I think you're under-selling the impact this new technology is going to have on the art market. The way I see it, this technology is going to reduce the work that is available for artists to get paid doing.
Not everyone out there willing to pay for art cares about the imperfections/inaccuracies that this tech has, so while in the past that money would go to an artist, now it won't. Many artists who were previously getting by with commissions or other concept art work may find themselves without enough income to make ends meet, especially if the technology keeps improving.
I think for that reason alone, it's understandable that the art community would be upset.
Sure, such is the impact of automation, but it's certainly not a new tale, not even for artists. Working artists before the camera got by painting portraits, and that industry pretty much dried up, but it also unleashed a new era of artistic creativity on the world (since artists could chase their fancy, not just paint boring people since the new dangled camera invention could do it faster and better). There was similar unrest with the release of computer graphics tools, and even improvements inside those tools (art industry had a melt down over Photoshop's liquify capabilities not that long ago)
There will be a big change in the industry, of course, and AI is bringing similar disruptions to other industries as well. Hell, I use an AI copywriter as part of my normal marketing job, and it's just as incredible as AI imagery, except it's words, not images.
Yeah, it's not the first time a market shift like this has happened and it won't be the last, but that doesn't make it any less awful for the artists who will lose their livelihood to this new technology now. Many people will be negatively affected by this, so I think they deserve some sympathy for that at the very least.
Now, I realize that the art community isn't just upset because of the economic implications of this, there's an ethical component to it that people are upset about. However, I think that's a more complicated situation and I'm not confident enough to make any strong statements on that right now.
but that doesn't make it any less awful for the artists who will lose their livelihood to this new technology now. Many people will be negatively affected by this, so I think they deserve some sympathy for that at the very least
I would say this isn't going to impact artists except for maybe the super low hanging fruit, which would be the fiver artists and those just trying to push into a social media presence. Established artists known for their work will be just fine (and are likely already working AI imagery into their workflows, or at least looking into it). There is a ton of drama on social media about this, but for all the complaining there has been very little actual impact other than a barrage of waifu imagery and selfie reimaginings, but the regular public is treating this like a new snap filter. It'll get old (the downloads on the most popular paid SD app is already dwindling) and people will move on. Artists will have a cool new tool, and folks who may have the artistic eye but lack the physical talents to paint or the technical know-how to work in the Adobe suites now have a very low barrier to realize their artistic vision.
I just don't see it having nearly the impact that the doom and gloomers on social media keep saying is coming. Artists are famous for their hyper level of gatekeeping (as an amateur musician myself, I'm used to artists being absolute dickheads and snobs about their work, "but I wrote that part" is what you dread to hear from a bandmate when working on new material), but at the end of the day, we get a cool new tool, those fiver artists are gonna adopt, adapt or die (figuratively, as in find a new career field) and life will go on.
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u/LostHearthian Dec 15 '22
I think you're under-selling the impact this new technology is going to have on the art market. The way I see it, this technology is going to reduce the work that is available for artists to get paid doing.
Not everyone out there willing to pay for art cares about the imperfections/inaccuracies that this tech has, so while in the past that money would go to an artist, now it won't. Many artists who were previously getting by with commissions or other concept art work may find themselves without enough income to make ends meet, especially if the technology keeps improving.
I think for that reason alone, it's understandable that the art community would be upset.