AI art is attracting a lot of bitter Luddite invective these days.
But I calmly reply that all artists borrow elements of other artists’ styles, particularly when they’re developing. So let’s not get all high dudgeon about AI here.
I have used AI to generate thematic sample comic book images. And it’s a funny thing, as Stan Lee used to say. The reaction to one of my AI images was instructive.
People asked, “Where’d you get that wonderful image?”
And when I answered “AI,” several of them immediately replied, “Oh yuck, it’s awful!”
Literally, they’ve said this! Their hypocrisy was instantaneous.
Remember, the comic book industry was built on artistic swipes.
And style cannot be copyrighted.
“It’s not always bad,” observed my comics historian friend Joseph Lenius. “Al Williamson was a genius, and he obviously followed in the footsteps of Alex Raymond. (Frank) Frazetta as a comic book artist did so to an extent from (Hal) Foster. MANY have tried to follow in the footsteps of Wally Wood (who borrowed from others and constantly swiped), although few have succeeded.”
Also, there are literally hundreds of thousands of public domain comic book images which can be sampled by AI.
“AI using that is no worse than a person doing the same,” Lenius remarked. “Again, there are a lot out there who think NOTHING bad about artists swiping, tracing, light-boxing.”
AI’s art’s detractors decry it as “lazy” and “soulless.”
That’s claptrap.
I’d say it’s the detractors’ hysterical knee-jerk Luddite reactions that are intellectually lazy. And as for “soulless,” well, are blueprints “soulless?”
AI art is a tool that enables you to visually describe your concepts — swiftly, helpfully and very effectively.
So let’s just leave the “souls” out of it entirely, shall we?
Golden Scientist said: I'm sick of those crybaby 'artists' who constantly complain about AI image generators. I can see where they are coming from, but it's a software. Software does not ask to use media for training. I'm sick of hearing about it. AI will not take away creative jobs like art and writing. It is here to stay, and those people need to suck it up. Some of these people have the reason "it takes people's work and uses it without asking."
ReplyDeleteIT'S A PROGRAM.
Real people use references to create media without reaching out to the original creator, but when a computer program does that, it's suddenly wrong.
I will admit that there are some ethical issues that come with these image generations and chatbots, but I'm just sick of hearing about it.