Why you might not need to worry about the future of art
A more positive view on AI art and society’s role regarding it
BY SRAVANTI VADREVU
We’ve all heard the news about the person at the Colorado state fair who used AI to generate some art and won the prize for it, despite the fact that they had contributed little to the piece. The fact that someone can open up a website and change some colors of an AI-generated picture in less than a few minutes won against human artists that not only put in hours of effort but also spend years developing their skills feels like a slap in the face. The media has appeared concerned about this too; news channels lament the future of art and worry about the presence of human-made art disappearing completely. However, in my opinion, there are still many reasons why you might not need to worry about AI art and which roles it might play in our future.
One of the things that worry artists is how this might change our careers. Everyone knows that artists are already getting paid less, at the very least based on time invested in the skill, especially when artists already worry about getting jobs. And it’s starting to look like AI is doing everything better or will eventually do everything better. But in my opinion, that’s not really the point. This is a weird time to be living in: everything is moving so fast that no one can keep up, and every year there is some technology that completely changes the way we live our lives, leapfrogging rules and regulations that try to keep pace. And that feels scary and overwhelming like technology is driving us and not the other way around. But, while I am currently annoyed and frustrated with the concept of AI art, I have more positive views for the future.
One of the things that makes me feel less worried is that people nowadays are more willing to pay more for hand-made things, even if those things are, say, worse functionally than a bulk-made counterpart that suits the same purpose. Your individual opinion on why you should buy local might not make a difference, but when many people believe the same, you fund businesses, companies, and the careers of individuals making art. Our post-industrial world also helps drive customers to smaller businesses. It may be a bit counterintuitive - why would you want to pay more for something worse than a cheaper alternative? But the excess of manufactured and bulk-made goods makes hand-made things rare. And when people see the work done to make it, it feels much more unique and personal. I see AI art in a similar way. It does matter whether the super-cool Picasso-style suburban house painting was generated, mixed together like a smoothie by the robot and its database, or was imagined and painted by a real person, in which case the piece carries thoughts, experiences, skill, motivation, and purpose.
Like I said before, rules and regulations around things like “can a person take a picture of someone else’s art and change it through AI and call it their own” don’t really exist yet. All these problems are fairly new, so it’s sometimes hard to figure them out legally. But we’re heading in the right direction: the more problems arise, the stricter the line becomes. Like with the evolution of cookies on web browsers, if we start to prioritize things (in this case security while browsing the web), the technology will have to make sure it changes for us, the users of the product. As someone who is studying product design, I see that within every project we work on, the user will always be the most important thing. So I try to remain positive. The public’s reaction to the AI art scandal proves we are already speaking out and on the right track. Hopefully, once we all get used to the new technology, and as long as we continue to be stubborn about the value of art, things will change.