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#066: The AI Debate Dividing Artists

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has increasingly dominated conversations across every industry. While there’s no denying that there is excitement at how this technology can revolutionize our lives, it’s not without controversy.

On one end, the accessibility of AI has empowered a new audience to get creative through the power of generative art. On the other, many artists feel threatened by its rapid emergence, claiming that AI is unethical and constitutes theft.

A little over a week ago, these two opposing communities came to a clash across social media, as one creator for AI and another against it disagreed on the answer to a simple question:

What is real art?

Let’s talk about it, and what it means for you.

Here for the drama? Here’s how it started.

On May 31st, Petra Voice posted a recurrent meme on her X account, one that is often seen across socials for predominantly visual creators: Art vs Artist.

Typically, this meme format is a simple way for artists to showcase their talents alongside some light personal branding. This post however elicited an unexpected but not unusual response.

One of Petra’s followers, Caitlin Koi, had long been an admirer of Petra’s art but didn’t realize until recently that these were created with AI. Caitlin felt deceived. “This AI tricked me,” she stated, implying that what is perceivably AI art is growing harder to determine.

In the era of algorithms, it’s critical to remember that social media doesn’t really care about you or your art, it cares about engagement.

A lot of people vocally agreed with Caitlin, while many openly defended Petra. All of them argued on the definition of '“real art”… that’s exactly why this conversation went viral to the tune of 23 million impressions on Petra’s original art vs. artist tweet alone.

Who are these artists?

Petra Voice is a classically trained artist based in Thailand who practices primarily in digital and generative art mediums. She’s never shied away from her enthusiasm for AI and how it empowers her to use her skillset to make art better, faster, and in much greater volumes to expand both her audience and recognition of her work.

It’s worked, even our curators HUG had taken notice. This past December, Petra’s was curated as a resident for our Visionary Artist Grant, our most competitive open call which awards financial support and spotlights an emerging artist we believe are on the brink of discovery.

We’re not surprised to see she’s set a strong impression.

Our curators are very happy to see that this recent conversation has led many more people to discover Petra’s art, that doesn’t mean that criticism on AI isn’t unwarranted.

This brings us to Petra’s lead critic, Caitlin Koi.

On her socials, Caitlin has shared that she’s had a lifelong love of art and dabbled in many styles since her time at art school. Her accounts reveal experience in both traditional and digital illustration, with Caitlin applying her talents to diverse array of figurative studies, character design, and graphic logo design.

It is clear that Caitlin is a skilled creator. Like many artists, Caitlin looks to the world around her to both inform, educate, and inspire her. Her response to Petra’s AI Art wasn’t too far off from how she’s historically and publicly practiced her craft.

In fact, like a digital tracing study she did of real life blueberries, Caitlin directly took to the Petra’s art and traced it to cultivate her skills and in her words reclaim the AI art she considered stolen.

Additionally, Caitlin used AI tools to guide her digital illustration, clarifying she isn’t against AI entirely, but only against generative AI and its origins in art theft and shortcut to creativity.

How did people respond?

The best way to describe the response to everyone involved regardless of their perspective on AI was emotionally charged, hence the virality.

Thousands agreed with Caitlin as she channeled her frustration at Petra and moreso, the rising threat that generative AI poses to creatives. The vast majority of AI that the public is most familiar are open source large language models like Chat-GPT, and to be open source means it trains on a wide array of data making it difficult to determine where that data comes from.

Petra’s original tweet triggered a retaliatory meme of “Actual art vs Actual artist”, allowing thousands to showcase being against AI was a part of their personal brand.

However, thousands also rallied to defend Petra as the AI Artist held her ground and defended her love of this collaborative technology.

Generative AI is rapidly evolving, and even the biggest champions of AI can struggle to keep up. This leaves the general public at a disadvantage and provides an oppportunity for misinformation on how AI actually works to spread.

Perhaps one of the most famous AI Artist in the world, Claire Silver, even stepped up to express that the crticism on Petra was unfair. As Claire states, AI is not theft, but influence. It doesn’t steal or smash other people’s art together, instead taking what it’s learned and imagining something new just like people do.

…so who won the fight? 👀

That’s what is most fascinating about this argument:

Everybody won.

Both of Petra Voice and Caitlin Koi saw an exponentional increase in engagement, followers, support, and even sales as their back and forth with eachother put their art in front of longstanding fans and new faces alike.

Petra’s previously minted works began trading on the blockchain almost immediately, with her even launching BABES, a new collection in partnership with Foundation.

Caitlin Koi also benefited, as she opened a waitlist for commissions and promptly had to close it due to high demand.

Two very different communities, however much they disagreed with their opponent on AI, found solidarity and connection with those who shared their values.

The debate propelled conversations about how the technology works, art history, and even kicked off new trends as artists shared their interpretations of Petra & Caitlin’s art across socials. Audiences sought to learn something new either in support or in spite of AI, but no matter what, because of AI.

Okay, but what’s the real problem here?

The drama and discourse surrounding AI isn't actually about being for or against the technology itself. The real argument centers on ownership and the ethics of who is entitled to the content we create.

It's not the fault of AI-collaborative artists that open model AI makes it difficult to determine how, where, and from whom data for training was sourced. These artists are not engaging with AI to steal but to be creative, experiment, and explore a new and emerging art form.

However, the ethical concerns regarding data training for AI are valid. Artists have every right to be concerned that their previously shared artwork, which they invested time and energy into creating, is being used to train AI models. They are justified in criticizing platforms like X, Meta, Reddit, and others for leveraging their personal art without clear consent, especially when opting out can be challenging.

Ethical reform in AI is urgently needed so that all artists, regardless of their medium, can transparently share their crafts and connect with their audiences on their terms, without the risk of their art being used in ways they never transparently consented to.

What this means for you and your content.

AI is here to stay, it’s up to you what you do next.

OpenAI and Meta lead the news cycles as both vie for the prize of who will win the race towards mass adoption.

Yesterday, Apple’s announced their plans to build Apple Intelligence into future iOS devices to help you write, express yourself, and get things done effortlessly. What does this mean for artists who are against AI, especially given how many prefer the iOS-exclusive app Procreate?

Love it or hate it, AI is challenging how people create, experience, define, and share their art with the world. It’s important you inform yourself on how AI works so you can navigate on what your relationship with AI will be, especially as the lines between what is and isn’t AI continue to blur and it becomes a bigger part of our daily lives.

Artist Grants and Opportunities

• ✨ Go Big with Immersive Art in Taipei: Go from the small screen to the global stage with a larger-than-life public media installation in Taiwan.

• 🇯🇵 Take Your Art to Tokyo: Display your art at the National Art Center Tokyo with Muse Hive for the upcoming DCentral Tokyo 2024 Event.

• 🖼️ Exhibit Your AI Art in a Gallery: Colonna Contemporary is seeking AI-collaborative artists to display in their physical and virtual gallery space.

• 🌷 Share Art with Impact: Flower Power is curating Adaptive Artists creating art on causes of their choice in social and environmental justice.

• 👾 Showcase your art to thousands in the heart of Vegas: JRNY Gallery is seeking art on the theme of Pixelated Perfection for their monthly First Friday exhibition.

• 💰 HUG is giving away $12,000 USD annually in artist grants in support of emerging artists.

This Week’s Art Drops

Did you know that these are just 8 of hundreds of art drops on HUG? Get a full list of this week’s art drops from HUG here.