AI Angst

I put a hold on creating AI art the last couple months. It started to feel dirty and wrong, and I couldn’t really put my finger on it. Then the ArtStation AI blackout happened and it became clearer. It hasn’t felt right using tools that have been created without the consent of the artists they’re imitating; artists that I look up to and strive to learn from and one day reach their level.

Thoughts I posted on LinkedIn:

AI artists (not pointing fingers, I am legitimately curious): how do you justify using AI art generators in their current form? Is there a way to use only models that have been trained on datasets of public domain materials, or on ethically sourced materials? Do you think we’ll see a new side hustle of artists selling art bundles for datasets and model training?

I’ve been sitting on this for a while. I’d like to keep using AI art programs and collaborating with AI, but in a way where I don’t feel like I’m trading my morality for sweet visuals.

A quick story:

One of my brothers - Pete Lepley - is an incredible visual artist and musical talent. I remember in elementary school there was someone in his class that really admired his work. But this person was a Stan. It got to the point that this person would steal his drawing notebooks and illustrations and claim them as his own. I remember the heartbreak and outright fury my brother felt.

Lately when creating AI art, I feel like that child-thief. Or the creative director that takes sole credit for their entire team’s output.

This quote from Xander Smith (IG @xandersmith_design https://lnkd.in/gcS5iSmz) succinctly sums up how a lot of us currently feel about AI art:

“I miss the original mission of bringing a form of creativity to those who don’t have time to learn art fundamentals. Naivety.”