#062: The Pros & Cons to Embrace or Reject AI Art

May 14, 2024

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🤗 This week's edition of Creator Royalties is an inclusive approach why artists should or shouldn’t utilize AI in their work. No matter what your stance, educating one’s self on new or new-to-you technologies will only serve to benefit your creative practice.

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The Pros & Cons of Embracing or Rejecting AI

For every person thrilled about the accessibility of generative AI, there is another who feels threatened by its adoption. Generative AI presents both opportunities and challenges for artists, blending creativity with complexity while triggering strong reactions from supporters and critics alike.

On one hand, it offers new avenues for exploration and ingenuity, enabling users to tap into vast data sources for inspiration. However, it also raises concerns about the authenticity of artistic expression, as some question the role of human intuition and emotion in a world more and more influenced by algorithms.

In this article, we'll explore both perspectives to help you navigate this debate and determine where you stand.

Let’s take a closer look.

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Pro: Democratizing Access

The democratization of tools for Generative AI presents a compelling opportunity for artists to explore new realms of creativity and innovation. By making these tools more accessible, artists of all backgrounds and skill levels can harness the power of AI to augment their artistic endeavors.

Generative AI enables artists to experiment with novel techniques, expand the horizons of traditional art forms, and discover new methods for self-expression. With Generative AI making arts more attainable, individuals are increasingly empowered to unleash their imagination, break barriers to entry into the art world, and cultivate a more inclusive and diverse creative environment.

Art by Hirokatsu Kikuchi

As an example of AI’s potential for personal development, Hirokatsu Kikuchi, a HUG Artist based in Japan, lives with a chronic illness that causes muscular atrophy. Homebound to his ventilator, Generative AI grants Hirokatsu a creative outlet that helps fulfill his dream of exhibiting his art in other countries.

💡 HUG Tip: At HUG, we have had the privilege of witnessing 20,000 creatives across 160 countries participate directly in our Open Calls for exhibitions and have distributed over $200,000 in grants and scholarships.

For many of our artists, the accessiblity and affordability of generative AI has inspired them to invest in their creative pursuits. Whatever your medium of choice is, AI or otherwise, explore HUG’s Open Calls to find your next opportunity.

Con: AI & Authorship

As AI technologies advance, concerns about their impact on artistic authorship and intellectual property rights continue to intensify. A significant worry is the potential for AI’s ability to mimic artistic styles to a degree that blurs the lines between original creations and replication. This raises questions about the authenticity and value of art produced by humans versus machines.

Additionally, there's a rising fear of AI being used to plagiarize or outright steal artists’ work, as algorithms can easily access and replicate vast amounts of existing content. This not only undermines artists’ livelihoods but also threatens the integrity of the creative process itself. As we navigate the integration of AI into the art world, safeguarding against these risks and preserving the rights of artists becomes paramount.

In response, programs have emerged to assist artists in protecting their art from being used in AI training data. Some generative AI platforms, such as Stability AI, have long granted users the autonomy to use their tools while opting out of having their art used for AI training.

Meanwhile, anti-AI theft tools such as Nightshade seek to corrupt AI models that attempt to train on uploaded artwork by making invisible changes to pixels.

Holly Herndon, Artist & Creative Technologist

💡 HUG Tip: We take inspiration from leading digital artists like Holly Herndon, who questions the notion of co-authorship with Holly +, the first tool of many to allow for others to make artwork with her voice, and distribute ownership of her digital likeness through the creation of the Holly+ DAO community.

Pro: AI as a Collaborator

What if you viewed AI not just as a tool, but also as a collaborator in the creative process? If we frame collaboration as a collision of ideas, new forms of creativity can emerge.

In a previous Innovation Laboratory course with Stability AI, filmmaker Dan Sickles shared this unique insight:

These tools are going to get better and better, which is great because that lowers the bar to entry, but that also means that like I have to I have to get on top of my imagination game, you know what I mean?

I come from a lineage of producers and directors where in order to consider a scene like that, you would need to consider the budget and what was truly necessary in the scene. Now, it doesn't take a whole studio with millions of dollars to create the colliseum full of aliens watching a fight - that's gonna be an easy build in 5 years.

For me as an artist, I need to be masterful at telling stories, and really distilling what is human about what I can contribute.

- Dan Sickles, creator of New Here

On the topic of AI film, OpenAI recently released Sora, a text-to-video AI model, which allows artists to actively imagine the possibilities of by turning their written ideas into animated works.

For instance, “air head” from the artist shy kids, realistically depicts a man with an air-filled balloon head. With these imaginative developments, you can quickly see why Tyler Perry stopped production on building an $800 Million Studio due to rising AI concerns and the risk of job displacement in the film sector.

No matter, this latest disruption in technology and the arts is going to be a wild ride.

💡 HUG Tip: Here are some questions to inspire you how to view AI as a collaborator.

• What insights can AI reveal about your creative process?

• How can AI analyze patterns and data to identify themes or emotions in your creative work?

• In what ways can AI inspire and spark new ideas for you?

Con: AI as Disruption

Disruption, viewed as a tool for innovation, fundamentally alters traditional modes of storytelling, image creation, and collaboration. At HUG, we do not view disruption as an inherently positive or negative force, but rather as a means of sparking innovation in direct response from an artist.

A century ago, the invention of the camera was the primary disruption that drove debate and discourse. Similar to the contemporary conversations on generative AI, many artists initially saw photography as a threat to their livelihood as it could accurately capture reality in a way that painting could not.

A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte by G

However, the onset of early photography’s capacity for realism invited other artists to explore new ways of depicting their new realities. Photography was first introduced to the world in the 1840s, with 1870 being the birth of the Impressionist art movement, which sought to capture the fleeting effects of light, color, and texture in ways that film photography of the era was unable to replicate.

Impressionism’s initial implementation to portray sensations rather than precise representation eventually paved the way for experimentation over tradition, inevitably inspiring more abstract art movements later in history.

In the way photography has become a notable medium of its own with art at large growing more diverse, one can only speculate how AI’s influence will continuously alter our perception and experience of what is and isn’t art.

💡 HUG Tip: How do you respond with your work in regards to Generative AI? 

Remember that a whole movement can be born out of a response. After growing frustrated with the rise of small gallery spaces in NYC, Donald Judd moved to Marfa, Texas to display his art on a grand scale unmediated by titles, bias, or relationshps. This established the once unknown town of Marfa into the art mecca it is today.

Donald Judd’s large-scale, minimalistic art in Marfa, Texas. Photo credit to the Judd Foundation.

What about your relationship with AI?

Now that you have explored both sides, where do you stand within this debate?

And most importantly, what kind of art will you create in response to this conversation? As we can see, the debate surrounding AI integration into the artistic sphere is multifaceted, with both challenges and opportunities on the horizon. At HUG, we encourage you to join in on the conversation and respond within your work. It is perhaps the most powerful to enact lasting change.

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📸 HUG 100 Photographers to Watch

We are thrilled to introduce our inaugural edition of 100 Photographers to Watch, which will spotlight exceptional photographers that are reimagining the world through the creativity of their lens.

Selected artists will be curated by internationally acclaimed National Geographic photographers, John Knopf & Michael Yamashita for publication in the upcoming art book and an immersive exhibit at Superlative Gallery in Bali, Indonesia.

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