Generating images from simple text prompts is no longer science fiction. An artificial intelligence software that uses machine learning algorithms and language processing models can take our words as inputs and turn them into original compositions. Firstly, it was Dall-E 2, a research project which only a few could access; that same technology is now available to virtually anyone. Indeed, other platforms have emerged in recent months, with similar functioning, thereby democratizing access to this technology. Midjourney, Stable Diffusion, and Pixelz.AI are among the most used.
Recent events revealed AI-generated artworks’ potential to disrupt the professional art scene. At the 2022 Colorado State Fair Annual Art Competition, Jason Allen (president of Incarnate Games Inc.) submitted three AI-generated pieces in the digital art category and took home the blue ribbon (first place), along with 300 dollars. Jason Allen used Midjourne (a text-to-image generator based on Discord) to generate the winning piece ‘Theatre d’Opera Spatial’, an image depicting women in victorian style robes and steampunk features.
Upon posting his victory on Twitter, Allen received significant backlash from artists and art enthusiasts. Some proclaimed the death of artistry and questioned Allen as an artist, others were outraged by how AI was actually ‘stealing’ images of other artists, and many requested Allen to return his award and apologize. While AI certainly did most of the work, AI is a tool just like a paintbrush: it needs a creative force and a mind behind it. Allen spent over 80 hours on the project; modifying the text prompts and ultimately choosing from over 900 iterations of the same image. Moreover, Allen did not hide the nature of his artwork; indeed, he signed his piece ‘Jason Allen via Midjourney’. Despite the jury admitting to not knowing what Midjourney was at the time, Allen’s entry did not break any rule (Midjourne is a digital technology after all) and the jury validated their decision.
Allen’s victory set the stage for a fierce debate on what constitutes art and who should be considered an artist: Should art contests allow AI-generated artworks? Should art contests create another category for AI-generated artworks? Is there actually a difference between using photoshop or other digital image-manipulation tools and AI? Does art need an artist, or does it simply need an author? Will AI-generated artworks make human art obsolete?
References
Roose, K. (2022) An A.I.-Generated Picture Won an Art Prize. Artists Aren’t Happy. Available at: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/02/technology/ai-artificial-intelligence-artists.html
Giovinazzo E. (2022) Un’opera creata da intelligenza artificiale ha vinto un concorso d’arte. Ma per molti è un imbroglio Avialable at: https://video.repubblica.it/tecnologia/dossier/intelligenza-artificiale/un-opera-creata-da-intelligenza-artificiale-ha-vinto-un-concorso-d-arte-ma-per-molti-e-un-imbroglio/424813/425767
Such an interesting topic Gabriele, thank you for this contribution! I am quite fascinated by how AI is posing a potential disruption in the artistic community. In fact, I had this idea in mind for one of my blog posts, but you did a great job in illustrating the current dilemma of Art and AI. I was firstly astonished by the potential of these text-to-image tools when I tried the publicly avaliable DALL-E image generation software a few months ago. My first thoughts after discovering the surprinsingly accurate results of the software were concerning, as I imagined how disturbed artists would be after this functionality became so widespread. Then I realized about the potentially benefitial features that such tool could have in aiding artists’ work, as you mentioned in your post. This is definitely a hot discussion topic that will last for a while. Do you think this is indeed a risk or an opportunity for artists and graphic designers? I am also quite intrigued of how this technology will develop in the near future and whether AI will eventually develop a certain degree of human creativity to some extent. That could really be detrimental for human artwork.
I strongly believe this to be an opportunity. At the end of the day, AI is a tool just like a paintbrush. Just like photography in the past, controversy arising in the technology’s first stages is not something new. However, I believe that, just like digital artworks, a new category should be created if AI generated pieces want to enter art contests.