it's a good question

I think that the legal side of it needs

to be worked out I think there needs to

be an ethical sort of relationship

between this technology and artists who

are working in the world already I think

it has to prompt a change in the way

people think about the creation of art

it can't be stopped it's just inevitable

in some ways even this show could be

completely replaced by an AI facsimile

within say two years

well then

I guess that's it from me

see you on the other side