AI vs Artists - The Biggest Art Heist in History

Thank you so much for watching this video and sharing your thoughts about it. There are many insightful and intelligent points raised by both pro and anti AI groups. I am aiming to read and digest everything and use these valuable comments to produce more content about this topic in the future. Thanks again for your input!

"Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should." Ian Malcolm Jurassic park

'Adobe is undeniably the more ethical model' ... that's aged poorly

The fact that I can't even do a reliable google image search for reference material without going through a MOUNTAIN of bullshit AI images just spells the end of using the internet as a library.

No such thing as an AI artist. The algorithm does 90% of the work. A string of instructions is not art.

I'm a self taught digital artist, who can't paint traditionally due to severe allergies. I started to paint close to my 30s and spent last 10 years learning and studying arts, while my main job has nothing to do with it and I'm the only breadwinner in the family. It's been such a long journey, full of literal pain and sleepless nights. But it finally started to pay off, when I got at least a bit close to the techniques I pursued. And sometimes artwork takes months to be done due to the thinking process, re-sketching, re-compositioning etc. All that only to recieve comments like "oh, what was the prompt? It's obvious, realistic digital art is AI generated". Can't fully describe how down I am rn. But I decided to proceed with my studies. And come what may. I do envy traditional artists though. Their art will become more and more valuable over time, I believe.

I share the pessimism around the future for artist-made art. In a time when companies will prioritize cutting costs to the point of jeopardizing workers' physical health and safety, it's hard to imagine they would go "oh yeah, obviously we need to pay a real artist to do that" vs telling the intern to whip up something in one of these tools for pennies.

The success of AI is based on envy and narcissism. These two have developed excessively in the era of the Internet and social media and the desire to be appreciated is based on the constant comparison with those who are successful. Envy is the emotion of the lazy man, of the one with low resistance to frustration, of the man who received everything quickly and effortlessly. He is the product of the development of technology. He wants the world to believe that he is rich, that he is handsome, that he is talented without actually being. The appearance satisfies him and he considers it sufficient; anyway, he only hunts virtual likes.

they've basically forced artists to train their replacements. its the same as your job telling you to train someone that they will hire to do your job

In 20 years, people will be amazed at how some people can generate images without using a computer.

As a creative person, designer and design teacher I am trying to get familiar with how generative AI works and how to use it. I find it difficult to control and to me the only thing it is useful for is to see what kind of crazy stuff it can come up with if you write vague prompts. I do not think it can ever replace art. Generative AI is only for the masses who have no understanding of or passion for art. And I will tell you why: Because it takes away the joy of creating yourself. No one can take that away from you if you are an artist. For lack of a better analogy: You spend hours to climb a mountain, and then arriving at the top you come across all those tourists who took the cable car. Will you feel disappointed and frustrated? No, because you know what you have achieved. It's the journey that matters, not where you arrive.

Wow! You managed to talk about all my fears and discomfort I have been internalizing. As a photographer, AI generated art has been devastating to my moral. Thank you for saying what is needed to be said, in a articulate and well researched way. It may not help to stop the train, but at least it makes people aware of how destructive AI art actually is.

I just started getting into Midjourney over the last 6 weeks, learning the properties and prompts. And the results I got in a very short time were amazing. As a designer, it looked like a great way to ideate and do comps quickly. I could be more efficient and execute concepts where I was not as skilled, etc. The turning point was when I realized Shutterstock was taking art that I "created" on their platform and making it available for license. Then, I started watching a few videos and going deeper, and decided this is not for me. I just quit my Midjourney account. If this means I am less marketable, so be it. This is blood money.

Let's say five years ago, whenever I would show someone my work, I'd get responses like: "Wow, that looks great! You are so talented!". These days, the responses are more: "Wow, that looks great! Did you make that yourself or did you prompt it?" Every time someone asks that, I feel a small part of my soul dying inside. I have spent decades developing my style and skills. To this day, I am STILL working on trying to achieve perfection in my style within the skills that I have. It is absolutely devastating to see so many people instantly assume what you make is fake, and it breaks my heart.

"Transferring value from artists and other creators to megacorporations using massive amounts of energy is not the AI that I dreamed of" -Gary Marcus Dang... That's very telling. I have the same point of view. In the end, the only ones that really benefits from this are big corporations and other nerdy opportunists, scammers, and so on. That's such a shame. It should empower creative minds, not drain them dead.

When I go looking for art references now as a novice artist, trying to improve my art I keep running into ai bullshit and now I often ask myself if I'm actually referencing something real or if I'm learning the thing wrong.

For the non-artists - it's not just art that is being fed to these datasets, it's all your photos on your social media accounts too. Your selfies, photos of your family, of your vacations, everything.

1950s: In the future, machines will do all the hard work for us so we can all be painters, musicians and actors!! The actual future: Machines do all the art so you can flip burgers.

As a supplier to Getty Images I have no recollection of being asked if my shots could be used to train their dataset.

Thank you for this! Only a hobby artist, but also a college professor and I see how AI is creepy or leaping into every aspect of what used to be creative thought. AI is also being trained to take the place of writers of fiction and poetry and music composers as well. Creativity in the arts and arts for arts' sake is about the only thing left that separates humans from machines. A bit of the soul of the artist/writer/composer is embedded in each of his or her works. Funny, I never thought that when "machines take over the world" it would start with images of elven castles on a mountain or 5 lines of haiku.