Ai Art Generators: A risk to creativity?

Write and you will be called an artist.

Art is a fundamentally human expression, until now. In 2022 any user of the internet can write random words and thanks to a system trained through large databases of existing art or indexed web images, create art never seen before.

This new era of art is possible thanks to the Open AI company, which in 2021 presented DALL-E: the first generator of images through text. In April 2022, its successor DALL-E 2 would see the light under a commercial model. This platform can generate photographs, illustrations, and paintings that appear to have been created by human hands. Its creator (Open AI) restricts access to the platform through word filters, which are not yet very efficient.

Midjourney is another example of an image generator program capable of producing artistic images on demand. This is through millions of images indexed on the web. After multiple tests, the platform can make any combination of objects, scenes, and even reproduce art styles in the history.

Google has its own generator called Imagen, currently off limits to the common public, while Stable Diffusion is an open-source platform, which anyone with a computer and some technical knowledge can use. This model was launched in august 2022, and unlike the other platforms, it has keyword filters and stops users from using political content or violent images.

Some of the disadvantages of this technology point to the reproduction of racial or gender prejudices.?DALL-E 2 tends to generate images of white men by default, sexualizes images of women, and reinforces racial stereotypes. While on the other hand, it can make it easy to develop or visualize ideas in a matter of minutes and make use of any art style in the history. Imagine, for example, how simple it would be to create an image with the same graphic style of impressionism or use a work by Salvador Dalí as a reference for the creation of a poster, or even the construction of universes that support a totally fantastic or utopian narrative.

The question is constant. Is AI the answer to the natural evolution of creative direction in agencies and in the advertising industry? At RN Motion, we believe that not necessarily. Although its nature rests on the creation of unpublished images. It must be considered that it is born from a human being, so it is more of a tool than an artist in itself.

At a time when the interaction between the digital and physical worlds is becoming more and more common, and where new possibilities are being discovered, images generated through AI can become a great complement to the visualization of artistic ideas. We are facing the new camera, the new digital pencil, the new smartphone. Like its predecessors, it depends entirely on the mind behind the machine: the human being.

Perhaps in a couple of decades the evolution of this tool will lead us to question its purpose in the artistic world once again. As long as creativity and the generation of ideas come from the human being, the creative directors and designers of the world are safe.