The explosion of AI-generated art has taken the internet by storm, and is set to continue growing for a long time. In turn, it has sparked many debates and discussions about the impact this will have on art and artists, but much of the controversy seems misguided or exaggerated. AI or artificial intelligence has arrived and is now having a greater and greater impact on us in everyday life.
Many believe that more creative expression is good and everything is received with great applause, while others are very skeptical and critical. Historically, we know that new technology will win out and we probably have to recognize that our understanding of what an artist is will change in the near future.
Rather than focusing on technical skills with a brush or pen, the artist is likely to be closer to an art curator. Some drawing skills may still be needed and required, but the future of art will involve a significant process of selecting, adjusting and refining artwork by adjusting its parameters - very similar to that of photography.
Well, these are the arguments for the AI-positive artists, who are so excited that they cannot come up with other arguments.
The traditional artists will argue that it is worth noting that although artificial intelligence offers many promises, traditional art will still be relevant for a long time to come. After all, the digital camera did not make traditional artists obsolete.
What is certain today is that AI art technology is far from perfect, but this is developing so quickly that in a year or three we will see people having major problems distinguishing between AI generated images and traditionally produced images. As soon as one can generate realistic AI images – or even videos – of any scene or object, serious doubts will arise about the extent to which we can trust the media presented.
Surveys that have been carried out actually already showed today that 75% of images that were presented to requested people believed that images were painted by humans instead of AI technology.
We still have some time to consider how to deal with these problems and our own situation, but the window is closing fast as AI makes great leaps.