CloverWing

Hello there! As of the year 2023, Artificial Intelligence (AI) Art is a bit of a controversy to say the least. There are some people who are so adamantly against it, that they say "don't even speak to me if you actually like or use/support AI Art in ANY way". It's true...I have seen profile posts like this. However, I don't think it needs to be this divisive. There is a lot to unpack here overall, but I hope you will sincerely listen to my thoughts on different aspects of AI Art and why I don't think it has to be such an evil thing.

"AI ART STEALS FROM ARTISTS WITHOUT THEIR PERMISSION!!!!"

Yes, it did. Algorithms and AI models were "fed" images that were posted online publicly. Artists were NOT asked if this was OK for their art to be used. I think this is unfortunate, however ANYONE could go online and find reference images to draw from as well. When one wants to study a style or work on changing their style, what do they do? They go online and look for art to study and replicate. This is how we all learn art. When the great artists of the past wanted to learn anatomy, do you know what some of them did? They used HUMAN CORPSES to learn anatomy. It was very taboo/forbidden to do this, but they knew it would help their understanding of the human body. What do we do today? We go online and search for references. Any good artist will show you that they use a small handful of REFERENCE IMAGES to create a new piece.

Even if the owners of these AI models "fix" this issue and remove ALL images that weren't approved by artists to be allowed into AI Algorithms, users can still submit their own images as a "base" to help guide an AI to create a new image. I don't truly know if there is a way around this. In the end, I feel that all popular art styles borrow and learn from each other anyway. AI is just speeding this process up.

"IT'S LAZY, YOU JUST HIT "GENERATE" AND IT MAKES A PICTURE!!!"

100%, yes! It does do exactly this! Click "generate" and you get.....SOMETHING. (When I first played with AIArt, let me tell you..IT WASN'T PRETTY! Lol...You actually need a bit of practice before you start generating anything decent.) Regardless, It's because of the "ease of access" that I truly think "ai generated art" will not ever be worth very much monetarily speaking (unless a famous person generates something or w/e). Sure, someone could lie and say what they made wasn't AI generated and try to sell it, but someone could also lie about using photoshop on an image or not. (Have you BEEN on Instagram....EVER? Basically everything you see there is edited in someway or another) One could lie about using any digital image manipulation program to get the exact body proportions and colors on a photo. We can learn and recognize what is AI generated and what isn't, and we can choose spend our money accordingly. Currently, I think art made by people looks better and is more fine tuned than anything AI Art can do (and I'm not even talking about the wonky hands it currently generates). I would definitely pay more money for a human-made piece of art than an AI piece of art for many reasons, but I would also love to FRAME some AI generated art right next to human-created art in my home because I love how it looks. I essentially think all AI Art should be 100% FREE or very low value simply for ease of access. Yes, it takes times to explore keywords and play with settings, but in the end I believe AI generated art should be free and shared with anyone who wants to use it in the same way that clip art or material/sozai is shared and passed around online. This is why I've made my whole AI Gallery (on SweetCharm.net) FREE TO USE EVEN WITHOUT CREDIT! I want you to be creative and have FUN with what I'm posting here. Please let it inspire you to make MORE ART ♥

"AI ART IS HURTING ARTISTS MONETARILY!!!"

I have heard this argument, and I truly feel for any artist that was hurt somehow from AI Art. However, I can't help but think about one particular artist who claimed that when you search his name online, more AI versions of his art comes up than his actual art. You know what is odd? I NEVER HEARD OF THIS ARTIST BEFORE. He probably gained more popularity because articles were posted about him after AI "stole" his art. Isn't that ironic? More people probably know about his art now because it was stolen than they ever knew about his art before. (A similar thing happened to me when a popular musician used one of my pixel arts without permission...guess what? It made that pixel art VERY POPULAR and I even got some monetary compensation from HER FANS!!! That's AMAZING!!!) That scenario aside, I have seen artists using AI art IN THEIR FAVOR. They decided to embrace AI Art and use it as a tool, which it is. I truly think this is the way to go. I have seen artist who put their own art into the generators, then REDRAW what the generator pops out. This is great, and really lets the artist continue to expand on their own style. I have also seen artists use AI Art to generate new ideas that they then turn into art in their own style to make pins, prints, etc.

Listen, when photoshop first appeared on this planet...do you know what people said? They thought it was going to utterly destroy photography. Now we use it without even batting an eye. All of its image altering potential is simply seen as the norm nowadays.

"IT'S TAKING AWAY FROM WHAT ART REALLY IS..."THE PROCESS"!!! "

How often do you think about basket makers? Loom weavers? People who make Woodblock carved prints? Do you often think about people who paint exclusively with OIL PAINT? Do you know anyone who still process photos in dark rooms (You know what I'm talking about, where you have to dip the film in vats of different solutions to get an image to come out? --Side note, I actually did this in high school for a class lol--) You don't think about them too much eh? Maybe only once in a while? Me too. Don't feel bad. Times move on. I still think it's important to recognize these art forms, and I truly think it's awesome when people make things using these methods. HOWEVER.....it isn't accessible to all people. Not everyone has room for a kiln to make pottery. Not everyone has money/supplies/space available for a dark room to process photos. Do you know how expensive oil paints, good brushes, and canvases are? Yeah.....it's a luxury. People desire to make art however they can in whatever accessible way they can. Sticky note flip book? Photoshop? Paint Tool Sai? ClipStudio (LORD have you SEEN the convenient brushes available to digital artists nowadays???? You can make hair textures in like 2 seconds!!!) Ai Art? well now, here we are... This is what people have available to them. People WILL USE what they have, and it will feel like a good creative and fun outlet. There are people who never received art lessons. There are people who never had spare time to actually learn and practice drawing. Maybe they had to work multiple jobs, or just had obligations that didn't allow for it, or literally lacked the physical dexterity involved. AI Art allows them to make some image or idea in their head FINALLY come true. It allows them to FINALLY see something they envisioned for years...Isn't that amazing?

I MISS BLOCKBUSTER GODAMNIT!!!

Me too. I used to love going into the stores and looking at what they had to offer. I vividly remember the Pokemon Snap machine (of all things) where you could get physical print outs of your best Snaps. (God, I would love to have that Pokemon Snap machine.... But I digress) Listen, I'm really sorry but....THINGS CHANGE. It's ironic because I made this site (SweetCharm.net) to preserve things I love about the "days of old interwebs", but I also fully embrace what is new and what is to come next . After Blockbuster, we moved on mailing DVDs to peoples homes, then just simply STREAMING to peoples TVs and Computers....and now their Smartphones. Do you know what my phone used to do? It used to BARELY be able to play a low-res-low-quality-pixel version of Bomberman. That was basically the best game I had in middle school. Other than that, I could text people and call them. I would've KILLED to have a helpful tool like ChatGPT to assist me with website coding back in the day. I truly think it was a limitation because I was self taught, and the internet only had so much to show me in regards to what I could do coding wise. Youtube wasn't really a resource back then either. I was able to make this website what it is today because of a tool like ChatGPT. Going back to AI Art, I love to feed my old artwork into programs like NovelAI because I can see the potential they have. It lets me decide if I want to try re-drawing them all these years later. It allows me to IMPROVE my OCs and gives me new ideas on how to imagine them. I really hope you can learn to accept AI Art as a simple tool. It's unfortunate that it was fed images without permission, but anyone could've looked up those images and referenced them for art as well. We all learn from each other and because of that, we improve.

Please don't completely shut someone out simply because they use an AI Art tool. Please talk to them normally. They are a human, like you, who wants to create something. There will always be "scummy people" who just want to make a quick buck on art or whatever the case is, but I think we are smart enough to weed through those people. Let's focus on all of the amazing NEW ideas that AI Art is giving to both seasoned artists and newbies alike.