AI has already wreaked havoc on many industries, and the art world is no exception. Artists are both excited and worried about the effect that art AI could have on their careers. It’s not just that they fear losing their jobs to robots; it’s also the possibility that the rise of AI in the field could make it harder for them to sell their work.
The good news for artists is that the educated public seems to have a more balanced view of the topic. They think that art AI is an advancement, but it won’t replace human workers on the same scale as some other types of AI. They also think that collaboration between humans and AI is more plausible than AI replacing a section of the workforce entirely.
For example, the art-generating programs DALL*E 2, Midjourney, and Imagen all have different levels of quality, but they all do something similar: they take a text prompt and create an image that matches it. Using the power of machine learning, they’re able to differentiate between dogs and cats, Vermeers and Picassos, and so on.
But while they can do this, they still lack the depth and complexity that characterizes art. Art is a dynamic form of expression that reflects the zeitgeist, and AI models can’t yet replicate or capture these changes in the way that humans do. They also can’t grasp the deeper meaning and personal narratives that often characterize art, or the ways in which it resonates with individuals.
Despite these limitations, it’s important to note that the people angry about art AI aren’t against the use of AI in general; they’re against these specific tools that generate imagery from a prompt. They don’t want anyone to be able to “do art” by feeding a sentence into an AI program, or to create a fake painting from their own photos. They’re angry about the commodification of their work and the loss of control over how their creations are used.
This sentiment might seem alarmist, but the truth is that there’s already plenty of commodification in the arts. The same kinds of skills that were once exclusive to the elite are now available to everyone thanks to technology, which can democratize everything from literacy and education to healthcare and clean water. And while there are some who support limiting the rapid development of disruptive technology, most people believe that progress eventually reaches all areas of society.
For these reasons, there’s little reason to believe that the rise of furry art AI will significantly change the job outlook for human artists any more than the widespread adoption of computers has changed the job outlook for computer programmers. And in fact, the current art world may benefit from a more democratization of its output: high-end galleries and museums are increasingly focusing on the digital realm, and international biennales are expanding beyond Venice, Miami, and Basel to cities around the globe. This will further democratize the global market and provide an opportunity for new artists to thrive.