I am sure that by now you have heard and or seen the many AI-generated images floating around the internet. I am also sure that you have seen the many comments and hatred that these images brought forth. The creative community is absolutely disgusted with the power and ability of AI. The creative community is clutching at straws claiming copyright infringement and claiming theft and AI art not being actual art etc. Most articles you will find tend to repeat this rhetoric. I would like to offer a different point of view.
Before I do, ask yourself a simple question. Is business supposed to be moral? Is business meant to be based on ethics? If your answer to these two questions is YES … then you won’t like my standpoint and you should go find an article that echoes your thoughts. Or stay, be challenged, and find the flaws in my logic.
The birth of AI Generating Software is due to Artists being horrible at business.
Have you ever dealt with an artist? Have you ever had to do business with an artist? It’s a gruesome experience that will leave you craving the serenity of a rock metal concert. I am a writer. I wanted to write a children’s book. So, I wrote one. Because it was a children’s book, I needed images to go along with the story so I set out to find an illustrator. And this is when I found out that artists tend to be extremely delusional in their thinking. A simple book with 25 illustrations was quoted to be between 10.000 to 20.000 dollars. And that would then still be on the lower end of things. Mind you these artists weren’t world famous; these artists didn’t bring an extreme fanbase with them that would validate their prices or guarantee a return on investment. No, these artists were the ones lurking in Facebook groups claiming to be professionals who have been in the “industry” for many, many years. This experience quickly made me give up on the idea of hiring an artist for my book. I am not alone in this experience, many creative and or aspiring authors who need artists for their books get stuck at this stage.
The illustrators never really cared about the writers because well, they had all the power. Without them, the process of book creation couldn’t progress. Now enter many scam artists who used clip art to make illustrations. Artists who had been drawing for 2 weeks asking the exact same price as masters who have been drawing for 20 years. Artists asking payment to make the book and then also wanting royalties because well they “made” the book. Add to that the many conversations you need to have about WHY the artist changed your concept. Why the artwork is delayed, why the art style has changed? Why the artist can’t do it that way because their nose itches?
How would an actual business react to this behaviour?
This is just my experience and those of people like me. Now imagine this on the scale of an actual business. With an actual budget and actual large-scale projects that reach a worldwide audience. Those businesses invest millions of dollars to have everything made and made to look perfect. The artists get a steady paycheck and don’t take any of the risk involved in making sure the final product is profitable. They chose to be employees and work for a steady income to make things for their company. So, in the eyes of business, creatives are nothing more than tools you use to make a product. Creatives, however, refuse to accept this fact because they think that what they are doing is special and thus deserves special merit. So, they will sue the company to get royalties from projects they worked on. Even though they were employees and paid to make said projects. If the project failed, the creatives wouldn’t bat an eye and wouldn’t even think of asking for royalties. Because it was no longer their problem, they made their money and weren’t part of the risk. Businesses got tired of this.
AI Art is the response of businesses to bad artists.
If a tool isn’t functioning properly, or the tool is demanding more money than it’s worth, you replace the tool. This is what business is. Business is about money, not about your feelings or how special you believe your art to be. It’s about making something as fast as possible while maintaining a certain level of quality and selling it for the highest price. If a business can lower the cost of production while maintaining the quality, it would be a breach of conduct not to do so. A company’s responsibility is to make money. Not to hire people, not to make people feel appreciated, not to have the best possible art. None of that. The only thing business needs is to make money.
AI art is the perfect response to these artists believing they are worth more than they are. Mind you, when I say artists and creatives I am not talking about Masters of their craft. Masters are excluded from this conversation due to the fact that they have earned the right to ask whatever they want. It’s these low-level artists who think themselves equal to masters that ruined it.
Google set information free, AI art can set creativity free.
What Google did for information; AI can do for creativity. If AI art was available when I wanted to make my book, the book would have been made already. I would have mastered Photoshop and perfected the images AI made for me. It would have cost me nothing but time and creativity. I wouldn’t have to deal with those artists and their quirks. As a writer and as an artist, I love AI art.
Its speed, its efficiency, its level of quality, and its sheer silence as it just does what I ask is amazing. How can you not love AI? And for those of you who will lose work or have lost work. Well, you have now gone the way of the painter in a world where the customer just wants an image of himself. You can still find work in a niche market but only if you’re a master. For you non-masters… well consider yourself a high-level hobbyist. All this complaining and moaning about AI art is just the rubble screaming as progress is being made. Adapt or die. Were you this upset when stores disappeared because of Amazon? Were you this upset when you didn’t have to remember phone numbers anymore because your iPhone did it for you? Were you this upset when you wanted to spell a word but didn’t know how and your phone corrected it for you? I’m pretty sure you appreciated the convenience as a customer. The only issue now is that the creatives are no longer the customers but the stores, the phone number, and the word that no one knows how to spell.
Feel free to complain, but understand that trying to stop progress is like trying to stop time. It could possibly be done … but the ramifications of it would not be fun.
I love AI Art.
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