Art world divided over AI art

Local artists are divided on whether AI art is a good tool for artists or plagiarism.

AI has been a concern in recent years as new engines such as ChatGPT change the world around us, and the art world isn’t any different. Engines such as DALL·E 2 have divided the art world as some artists believe that AI engines can play a huge role in the future of art while some artists claim it is the end of art and creativity all together.

“I think there are aspects of it that can be used for art, that there is an element of it that is creating, but I don’t know if I would necessarily consider it art,” Amberly Habhab, an art specialist, said, “I think it can be used as a tool. We’ve been looking into ways to use AI to combine paintings and then maybe using that as a project to then use as a reference to come up with new ideas and not necessarily just as something that is not just creating the art but more of as a tool.”

Some companies who created the engines use artists’ art for data without consent. This causes artists to not be credited at all with their work, with many artists often calling AI art plagiarism. Artists also feel as though AI takes away an artist’s creativity as their art styles can also be copied and re-created through the engine.

Senior Elene Kodanashvili said, “It’s a fact that AI art is taking away the jobs of artists. I remember seeing a clip of the intro sequence of Marvel’s Secret Invasion for the first time. It was completely generated by AI software. It might look cool to an untrained eye, but anyone can see that it’s unnatural.”

Junior Michael Haynes said, “Yes, and this is my big problem with AI art. I definitely feel like it has its uses, but when it gets to the point where instead of hiring graphic designers or artists, companies just use AI—that feels wrong to me. It can get into art-theft territory really fast too because the art that these AIs are trained on often goes totally uncredited.”  

Even though some artists feel as though AI art is the end of art, many disagree and say it could be art’s future as in the past photography was also seen as the end of art when it in fact made art as a whole stronger. Artists can use these engines to experiment with different styles, colors, ideas, etc., which can be helpful to artists who can be unsure with projects or ideas they have.

Haynes said, “I think some people are getting a little up in arms about AI. I don’t think that AI will be the death of art, and I don’t even necessarily think that AI generated-images strictly can’t be art. It raises some really interesting questions, and I’ll be excited to see what people do with it.”

Even though artists can disagree on whether AI art is good or not for art’s future, many still find themselves in the gray area when it comes to AI art.

 Sophomore Isabela Hafermann said, “To an extent it is art. If you use it to modify art or any existing pieces, then it’s not art, but I do think it works really well for inspiration or enhancing something if you feel like something is missing.”

Kodanashvili said, “I think AI software has the potential to aid artists in creating original work, but right now its negative effects are apparent and real.”