The Problem With AI

Have you been scrolling on TikTok lately and noticed all the strange videos of celebrities or even presidents talking about the most random things? Or even seeing music “collaborations”? Maybe even fake art? Or a new friend on Snapchat? Well, this is all thanks to AI. AI stands for “artificial intelligence,” which is a machine’s ability to perform a task that it’s asked to do. An example would be asking it to write a song, the machine would then take what you asked it to do and create song lyrics.

 AI may seem like a great and amazing thing, maybe even a little funny, but this is now beginning to affect artists and writers. Recently on social media platforms, people have been creating fake art or music and claiming it as their own. Occasionally, these people sell this artwork created by AI or even publish this music to the public. Another trend on social media is taking other peoples art without their consent/permission and running it through AI, this slightly changes the piece so it does not look like the original. Usually, this is then posted online and is then claimed as their own, these actions can result in lawsuits, which it has.

 This started to become an even bigger problem when artists submitted their AI art to competitions. In September of 2022, Jason Allen won an art competition using AI. Artists were not happy about this, “I’m not going to apologize for it,” Allen says “I won, and I didn’t break any rules.” Artists in this competition feel as if “This is essentially a high-tech form of plagiarism.” How do younger/beginner artists feel about this? “I’ve seen it mainly used for people to claim said generated art as their own, which I think is ridiculous,” said a Cavelero 9th grade art student who chooses to remain anonymous. “It doesn’t have the same creativity or talent like a real person would.” “AI kills motivation in any art form.” Cavelero 9th grade art student Tyler Thibert says. “Why try to create new things that can take hours when AI can create anything in 5 seconds?”

 This will, and is, becoming a huge problem within the art community; beginner artists feel as if there is no point anymore as art will just be stolen and reused. The biggest threat for artists in this situation is their reputation. AI is beginning to change people’s views of art and almost think of it as a negative thing, some people believe that art isn’t important. The good news is, AI can actually be used as a tool in art. For example, a senior critic Brennan Buck at the Yale School of Architect used AI to help him upscale and colorize his works. Turns out, AI is being more commonly used for video games and commercial art. All in all, AI is hopefully not going to take over the art community in the future as this is unlikely to happen, but should still be handled with care and with caution. Artists/writers alike are struggling to produce art, so always make sure to support these people as the art community needs it.