How are all of you staying creative with the looming threat of AI?

kirsten-mcg

The past couple of months has been an emotional roller coaster for me, as it seems every way I turn in the art world, AI art is being discussed and debated. As the art has rapidly advanced from laughable to scary good in just a matter of months, I've been struggling to keep my chin up and keep creating. I can't help but wonder who's going to want my art, when AI can create images that are so much cooler than mine. I feel like what the general public likes and wants is really just pretty pictures for cheap.

Seeing AI generated picture books recently has been an extra hard blow. Yes, they're terrible right now, but what if they don't stay that way? Creating books has been my lifelong dream, and lately I'm feeling like that dream is being ripped away from me.

I've felt do depressed for the last few days that every time I sit down to draw I almost start crying. I love this so much, and the fact that it can be automated now is so hard to handle. People talk about how factory workers were replaced by machines, and how their lives were eventually better for it, but this feels different. This is something I truly love and that I actually like working hard for. I don't want to create art by typing prompts into a screen! I want to use my own hands and mind to create!

Are any of you going through this too? How are you managing to keep creating and working to perfect your craft, given all of the above?

ArtistErin

@kirsten-mcg Oh my goodness Kirsten I wish I could talk to you and tell you how much I want to encourage and support and wish the anxiety away. I have to say this to you and everyone reading here, most importantly, to remember who you are.

Remembering who we are has to be paramount, because who we are in the moment, in our own shoes, is beautiful, always becoming, and cannot be replicated. We are creation in its most beautiful form, and no one, no-THING can replace us. We came to this world to create. And from that standpoint, we are always in a place of peace, and knowing, like that of a child that doesn't doubt or worry. This is the state of being I aim for as much as I can... some days are better than others, yet with practice and focus I getting so much better at this.

That said, what we give our attention to can dilute this knowing. I have noticed when my thoughts drift over into the weeds so to speak, I feel worse and worse. Fairly recently I was about to give up and didn't think I put pull myself out of it. AI wasn't the cause; it was my attention to that and other things that pulled me down.

Why does this seem to happen? And why does this pervade the art community? I realized it's momentum, it's practiced thought. We are so connected to this stream of creativity we feel horrible when we are not in the flow of it. So, I have made a conscious effort to give my attention to the thoughts and subjects I feel good about, and naturally this is the space in which I love to draw. As a child, this is where I was inspired and I make that my focus no matter what is going on around me. If I don't want to draw I know I need to check in with myself and edit out the often repetitive, disempowering thoughts.

As an aspiring illustrator, I have to say I appreciate how precious we are as individuals, unique in our own representations of the love of our craft. The incredible talent so many have. I love this forum! And learning so much about how we are each trying every day no matter what is going on, to be the best we can. How we are always growing, and shaping our vision. It's beyond incredible to me that we get to be artists, and AI doesn't even come close. NOT EVEN CLOSE.

So, may this be of help to you, I'm talking to myself here too. Chin up. You seriously are one of my favorite creators, not just in art but as a person

NessIllustration

@kirsten-mcg I've done a lot of research on AI recently for a future video, and it has actually reassured me a lot. What AI can do is not specific enough. It's good mostly at landscapes or portraits. If someone tried to create picture book illustrations with it, it would struggle to put in multiple actions, specific angles, expressing specific emotions and especially keeping the characters consistent from one page to the next.

People who may end up using AI a lot would be those who don't have much budget or discerning taste: maybe garage bands for their album cover, self-published authors, people who want to flood Etsy with quick art prints, etc. A lot of small time art gigs may disappear. But corporate clients would not settle for that, for the lack of quality, for the lack of flexibility.

Imagine you're an AI bro and you make a piece for a gig and they tell you "That's great but can you move the character to the left, add a hot air balloon to the background and change hair color to blonde?" The AI bro would be like "UHHHH.... I can't actually". Corporate clients would laugh them out of the market.

As professional artists if we keep producing the highest quality and aiming for very serious company clients (as we should be doing anyway), we will be fine

Plus, I really believe at some point soon, the system will catch up and establish legislation to help with the legal and ethical issues of AI. Already, the US copyright office has refused to grant copyrights to AI works because it says the work needs a part of "human authorship" to be copyrighted. I don't believe corporate clients would want to be within 100 miles of such dubious copyright provenance.

AI music actually exists too, but was created 100% form copyright free and public domain sources in order to not get sued to hell and back. I believe AI art will soon take that route too.

ArtistErin

@NessIllustration Yes! Well said @NessIllustration For sure... it does take a trained and skilled, human eye to "feel" the emotion and unique quality only an artist can deliver.

In fact what I love about the last All Stars Critique Arena and his purposeful going back into a piece to purposely mess up inspired me, in finding that cool texture just lights me up. I love that stuff so much. the beauty of human creation is unmatched.

ArtMelC

@kirsten-mcg speaking as a parent and avid picture book buyer, I won't be buying AI-created books at any time no matter how "good" they are. It goes back to the WHY- we want our kids to read to understand humanity and empathy which comes through the text and images made by human artists.

AI has no empathy and has no "WHY" for making those text and images other than the fact that someone prompted it so, and it did not make any artistic decision, just probabilistic ones. It would make a very shallow and pointless reading in my opinion, which is not what I want for myself or my kids. It is sad though that likely the market will be flooded with low quality AI stuff, but discerning parents and clients will continue to exist through time.

K.Flagg

@NessIllustration not to be a downer but yes, AI is not able to create picture books ...today, but tomorrow it will. It is in its early stages. There are already story Ai programs. You can give it prompts and it creates a coherent story, so how long until it can come with a story and sequential images to go with it? I agree that the best way to deal with it is make the best art you can. I still believe that the jobs Ai will take from the art community will be the bottom level jobs, not the ones with high standards.
However something I find uplifting in all of this bleek information about Ai is how much the art community has come together to oppose it. There are now things in motion because of that to stop the unauthorized use of our work. Holding the companies and users accountable for art theft is step 1.
It's important that we as artists pay attention to where we upload our art from now on as well. Until there is regulation and companies can't sell our images without our permission.

Personally for me it is important to remind myself, I never started making art for the money, I do it because I love it. So I know I will always be making art, no matter what, and I hope you all will too.

kirsten-mcg

@ArtistErin thank you so much for this Erin! Your support and encouragement mean so much to me. You’re right, choosing what to give our thoughts and attention to is so important. I realized after I posted this how much I have been in a bad place, trying to learn all I could about AI. (I’m the kind of person who likes to know her “enemy”) But it’s really put me in a bad place emotionally. I wish that more people understood what it is to be human like you do! Who knows, maybe more people will come to realize how precious individual, human creativity is through all the stir that AI is making. I certainly hope so. I’m sending you a big thank you hug!

@NessIllustration i hope you are right and that soon the legal side of things will catch up soon! I’m aware of the music AI, and it’s infuriating. The current AI art systems need to restricted to being purely for personal creation, because they are all created from a database that contains copyrighted material… and once trained they don’t “forget.”

@ArtMelC i hope there are lots more patents out there just like you! I know I’m that way, and that’s part of what has me so worried. I don’t want to live in a world where creativity has been turned over to computers.

@K-Flagg not being in art for the money is what I’ve been trying to remind myself of today! I know I won’t ever stop creating. It’s just that when I’ve put so much effort into working toward making it a career it’s very discouraging to see people who literally have no idea how art is made turning out these images effortlessly.

danielerossi

The way I see it, at the very least, AI generating art can never, ever and will never, ever take away anybody’s love and interest in creating non-AI art of their own with their own hands.

AI will never, ever have the ability to replace the therapeutic act of drawing a picture. The feel of the paper, holding the pencil/crayon/brush/etc. in your hand, the eraser shavings, etc. “I drew this with my hand and skill!”. Ok, maybe creating some sort of art from typing in keywords can create a level of therapeutic satisfaction in the AI artist but I doubt it can compare with a sketchbook and analogue.

We were made to build things with our hands.

When I bought the Apple Pencil a few years ago, I vowed I’d never allow drawing apps to replace traditional tools. But I ended up doing so. Now I find myself missing and yearning to draw traditionally again. I may have even forgotten how to draw with a brush. When I sketch traditionally, I automatically reach for the undo button…

I think the same thing will happen. People in general will still want human created art. Some will like AI art just like how some people are fine with downloading screechy mp3s or movies filmed with a video camera inside a movie theatre.

People who want to buy AI generated art will not be our customers. People who want to buy human made art will.

On the other hand, yeah, time will tell what the future will be like once AI takes over EVERYTHING in our lives.

If Etsy gets flooded with AI generated art, I’m sure someone will create a storefront that is only for human generated art (if they can figure out how to verify!).

All the above is just me thinking out loud.

MarcRobinson

I've also been stressing over this for a couple of weeks now, and I can totally relate to the way you feel. I've not been able to draw anything for about 5 days. It seems to me that the overwhelming majority of illustrators are in for a very hard time. The way this technology is going means that soon we will see high quality and completely customisable artwork created instantly and for free. Any technical limitations in what it can do now are almost certainly going to be fixed a lot sooner than we think. I can see myself saying in 5 years time "Do you remember when people used to say AI will never be able to do X? If only they could see the hellscape we live in now!"

I guess no one can predict exactly how this is all going to pan out, but I've got a very bad feeling about this.

Anything even remotely resembling "commercial" art, like editorial stuff, logo design, surface design, patterns, logos is going to be almost exclusively done by Ai in the next couple of years, with the more narrative stuff taken over soon after.
This is going to soak up all of the low to medium level art jobs. There will only be a tiny sliver of super high level artisan work left for humans to do. I REALLY hope I'm wrong, but it feels like the difference between mass produced flat-packed furniture, and beautiful hand made stuff. Nearly everyone buys the cheaper version. But in this world, the cheap furniture is now completely free.

I also don't think there is anything to be done to stop it. These desperate attempts at trying to legislate against it seem futile. Like trying to stop the sinking of the Titanic by plugging the hole with wet toilet paper. Maybe the upside will be that beautiful hand-made artwork and products will go massively up in value, but it'll have to be really stunning for people to pay the premium. Maybe it's time for most artists to revert back to a fine art model, and sell beautiful hand made originals.

Like all you guys, I make art because I love it and never plan to stop, but it seems the prospect of making a good/consistent living from it just got WAY harder. Our share of the market has just shrank to a fraction of what it was.
It's complete and total pants.

But as we head full steam towards this dystopian nightmare, we must still create for our own sake, and to share with creative souls like the people in this community. It'll be harder to make a living, but the emotional value our artwork has to our fellow humans has become greater.

ArtistErin

@kirsten-mcg @kirsten-mcg You're welcome I have traveled a long and windy road emotionally in my life, coming to new conclusions and connecting thought patterns to how I feel and then following that thread to what shows up. There will always be things that will shake up, because this is life, however I've learned to ride the wave better and not get tumbled by it!! I've been told I have my head in the sand, my boyfriend finds it funny that I don't watch the news. I'd rather foster a feeling of well-being, and let that be dominant!

I love the unfolding of this conversation you have started here, look at the unique perspectives! @ArtMelC I love the fact you're teaching your children using beautiful picture books, this WHY is the essence of my path as an illustrator... drawing for the kids.

@danielerossi I've been drawing digitally mostly the last 30+ years for client projects, and recently, I have noticed I'm missing the feel of pencils on paper, and that hunger for the tactile experience is primal. I have discovered in observing human nature, there's a special space where children go when you hand them paper and crayons, a world opens in their imagination. We are the same, only grown up and wiser in our own understanding of the world around us....

@K-Flagg Now all we can do is adapt and protect that space within. Our minds can go in all sorts of directions, and yes there will always be that section of the market that will pay nothing for something. You know what I say to those that are in that group, go for it! Free AI art serves a purpose there.

@MarcRobinson The purpose of creating, it is like a bird calling and calling her baby, incessant and relentless. I can't not draw, not ever. I would do this if I never made any money at it. And I know there are many, like us, that love natural, organic, inspired and connected. They love our processes and mindset, how we arrived to that illustration or whatever we create. These are the clients I want! The ones that are willing to collaborate, a co-creative rendevous, the fun along the way. These are those who have the funds set aside for creators, not cheap renditions...

If I see my art show up on some AI generated whatever I will speak up! Just like the many I am noticing pop up, saying this is not ok! Of course. Don't get mowed down yet it doesn't have to suck the life out of us, or make us fearful... Adapt, pivot, find solutions. Know who you are and stand in your own feet because only we can be ourselves right?

This could be how the market will drive artists to fine tune their craft. Get REALLY good at being you. Don't worry about things you cannot control, and stay the course. Funny how this ride feels a bit like being in a round about? You come back to where you started but we're so much better and hopefully wiser...

NessIllustration

@K-Flagg So far, editors and art directors are agreeing with us:

NessIllustration

@MarcRobinson I simply do not agree. I think low-level gigs and personal projects will be taken over my AI. Not the majority of commercial art gigs. The copyright and ethical issues are too big of a wall for companies to overcome, unless legislation side with AI which I'm not sure at all that's the way the wind is blowing.

Right now it's scary because the AI world is unregulated and it's the wild west out there. But it will not be like that forever. Legislation will come. The FTC has already begun algorithmic destruction for datasets obtained in a way deemed illegal.

ArtistErin

@NessIllustration Yayyyyy humans prevail Thank you @NessIllustration I love your in depth research. THANK YOU!!!

MarcRobinson

@NessIllustration you know I hope you're right, I really do.

MarcRobinson

@ArtistErin I love the passionate and human way you think about what we do. I live in hope.

ArtistErin

@MarcRobinson It feels better to stay in hope and trusting that.

davidhohn

@kirsten-mcg Glad to see this discussion happening here!

I've gone pretty far down this rabbit hole and would like to offer some additional data points:

The US Copyright office granted copyright protection to an Ai generated comic book images in September 2022. Copyright office revoked that protection in Nov.
Midjourney Ai (the program/company used) has offered to help in the appeal.
https://aibusiness.com/ml/ai-generated-comic-book-loses-copyright-protection

Adobe has signaled that it is supporting Ai images/content.

My takeaway: There is serious money and significant corporate influence getting behind making Ai images, Ai stories, etc. "the norm".

Tor Books used a stock illustration Ai image as a book cover -- got caught -- and is now trying to pretend they didn't know it was an Ai image.
https://gizmodo.com/tor-book-ai-art-cover-christopher-paolini-fractalverse-1849904058

My takeaway:
I don't believe Tor was unaware that they had an Ai image. You can see from a comparison of the two images that at some point a Tor in-house designer added the spaceman's second leg (the one that was missing from the Ai image)
No, Tor knows that Ai is a hot-button issue right now and they are trying to have it both ways. Get the cheapest, fastest (and I'll admit pretty-good) art they can while also desperately holding on to their reputation as an "illustrator-friendly" publisher. I would guess that Tor Books are anticipating that Ai images become a "tolerated norm" for book covers in the same way stock photos and stock illustrations have.

Ammar Reshi wrote and published a picture book over a 72 hour weekend (note that this book is currently ranked 10,697 on Amazon -- which means it is actively selling quite well)
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/chrisstokelwalker/tech-worker-ai-childrens-book-angers-illustrators

My takeaway: Don't think that any illustration niche or field is immune to Ai. These companies have huge financial incentive to make their algorithms more and more customizable.

When 3PP discussed Ai a just a few months ago it was a curiosity, and maybe a potential tool for creatives.
Now, less than a year later, it is actively targeting working illustrators and infringing their available body of work with the goal of mimicking that art style on-demand by clients and for profit.

All this could seem quite depressing until you realize that this is NOT inevitable. In fact the current state of Ai images is a result of the largest and most significant and willful copyright infringement ever.

Rather than making this post a novel I'll stop here -- but I'm happy to discuss further. It's a nuanced topic.

HOW TO TAKE ACTION -- and as a creative industry I believe we MUST take action -- have a look at the campaign link below.
I just donated to this effort. Check it out and see if you agree with the aims:
https://gofund.me/2df3dc07

kirsten-mcg

@danielerossi I've had this same sense of loss when I started working digitally. I love it. It's really fun! But I also miss traditional and end up going back to it quite a bit. But I find myself trying to tap my page with my 2 fingers a lot to undo lol! Maybe in the future all us illustrators will become art therapists. The world is going to need that with more and more digital things taking over our lives! I feel like traditional art especially has such a grounding and therapeutic effect.

kirsten-mcg

@MarcRobinson Sorry to know that you're going through this too. But it does help me to know that other people are struggling with this same thing. It makes it less lonely. And it is really beautiful how we've been able to come together as artists and encourage each other, even if it is just to acknowledge the pain and worry. I think the uncertainty of all this is one of the hardest parts. We can make all the predictions we want, but non of us really knows what's going to happen.

kirsten-mcg

@ArtistErin I've had my share of tumbles and bumps in life too, and like you, looking back, I'm starting to see how they pushed me to a place where I am happier, or set me up on a road that would lead me closer to finding what I'm really in the world to do. I loved what you said about getting really good about being you. I think i need to focus more on that. Decide what it is I'm trying to say and get really good at that...whether or not it leads to making a living from doing what i love.