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There is so much doomsay around these image generation AIs and I don't really understand it. Did photographs devalue painters? Did digital art devalue painters?
by CivBase 4y ago
There is so much doomsay around these image generation AIs and I don't really understand it. Did photographs devalue painters? Did digital art devalue painters? Did movies devalue theater? Did YouTube videos devalue cinematographers? Did Twitch streams or TikTok videos devalue YouTubers?
Technology has continuously brought us easier and more immediate ways to create art, inspiring new generations of artists who hone their skills with the new tech. Meanwhile, older forms of art continue to be valued along side the new stuff.
I'm also having a hard time seeing the ethical crisis with these AIs being trained on copyrighted material. Styles are not (or at least should not be) copyrightable. An artist can be inspired by the works of another and go on to create something new. Many forms of derivative work are even specifically granted safety under existing copyright law.
Besides, it would be practically impossible to prove that a model was trained on copyrighted works. Even if we decided it was unethical, any law against it would be theoretical and practically unenforceable. Either way, artists will have to adapt.
I don't think the situation is near as dire as so many seem to believe. An AI can only reproduce a style that has been thoroughly explored by the content which it is trained on. New styles will continue to be rewarded. Digital artists will be encouraged to push boundaries. And for the time being, the AIs still have some pretty severe limitations so artists will be able to capitalize on those.
And one more thing I never see brought up when talking about these AI image generators: there's already precedent for how this will play out. AI music composers have been around for many years now, but Dua Lipa and The Weeknd appear to be doing just fine. Even the more classical composers and orchestras seem to be going just as strong as ever. If AI artists show no sign of toppling the music industry, why should we expect the fate of digital images to be so different?
- trention 4y ago>There is so much doomsay around these image generation AIs and I don't really understand it. Did photographs devalue painters? Did digital art devalue painters? Did movies devalue theater? Did YouTube videos devalue cinematographers? Did Twitch streams or TikTok videos devalue YouTubers? All of those are tools which did not lead to potentially the same final product produced for a miniature fraction of the labor costs. AI composition is generally pretty shit. If (more like when) it becomes better, we will be having the exact same argument regarding composers.
- CivBase 4y ago> All of those are tools which did not lead to potentially the same final product produced for a miniature fraction of the labor costs. In what practical sense are paintings distinct from photography or digital art? It's easy to see how they're technically different, but in terms of purpose paintings should have been supplanted by photography and digital art long ago. After all, the latter two can be reproduced "for a miniature fraction of the labor costs", provide the same utility, and can be reproduced at a much larger scale. Yet painting and similar physical art forms seem to be as economically viable as ever - possibly more than ever, but I'm having trouble finding hard numbers to confidently back that up.