{"id":49208,"date":"2022-11-04T15:45:21","date_gmt":"2022-11-04T15:45:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/?p=49208"},"modified":"2022-12-17T12:18:40","modified_gmt":"2022-12-17T12:18:40","slug":"man-vs-machine-why-ai-painting-controversy-is-back-on-our-radar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/man-vs-machine-why-ai-painting-controversy-is-back-on-our-radar\/","title":{"rendered":"Man vs machine: why AI painting controversy is back on our radar"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

You may have noticed the social media spark. AI painting technology, which has been around for many years, has been back in the hot seat these past few months.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is indeed an eventful time in the field of AI painting. Both the painting generated with the AI tool Midjourney<\/a> which won the top prize at the Colorado State Fair<\/a>, and the closure of the Japanese AI painting website mimic<\/a>, which was fiercely boycotted by local artists just after its launch was announced, have triggered this craze.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, the origin of the controversy seems to go back to 2021, when a Stanford University paper<\/a> proposed a model that improved the algorithms of today’s AI painting tools, bringing the quality and efficiency of the output up a notch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the additional algorithms, the active open source of AI painting models has also significantly lowered the barrier to participation. For example, Stable Diffusion<\/a>, built by Stability AI, is now completely open to users. OpenAI released Dall-E 2<\/a> on 28 September and is offering a free trial. The niche art that was on the radar of auction houses and collectors not so long ago can now be created by anyone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Infographic by Rui Liang. Data from tokenizedhq.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The high efficiency of AI tools, its exquisite outcomes, and the explosion of the AI painting craze, have led artists to engage in this round of discussions. Many are expressing concern about the reduction in employment this may cause.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYounger artists may decide to use these systems rather than getting guidance from someone more experienced. This pulls them away from their industry predecessors,\u201d said Grzegorz Rutkowski, a Polish game illustrator for TechTarget<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAt the same time, the technology may prompt organisations to stop hiring junior artists and illustrators to create emotionally stimulating visuals,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n