AI: Artificial Intelligence. It’s the new thing that everybody is talking about. It’s a little bit scary, but also quite intriguing to see just how much AI can do now, and just how far it has come in the last few years. Until around 2 years ago, I had never even thought about giving a computer a prompt to see what it could do, let alone just how well it could do what you ask.
In many ways, It is really cool to see what kinds of things AI can come up with. Just look at last week’s weekly reflection, where I was able to ask an AI generator to create images of Darth Vader at a nightclub. Not only could the generator actually produce the images, it could do it well. I have seen some AI generated images that look a bit wonky, human-like characters have extra limbs, or it just can’t quite get faces right, but these images were fairly realistic, and far better than anything I could have done, or even imagined, myself.
While AI allows for new forms of creativity and artistic expression, it has also become a very prevalent topic of discussion and concern, primarily around attribution, copyright, and plagiarism.
If you give an AI generator a prompt, and it comes up with an image for you, who owns it? Who is the artist? If AI generators create images based on it’s ability to scan the internet for ideas, then how do the artists that are being used for inspiration get credit? Can you pass off the work of AI generation as your own digital art creation?
Another question that has many people concerned is the question of work for artist or other working professionals. This has recently come up in the media through the Disney+ TV show Secret Invasion, in which the entire opening credits video was AI-generated. Many people were upset with Marvel over this situation, because of not only the issues listed above about attributing, but also the issue of putting artists out of work. It was suggested that the use of AI to create this video replaces the artist, so the studio doesn’t have to pay someone for their time and skill. Many people are worried that this is just the start of the industry replacing artists and looking towards AI as the answer instead. Personally, I think that there are some very valid thematic reasons why Marvel may have chosen to use AI for this specific opening sequence. Nevertheless, these criticisms are completely fair and perhaps have some truth to them, and do raise important questions about the future of AI generated artwork and it’s place.
All that being said, I genuinely have so much fun using AI to create art, just as a hobby. I can get distracted and entertain myself for quite some time just giving an AI generator prompts and seeing what it comes up with, and then refining my prompts and making them even more interesting. For example, I spent way longer than I needed to today just playing around with the app WOMBO Dream – AI Art Generator and seeing just how similar or different some of the variations of the reference image I could get.
The reference image, if you need a refresher:
There were many different styles of art that the app would filter the image through to create many different images. The app also allows the user to adjust the settings on how much influence the reference image would have over the AI-generated image. I was able to get many images that were really close to the original photograph when using a strong influence simply using the prompt “create an interesting image using this photograph as a reference”
There were also some that were close but not fully the same in the “normal influence” category. Here is where I found some of the more interesting interpretations, including one that looked a lot like Michael Jackson, which I found very interesting, considering the fact that the performance in the original photograph is of a Michael Jackson song.
Finally is the minor influence images. These were the ones that least looked like the photograph, including only similar shapes colours or ideas. Some of these were very cool, but a few I struggled to even see the connection to the original.
As you can tell, I had a lot of fun with this. These are only a handful of the images I asked the app to create. The diversity of what I was able to create shows us a lot about versatility in what can be created. It was also really cool to see some of these images and how well-made they looked. I would have believed that a person made many of them if that’s what I was told. Thus begging the question again about credit, and plagiarism. That being said, I will probably do this again some time as an casual pastime, as it is fun to see what the AI generator can create.
To find my weekly reflections on this course and my learning, look Here
To find my other inquiry posts, look Here
This is really cool Jess! I love the creativity.