sketch abyss

i am testing the waters

Skirmisher

I feel like whether you're for or against AI art, its' existence has provided a lot of interesting topics to think about.

Before I make any points, I want to make my personal stance clear. I loathe the process of drawing. I only do it because it's the best method I'm aware of that can somewhat accurately depict my thoughts and emotions. Interestingly enough, the fact that I hate the process makes every drawing I end up liking even more special. When I suffer for 10 hours making a piece and I end up liking it, those 10 hours retroactively become worth it and I get hit with this wave of satisfaction and adrenaline that I could never experience anywhere else. Nowadays drawing is the only worthwhile activity I have left that's worth coming back to, and the idea that it could be reduced to a pointless pastime is very disheartening. This has left me a little confused and unsure what to think about, which is why I've tried my best to distance my feelings and emotions from this topic as much as possible and try to take every fact and idea at face value, whether it feels right or not. So I guess I can use this post to put some of my thoughts into words. I don't know whether they're good or not, but I think they're fun to think about.

Before you try to make any points against AI art, you have to keep in mind that in the eyes of most AI artists you're just some old-timey boomer who can't move with the times and not worth taking too seriously. Meanwhile in a lot of artists' eyes, AI artists are cheap, lazy, exploitative, NFT owning, bitcoin-mining sociopaths. Because both sides have this overwhelmingly negative impression of one another, it's almost impossible to get a worthwhile conversation going. I personally recommend that instead of trying to prove/disprove anything, try to assume that the other person knows what they're talking about. Give them the impression that you're safe and comfortable to talk to. If you disagree or don't understand something, try to formulate your argument into a question. The more you let them do all the talking, the bigger the chance that they'll say something stupid. You won't win any debates this way, but you'll increase your repertoire of points to debunk in the future, and the other person will have had a fun conversation where they could speak openly with someone. The conversation will be left on a positive note and both parties will be happy. It's a win-win.

I do think that AI art will only get better from here on. Might even generate a movie at some point. If AI keeps improving non-stop, we might end up with a Matrix style dystopian future where the machines have completely taken over. The thing is that I don't think the developers have any bad intentions with this. A lot of AI enthusiasts are people who are simply fascinated by what it's capable of. It's like how we humans are fascinated when we hear a parrot accurately mimic a human's voice or watching a mouse finding its' way outside a labyrinth. Obviously, if we want to prevent a future where AI has completely taken over our lives, we'll have to halt its' development somehow. The question is, where exactly do we draw the line between what should be automated and what shouldn't? I have no idea what kinds of limitations AI should have or how they should be implemented, but I'm sure someone smarter than me will come up with something cool :DddD

Interestingly enough, I think AI art has significantly less impact on traditional artists. Portrait artists exist despite the fact that photography exists. The fact that you own a physical copy of a piece and you know that there's a person who put time and effort into it just makes it that much more special. With digital art it will be much more difficult to tell what is AI generated and what isn't. You could easily just generate an AI drawing and then do some touch-ups in photoshop to make it look legit. Or just AI generate some parts and draw others yourself. If you draw a character at a beach and you AI generate some small clouds in the background, is the piece considered digital or AI art? How much of a piece should be AI generated before it becomes illegitimate? Will we need to attach a timelapse to every piece we make?

So, AI takes drawings that it finds and uses them as references to make drawings of its' own. This is a problem because there are many images out in public that artists don't want the AI to borrow ideas from. The thing is that artists borrow ideas from each other as well. Taking inspiration from other artists' styles and incorporating parts of them into your own is considered one of the best ways to improve as an artist. Imagine that you've stumbled into a cool drawing you found on google images and it has given you a cool idea. If you then realize that it was a Patreon leak, are you supposed to throw your cool idea out into the garbage because you saw an image you weren't supposed to? We could start copyrighting things like art styles, shot compositions and color palettes, but that doesn't sound like a fun time. I feel like this is more of a moral issue than a legal one. If an artist copies your style, you can think of it as a sign of respect. The artist took a lot of time off their day(s) to copy your style out of all the other styles out there. Depending on the artist that's probably a hell of an ego boost. Meanwhile, if your style is copied by AI, that's basically just a middle finger. In my eyes that's enough of a reason not to use it.

I think that the people who will get hit hardest by this are amateur digital artists. Starting an art career was already pretty challenging before. Now that you're competing with the terminator it's gonna be even harder. The thing is that I don't think pursuing art as a career is the best choice to begin with. It's generally better as a hobby, something you do because you want to, not because you have to. So in that sense AI art honestly makes very little difference.

That will conclude my trash takes, I want to reiterate that my stance on these is not firm at all and my opinion could be very different a week from now. There were plenty more things I wanted to say but I'm getting tired from typing. I wish you all the best of luck in your drawing ventures.

tldr:

sketch

my favorite anime of the season

you made a mistake

i love anime

the perfect synopsis for a comedy

what a lovely illustration of daily life in chicago

your hunch is better at answering questions than i am. says alot about society smh

WAR

choose your fighter

i love anime

i love anime

i love anime

@andresdelgado

@Mrg19998

yes

@Chipsoapart