Midjourney is a tool to create AI-generated photos. These images are getting more and more realistic and are generated in seconds. Midjourney is trained with images ranging from normal dog and human pictures to high-end art from the Mona Lisa and Vincent van Gogh. The tool can now generate any image in any style you would want or could dream of. Every year, a lot of images are sold online and offline, like postcards, posters, and other art works. There are a lot of creative people who earn their money by creating this art.
A few months ago, I tried to create some images, and I was amazed at how good the results were. If we are at the beginning of this AI revelation, this will only get better with time (a few images I created are visible at the top of this blog). The image on the right that I created with midjourney is in the style of an artist called Kim Jung Gi. This image was created in seconds and looks a lot like the style from Kim Jung Gi this can be done with any style from any artist. The image that I created are not yet super good, but there are some images created by other people that are hard to distinguish from real ones. This will only get better over time, and this raises the question of copyrights and if tools like Midjourney are allowed to train their models with the artwork of other people.
On the other hand, if these images are created so easily, they will not be perceived as of high value because anyone can create them in seconds. This might create a divide in the market for art that is created by humans and AI. Just like we have now, if you buy a copy of the Mona Lisa, you do not have to pay much or anything if you find a copy online. But if you want to buy the real Mona Lisa, you would have to be a billionaire to comfortably be able to afford such art. So, the market will adapt and probably only view real art that is made by humans as of high value.
So, should we not use Midjourney at all because there are issues with copyrights? Probably not. There are measures to see if art is really made by someone or if it is fake. Tools like Midjourney also bring a lot of positives into the world, such as inspiration for new art, and regular people might enjoy making art for personal use. Lastly, we could use it to make stunning new art that is not possible to make by humans. The creative industry will have a chance, and there will be a divide between human art and AI art, but this will certainly not mean the end of human art, probably the opposite.
