An Open Letter to the Users of AI Generated Art

My knee-jerk reaction when AI art generators started appearing was one of excitement. And for the most part, that still remains true. I love new tech. And anything that can help me create new and interesting things has to be good. Right? RIGHT?!

I first started to dabble with AI in my workflow when Adobe began integrating it into their software. It allowed me to mask a subject from its background in seconds, expand the width of a landscape in a couple of clicks and improve to resolution of some very questionable images. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy mindlessly dragging the pen tool around the intricate hydraulic systems of a huge agricultural vehicle as much as the next guy. But AI has reduced such a tedious task to a tiny handful of seconds. In this scenario, it has my infinite gratitude.

But then came the next phase. The Prompt Phase.

"Breakfast burger on a brioche bun"

"Incredibly powerful Anime Girl,?Movie poster style,?box office hit,?a masterpiece of storytelling, highly detailed. 8k"

"3d cartoon beautiful smile"

Yeah, that last one looks like it's placed this poor Dad and his kids inside a urinal. I have no idea why either ??

A little over a year ago, the thought of typing any of the statements above and getting these kinds of images in return was inconceivable. But here we are.

So what will we be looking at this time next year?

• Full novels?
• Songs and albums?
• Entire movies?

Your guess is as good as mine but I don't think anything is off the table at this point.?

So where does this leave all of us who have the word "creative" in our job title?

If you view all of this newfangled jiggery-pokery favourably, you'll be thinking:

• Awesome, I get to create more things, faster.
• I can service my clients and/or boss way more efficiently.
• I can create quick variations of initial concepts at lightning speed, allowing me?more time to work on the final piece.
• This will speed up my workflow massively so I can earn more money.
• Great, this is the ultimate cheat code. I don't need to waste time learning anatomy or colour theory.
• Amazing, I now have my own personal reference image gallery to ignite my inspiration.
• Goodbye stock photo websites, it was nice knowing you.

But if your view is peppered with a healthy dose of trepidation, you'll be thinking:

• This is not art.
• This is not creativity.
• These models have not been trained ethically. I can't support that.
• This will put highly skilled people out of work.
• If all we need to do to create beautiful things, is type a short sentence. Why don't we all just pack up and go home?
• If we can create realistic photos of anything we can imagine, this technology can be used to negatively influence public opinion and misinformation.

No matter where you fall on any of the points I've listed above, you're right. Your opinion will fall based on your own experience and which side of the argument effects you most. As with most things in life.?

You have to decide whether or not to embrace this new technology or to run screaming at it with pitchforks.

As for me, I’ll be using it. Adobe’s new Firefly version is being trained on its own Adobe Stock images so there is no shady theft going on… as far as we know. And we should have the ability to detect if a piece of creative has been generated by AI at some point in the not-so-distant future (ironically, this detection software will also be an AI).

As long as AI is being used as another creative tool, I will fully embrace it. I’ll use it for inspiration, I’ll gather reference images from it, I’ll use it to create new colour palettes or nab different parts of an image to start making my own composites.?

But, I do have one pretty big problem with it. I’m worried that it will completely destroy our love affair with art.

Try this wee analogy on for size:

You love dogs so you get yourself a cute little puppy (if you don’t like dogs, replace it with another animal you weirdo). You spend time training it, giving it cuddles, taking it on walks and sniffing it randomly because it smells amazing! You start to notice how it begins to look at you differently. It’s a mixture of unconditional love and unflappable respect that melts the essence of your very soul. It’s magical. You’ve found your best friend in the entire world and its happiness means more to you now than almost anything else.

Now let’s imagine that instead of one puppy in your home, you have 3,000. Everything you own has either been chewed, scratched or shat on. You can’t so much as go to the toilet without falling into a sea of fur and glass shattering howls. It’s costing you ￡4,740 a day to feed them all and ￡432,000 a year for pet insurance. You take them out for walks in groups of 10 (because that’s just about manageable) so now you have to squeeze in 300 walks a day. You can’t remember any of their names and none of them care if you live or die. Your boss has fired you because you can no longer focus on your work and your partner has ran away with their Swedish fitness instructor. Your life is an endless, unrelenting hellscape.?

That’s a very long-winded way of saying - the more we have of something, the less likely we are to value it.

With the democratisation of art, comes over-production. With over-production, comes apathy. Art will become a true commodity and we will feel nothing when we see it.

I’ve heard people argue that art has been a commodity for a long time. After all, if an artist wants to be commercially successful, they can create a piece and replicate it thousands of times to sell multiple prints. Not quite the same thing though is it? Would you place more value on the artist who is creating one piece per month and selling 1,000 prints of each or the artist creating 1,000 different pieces per month and selling 1,000 prints of each?

Static visual art will be the obvious first casualty for this feeling of mass indifference because it asks very little of its audience. “Just look at me for a couple of seconds” it asks humbly. And sometimes we oblige. If it resonates with us on aesthetics or story-telling, we’ll nod in quiet approval. Maybe we’ll even tap a ‘like’ button or part with some of our hard-earned cash to buy a copy of it. That rare feeling of resonance will begin to dwindle out of existence the more and more images we have thrust upon us on a daily basis.

That is my concern. Not with the technology, but with how we will overuse it.

So my friends, my open letter to the users of such technology is this:

Now listen here, my weary friend,

I know the urge is strong, the trend,

To create a picture, with a written line,

And share it for likes, wouldn’t that be fine?

But let's be real, we all can do that,

A picture shared, an idea’s been shat,

So why not ask yourself this thought,

What else can be done, what else can be brought?

How 'bout combining the image with a tool,

Or merging with something, elevating its cool,

Creating a story that's all your own,

Something unique that cannot be cloned.

Now we all know how to Google a query,

Getting results, researching theories,

But it's not just the result that counts,

It's what you do with it that surmounts.

So do us a favour, dear reader of mine,

Don't be a 'prompt junkie' all of the time,

Turn your imagination into something more,

Meaningful, creative, we all can adore.

Think back to the moments of meaning so rare,

Inspired by art, that made us all care,

The first song you heard that made you cry,

That movie where the dude turned into a Fly.

If all of this became meaningless, oh my,

What would be left, but a groan or a sigh?

So put some effort in, my friend,

And don't post crap for the sake of a trend.

I know you're better than that, it's true,

So unleash your creative and make something new,

Who the hell knows, with some hard work and luck,

Your image might leave your viewer thunderstruck.

[AC/DC begin to play… Dave walks off stage]