As Artificial Intelligence (AI) becomes more prominent in today’s society, artists on campus share their thoughts on the rise of generative AI art.
Senior Habi Seepersad feels that generative AI hinders all artists overall, she said. With AI becoming more popular, the contrast in opinions becomes more visible, she said.
“Some people understand the effort, value, and touch of human creation that goes into art, as opposed to people who just use AI and take art at face value,” Seepersad said.
AI art is soulless and only copies artists’ styles while actual art is made through thought processes, junior Chloe Lee said.
“Which line goes where?” Lee said. “Which color goes where? There’s a lot of studying and hard work. Usually you can see that hard work in art pieces, but AI art just takes away the soul of it.”
A person’s art is made with intent, Seepersad said. It has soul behind it because someone intended to create something and express ideas, she said.
“For AI art, all you do is write a prompt and then a machine generates the whole thing,” Seepersad said. “There’s no deeper meaning or intention behind a brush stroke, a color, or anything else.”
AI art is trained by the input of other people’s pre-existing human-made art, Seepersad said. These models are trained by people stealing art online, essentially shoving hundreds upon thousands of human-made artwork into a machine without anyone’s consent, she continued.
“I use Twitter (X), and a while ago, I think there was a feature added that could scan images to be used for AI,” Seepersad said. “It’s so unethical because it’s done without the artist’s permission and essentially steals all their hard work.”
Lee uses social media to post art, and many of her friends do too, she said. A lot of her friends have to protect their art with an AI detection filter that interferes with AI trying to use their art, she said.
“I think it’s kind of sad that people can’t show their actual pieces without having to put filters over them, because they’re scared of AI,” Lee said. “A lot of artists I follow have taken down some of their art in fear of AI replicating it and their job being taken.”