AI-Generated Art: Tool or Threat?
By Ataene Dienye
October 15, 2023
A.I generated art is easy to use and hard to authenticate and this is generating a lot of debate among artists, online and on the strike lines, who question whether A.I-generated art is truly art and whether it is a tool they should embrace or fear.
A.I software is capable of sourcing images online and uses an algorithm and a set of pre-existing specifications to deliver what the user has requested. It is not “inspired” by these images, but rather remixes them.
“It doesn’t have those skills, it’s referencing and digesting previous imagery,” says Kevin Mazutinec, a professor and technician in the Art and Design department at Vancouver Island University (VIU).
“I’m not really that interested in the art that A.I would produce as an end product because it’s a machine that can do anything, so big deal. I am more interested in the ideas it can produce, that can inform artists,” says Chai Duncan, VIEW Gallery Curator and professor in the Visual Arts department in VIU.
Both Duncan and Mazutinec are amazed by what A.I technology is capable of, but they believe that the process and the individual artist is more important and a machine will never replace that.
For VIU Visual Art student Enigye “Happy” Amarkah, expressing oneself isn’t about being limited to one particular medium so he sees this technology is an asset for artists.
“I don’t like to specify my style because sometimes when you want to express yourself, it’s going to work better as a sculpture, or it’s going to be a good photograph, or it will be a painting, so I don’t like to focus on just one aspect,” said Amarkah in a 2021 interview with VIU.
His work was part of an interactive art exhibit at RockVIU, a student orientation event prior to term starting. The interactive art exhibit included visual art and dance performances and Amarkah’s painting on racial and cultural diversity, sculptures on unity, and a light display in the theatre in which the audience inside the work become part of the exhibit.
Amarkah says art has to have meaning so he chose a 3D medium like a sculpture to explore mental slavery. “It’s not just random, it’s how I feel when I’m going to start the work,” Amarkah said in the interview.
“The lack of knowledge about how to use A.I to your benefit is what is going to make you lose your job,” says Amarkah today. He sees A.I as something to enhance an artist’s craft.
However, many artists worry they will lose sales, jobs, and income to this technology in the short and perhaps long term. This is one of the primary issues in the American actors’ union SAG-AFTRA strike against the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers. The 2023 Writers Guild of America strike has similar concerns.
Though the debate is far from over and new advancements in technology in the field of A.I. arise all the time, many artists will need to investigate it and keep current as it evolves, adjusting or maintaining their ethical position as new information arises.
