An award-winning work of digital art sparked quite a debate across the internet this week. Théâtre D’opéra Spatial, pictured above, was created by Jason M. Allen and entered into the Colorado State Fair’s annual art competition under the “Digital Arts/Digitally-Manipulated Photography” category. The piece beat out 18 others to claim first place and the contest’s $300 prize. The issue – Allen created the art using an AI software known as Midjourney.
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Midjourney works by entering a set of keywords to generate a hyper-realistic image. The file can then be fine-tuned to the maker’s liking with the careful alteration of words. Théâtre D’opéra Spatial is one of the first AI-generated pieces to win such a prize, causing fierce backlash among artists who accused Allen of, essentially, cheating. Mr. Allen assured the New York Times that he did not deceive anyone about his artwork’s origins, submitting the piece under the name “Jason M. Allen via Midjourney.”
“I’m not going to apologize for it,” said Allen. “I won, and I didn’t break any rules.”
Though he did not overstep any rules of the contest and spent over 80 hours creating 900 iterations, artists across the internet are nervous about what this means for their own futures. Simply put, why would anyone pay for art when they could simply punch in some keywords to generate it themselves? Théâtre D’opéra Spatial has also raised questions about the ethics of AI-generated art. Opposers to the tool claim that these AI programs are a high-tech form of plagiarism.
However, some artists defended the work, claiming that using AI was no different from using Photoshop or other digital image-manipulation tools. Additionally, they argue that human creativity is still essential to craft the correct prompts that can generate an award-winning piece.
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Controversy over new technology for creating art is nothing new. Many 19th-century painters and art critics scoffed at the invention of the camera, claiming it was “art’s most mortal enemy.” Digital editing tools and computer programs have drawn criticism from purists for requiring little skill from their human users. What makes this new AI technology different is how exactly it works. Programs like Midjourney and DALL-E 2 scrape millions of images from the open web, then teach algorithms to recognize patterns and relationships in those images to generate new works in the same style. This means that artists who upload their work to the internet could be helping to train their artificial competitors.
Mr. Allen said he empathized with artists who worry that AI programs could put them out of work. However, he believes their anger should be directed at companies that choose to replace human artists with AI tools rather than individuals who use these programs.
“It shouldn’t be an indictment of the technology itself,” said Allen. “The ethics isn’t in the technology. It’s in the people.”
What are your thoughts on the human vs. AI art discussion? Let us know in the comments section below!
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