The hot new artist known only as Artificial Intelligence is here to stay. And this topic may be more confusing and debated than free speech on Twitter. However this trendy new "artist" has no comment on the matter either and will not be arguing with you online about whether they are an actual artist, whether it stole an idea, or whether the keyboard warrior wielding it's power is a real artist or not.
Complaining will get you nowhere right now. Other artists are quietly learning, mastering, and monetizing this while you may be wasting your breath trying to prove you're right online.
While you argue online in the forums of the Interwebs, that artificial artist is hard at work learning and creating nonstop while you are fighting something that is unstoppable. Think about what Ted Lasso would do, be curious and stay positive!
This article isn't actually about whether it's art or not, cause it is. This article outlines how I've found it useful to use A.I Art generators in your creative process to share your vision with a team.
Ya can't spell ArtificialIntelligence without ART, so it's gotta be right?
AI Learned To Just Steal Like Artists Do
One of the biggest arguments online with these new art tools, or “gripes” with these software(s) and ai research is that these ai tools are stealing from other artists. Maybe, but maybe not. I say maybe not because we all steal in the form of inspiration and are influenced by what others do, and that's part of the process that the AI technologies are using.
If I take what another artist does, modify it a little in my own style, and make it my own in Photoshop, is that stealing, or is that what every artist in the world does? It's not a matter of whether or not it's stealing, it's just a matter of how blatant it is.
This A.I artist learned how to steal from us, the original art thieves. Isn't there a famous quote about this somewhere? Either way, this is the biggest example of a turing test from artists that the world has ever seen because a lot of the art online looks like a human made it. Alan Turing would be so so proud.
You should spend your time paying attention and finding a way to turn this tool into an asset for your creative process because we're at the beginning of generative art and this natural language. You can either use it as a tool to create art at a faster seed, or waste your breath arguing and trying to prove your point online that the term artificial intelligence is somehow not real art . After 2020 are you still thinking anyone online is going to change their mind?
In today's modern day age, if you are a visual artist, you should be using every single tool including CGI, A.I Art, Stock Images, and your camera to create imagery for you and your clients. PERIOD. Did you know that there are over 2 million images generated per dayby artificial intelligence ai platforms? Look at a few of these A.I images:
Why are we arguing about what is right and what isn't when art is subjective? Isn't the whole point of art that it's purely subjective? You should take the purist "real photographer/real artist" argument back to 1999 and argue with the old creepy white film photographer calling digital photographers "not real artists."
A.I is simply another tool to perform tasks and communicate, but it operates at the speed of thought and can create incredible images in seconds. These images would take the average human being days if not months to create.
I would even go so far as to argue that many of the images on their would win or place at most art competitions of the last 100 years. Why wouldn't you learn, understand, and wield this power from your phone when it has such highly detailed accuracy?
Why Visual Artists Should Use A.I Like An Art Director
Let me tell you a story. A short time ago, I was at a bachelor party where an undisclosed amount of people may or may not have been eating magic mushrooms. A large group of artist friends was together in a cabin in the mountains, sharing ideas, laughing, drinking, and having the time of their lives. In a few days, a LOT of fun ideas were thrown around.
The most hilarious of these ideas was that five of us could qualify for the 2026 men's curling team and would win the Gold Medal in the Olympics. Futhermore Disney would then make a movie about us as the underdogs. A modern-day Mighty Ducks, but with men in their 40's taking magic mushrooms. (I still think it's a great idea)
Within 2 shakes of a lamb's tail I was texting the group of artists images of a group of Olympic athletes with bomb-ass curling uniforms that had a strong resemblance of us. My machine-learning app in my pocket called Midjourney could render examples of our jokes into reality in real-time, which was an entirely new level of comedy for us! BOOM, welcome to my mind in the Matrix if I could drink Redshift Render Engine spiked with Octane Render Engine all in one permanent mixture.
So, where was I? Right.....One of these digital artists is an art director for a very prominent brand. They are a visual problem solving powerhouse, and master of commercial advertising in the visual arts. The look on their face when they realized it was based on some strange ai algorithm was priceless. It was as if someone from the future had arrived and shown us alien space technology.
And the speed at which they began to collaborate and digital art direct and modify the uniforms was insane. It was then and there that this became the most valuable collaboration tool for the birth of ideas. Shout out to computer science ftw and bringing a smart Unreal Engine to the masses!
How Visual Artists Should Think & Move In This Artistic Space
Can you imagine using this tool to brainstorm ideas, create unique mood boards, and communicate ideas about a CGI project or Photoshoot that you want to pitch to a brand? It is as simple as day and you don't have to spend hours or weeks looking for assets online. It can generate concepts faster than you can order Postmates.
For example, If I wanted to get a team of creatives, stylists, and wardrobe on board with my photoshoot concept of a man on a bear skin rug, I could easily generate a quick mood board in 10 minutes or less with the vibe, shown above. Now how amazing is this!
Photographers and creative directors have been using stolen ideas to create curated boards to distill ideas into creative briefs. It’s super common. Why not take it one step further and start your brainstorming process here with even more creative ideas that are closer to your vision?
With A.I you don’t have to worry about ripping off other photographers' work for creative briefs and sharing the work of others to pitch ideas to creative teams. You can simply create extensive mood boards that are extremely accurate and get entire teams on board with your vision before the work has even begun using any of the ai systems.
To learn more about CGI checkout these tutorials.
