In the past few years, the use of AI in everyday life has increased. Artificial Intelligence is expected to be a common tool for future generations, but how do artists feel about its usage in their field?
“Even when you're doing commercial art that, you know, is fitting a specific build, there’s something behind it. There’s that human aspect.”
Vikki Hrody is an associate art professor at LSUS. Last year, she started to notice just how common art made by Artificial Intelligence, and how daunting its presence is for professional artists.
“It haunted me,” Hrody says. “You know, I was sick over it. And I wasn’t the only one. Most people that work in the industry were crippled by this.”
Hrody says her concern was stemming specifically from the abandonment of human art in favor of artificial art. She says that she has been intrigued by AI, but is worried about its popularity in her field.
“I want someone to wash my dishes,” Hrody says. “I just don’t need to have the things that make me human and make me happy replaced, and that’s what’s happening.”
This replacement is happening with all mediums of art, and the main source of contention is web scraping. Web scraping is used by computing systems to pull data from the internet. Artificial Intelligence sites use information from all over the web to expand their knowledge. However, AI systems also scrape information from artists’ public art pages, and Hrody says this has been an issue for artists everywhere.
“That is how we communicate as artists in the industry, right? You want to see what other people are working on, you’re inspired by them,” Hrody says. “And, people are starting to pull away from that because they know that people are scraping their data.”
Recently, the US Copyright Office ruled that art with components made by AI could not be copyrighted. This decision helps artists, and can protect their personal works and styles.
“A lot of the masses, they don’t understand how it affects artists,” Hrody says. “They just see us as… you know, ‘This is what you’re giving to us, you know, everybody should be able to do art.’ I disagree.”
However, Hrody says that as she thought about it more, she also sees the benefits in these extensive databases. She says the ability for people to quickly develop art skills can be a good thing.
“To me, it’s opening up worlds to people that really feel, kind of, trapped in that learning time frame, where they feel like ‘Ugh, I have to learn this, it’s going to take me a year to learn this.’ Now, they can, kind of, embrace the craft of it a lot sooner,” Hrody says.
Hrody also says AI can be beneficial to small studios in granting easier access to art without having to spend too much money.
Now, Hrody says she can see both sides of the argument.
“And I’m now at that point where I’m on one side of the spectrum where I’m excited to see where we go with this, and then on the other end where I still feel that crisis of ‘We’re being replaced by AI that should be doing something other than replace artists,” she says. “The quality’s moving so fast…But again, I am crippled by the fact that anybody can create something that looks pretty amazing and make $10.000 a month on T-shirt designs when they have no artistic skill. I’m torn.”
Outside of her career as an artist, Hrody sees the effect AI will have on her art students.
Hrody says she realized that she can help her students take advantage of AI for their benefit. She says that instead of pulling them away from AI, she is teaching them how to use it to their favor.
“As a teacher, I need to make sure that my students are learning how to use AI correctly, they know how to do prompting correctly,” says Hrody. “They know how to also do the traditional work because AI is not perfect. So, you’re going to have to go in there and fix and refine and add. And that takes artistic skill.”
Not only do her students need to know how to use AI to advance their skills, but Hrody says she sees AI in her students’ professional future.
“I need to teach students how to use AI to be marketable now,” she says.
This is Alaina Atnip with Red River Radio news.