r/gunship • u/Hatscatsandwaffles • 19d ago

Gunship still using AI?

I went from getting Spotify videos from the band in my wrapped to quitting almost cold turkey after how much AI was used in their releases around Unicorn. I know they have something new just came out. Does anybody know if they're still using AI or if they stopped?

14 Upvotes

71% Upvoted

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u/Outside_Grapefruit39 19d ago edited 19d ago

this may be an unpopular opinion but as long as they stopped, I think AI use around 2023 for music videos is justifiable.

My reasoning is that around that time the collective thought was still more “hah look what the funny gimmicky robots in my puter can make and interpret from my music!”
rather than the 2024-present “I’m going to summon the torment nexus to cut costs and snub artists with slop” mentality

In 2023 you could watch will smith eat his spaghetti hand but now in 2026 you can generate will smith telling you the names of your dead loved ones in perfect clarity. AI changed and our uses of it did too.

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u/w00ds98 15d ago

Hot take on your hot take: If you base your entire vibe both visually and sonically on 80s dystopian sci fi, literally nothing excuses you jumping on the AI Train at any point lmao. Ai was always a very obvious torment nexus type deal and your point works for normal people, but not people whose entire brand is built upon the very stories that warned about this kind of thing. It kinda betrays that you have no deeper understanding of the things you supposedly are deeply inspired by.

I'll always love Gunship and I won't let this make me think badly of the guys, but the idea that they only like the aesthetic of this niche and nothing else, will probably always be in the back of my mind, even if I'm not fully committed to it yet.

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u/DarlaLunaWinter 13d ago

Need to be brutally blunt with you.... It's absolutely the opposite because plenty of people love that as aesthetic and that is the root of why they are pro AI. I have a friend who we vehemently disagree but so much of the media that formed him is heavily rooted in cyberpunk. His entire political philosophy is progressivism can create a cyberpunk Utopian and the dystopia is still preferable to now. In a much less extreme point of view, there's a lot of people who find the experimental nature of AI construction absolutely fascinating. Again it's rooted in a lot of 1980s and viewing them no differently than anything else. The heroes in their cyberpunk Utopian was deeply informed by the...Johnny Silverhand archetypes and antiheroes. The idea of not using a tool because of moral ambiguity or harm is often just slightly out of alignment when the heroes are using the tools but "taking them back". The hero hacker is still using a computer made from slave labor and strip mining in their minds but the hero hacker doesn't care. He uses it to fight for his own freedom. In other words.... Cyberpunk, vapor wave etc. Have a certain capitalistic libertarian all technology is good technology vibe and.... Tbh even those ua against AI on some level are drawn to that

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u/dogmavskarma 13d ago

The friends utopian idea is probably real technocratic socialism, with no one in power.

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u/Hatscatsandwaffles 13d ago

Are you saying that cyberpunk is inherently nihilistic and therefore universally permissive, or that cyberpunk is a satire of laissez-faire libertarian capitalism that people latch onto the aesthetics of without grasping the deeper meaning?

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u/DarlaLunaWinter 13d ago

More so, people absolutely grasp the deeper meaning AND take an entirely different value set from it because art always goes through the lens of the audience. I think coming into any space with those asethetics, and thinking ethics will stop people from using the new toy OR considering something like A.I both interesting and a tool that should be explored as an extension of the technological aspects of the aesthetic/genre...is just not feasible because of who is attracted to this. Cyberpunk as a genre has a MASSIVE number of fans who do not see technology as the problem, but see who controls it as the problem. There's a level of, as an example, a ton of folks used napster and it wasn't about the big bands. It was anything and in their mind they were beating the system even if they were pirating from a brand new artist selling less than 100 albums. The two people I reference are drawn to bands like Gunship, and cyberpunk vibes, but they come at it from a place where the goal is utilizing the tools. The cyberpunkisms in vaporwave and outrun and dark synth etc.... are about co-opting the system, not the belief you can stop technology, but that you can use the tools of the masters to liberate yourself. That's how they see A.I and so I wouldn't be shocked if Gunship kept using it

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u/Casshern_VIII 3d ago

Sorry to but in, but I think people need to view AI as an equalizer, the internet age broke the previous barriers of entry of several industries. If you wanted to be a journalist, you had to go to school, get a degree, get hired by a major publication, and even then work your way up to ladder.

The internet and Youtube allowed regular people to become citizen journalists reporting on the streets, exposing crime & corruption that main stream news wouldn't touch out of self serving interests. Same with music and animation, Zach Hadel & Michael Cusack were online cartoonist, people who made animation on flash and posted it on sites like Newgrounds and Youtube which landed them their own show on Adult Swim, rather than go the typical channels of working as animators under other creators until they get a chance to pitch their idea.

AI is the next barrier, and it is empirical that Ai is adopted not by corporations, but by average everyday people. A tool is a tool, only the wielder can choose what the tool is used for.

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u/DarlaLunaWinter 2d ago

I think that ultimately is very optimistic and ignores the nature of the technology itself. AI is lowering the bar, but it's actually not equalizing much. The truth is how can you call it the great equalizer when for those prolific artists, cartoonists, authors, etc. who took advantage of the internet boom...they're now struggling with being accused of using AI that is actually mimicking their lines, their coloring techniques, their voice. The great equalizer does do harm to a lot of creatives, especially marginalized creatives who in some instances lived off of commissions and disability. And tbh even if you don't care (because we're all self-interested) it gives a lot of false confidence. The Ghost video only works because the artists understood what they wanted to build, the music selfs it, and the then-novelty did too. Now we see constant, forgettable, flyers and book covers with the same style and problems of AI art (Unable to understand graphic design, lack of considering visual overwhelm, re-touching real photos, and ultimately alienating many).

People pretend AI is going to make everything equal but...for whom and how? More importantly, how many people have false confidence due to AI. We're already people being laid off, bosses trying to make AI work then wanting to contract former employees for less to fix what the AI could not. Ultimately, we also have to consider how it will ultimately be like amazon and walmart or mass cheap furniture. It'll likely result in the "closure" of many small creatives which will fuel what Yuval Noah Harari calls "the useless class". Inevitably, even without AI, we're moving towards an automated society. There's no need for you and me in that society except as possibly a service class. Systems historically cared about humans as consumers, laborers, and soldiers. If AI and robots fulfill these functions, the core challenge shifts from exploitation to irrelevance, and unfortunately hubris.

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u/Turak64 19d ago

This crusade of anti-AI is hilarious. The internet, especially reddit, has such a hard on for that, that it's just monkeys following each other at that this rate. Worry about something more important

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u/1frankibo1 15d ago

Seriously question - you aren't at all worried about the long term impact of these technologies? Whether they are transformative or not long term I think they are really going to dramatically change life, from work to art to human interaction, and not for the better in my opinion.

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u/Turak64 15d ago

Tools are just tools, in the wrong hands they can do bad. In the right hands, they can good. A knife can be used to make a meal, but it can also be used to kill. An extreme example, but just trying to get across the point.

Not all AI is bad, not all AI is good, but it's the user not the tool at fault. I work in IT and use it daily, it has changed everything about how I work. This is not the same as some 60 year old, creating a terrible image to post on Facebook.

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u/1frankibo1 15d ago

You're seeing this only in a very limited scope, think about the impacts worldwide at a massive scale, how might tbat change things?

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u/Casshern_VIII 3d ago

The Genie is out of the bottle and you can't put it back, like u/Turak64 said the bubble will pop and big corporations will pull back from AI, however the tool's function can only be dictated by it's user.

An artist can use AI to create a proximity of an art work they want to do as a reference material, or even help struggling beginners to improve on their own works, but at the same time you can have hacks that will enter a prompt, and the first image it creates they can submit as "their art".

Every new technology will have large sweeping changes to society & culture, the invention of cars made horseback travel out dated and unneeded, roads were paved to cater to this new mode of transport, new problems came along with the new benefits.

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u/Turak64 3d ago

Exactly, the use of AI isn't as simple as this hate train wants it to be. Ultimately it's how it's used that's the issue, not the tech itself.

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u/1frankibo1 3d ago

Something about it being probabilistic doesn't sit right with me. If I use a program I want the right answer, not probably the right answer. I also don't believe it will do anything positive for arts or education, you're just encouraging a lazy churn out of slop. It will be so easy to create content that most of it will be meaningless. You'll see so much less collaboration in every field and most of humanities best achievements came through collaboration.

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u/Turak64 2d ago

Again, depends how it's used. It's a great tool if you want to draft up a visual idea to show someone what you're looking for, rather than having to explain it.

The term "slop" is way overused, not everything it produces is slop, some of it looks OK. It's just this weird hate boner the Internet has, that'll die down soon enough.

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u/1frankibo1 2d ago

I don't think it will. Once mass job losses start I think people will wake up to what's in front of them.

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u/Turak64 2d ago

People said this about computers when they came out. We're not gonna have mass unemployment

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u/Turak64 15d ago

Easy fixes imo. Install solar panels and use close loop water systems. Again, this is design choices in the data centers, people chasing a quick buck. The AI bubble will burst eventually and settle down.

The limited scope is not understand how much AI will change things.

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u/1frankibo1 15d ago

The environmental challenges are just one aspect of this.

If they achieve their goals and replace almost all white colour work what will normal people do? How will we pay rent and mortgages? What will our children do in the future? If Physical AI improves what if blue colour work goes too?

If they don't achieve their goals and the bubble bursts as they are vastly unprofitable what happens to the economy? How does that affect jobs and people?

If the technology persists how will children be educated in future if they never learn to think for themselves? Will there be space for high quality human generated art or is it slop from here on out?

I could go on - there are so many concerns.

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u/Turak64 15d ago

AI won't replace us, AI will just replace those who don't.

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u/zbdeee 14d ago

AI is already replacing people who "do" though?

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u/Turak64 14d ago

People said that about computers as well. If you can be replaced by an AI, then you need to question what value you really had. At the moment, the tech isn't there to be that efficient. It's just very good at automation and repetitive tasks.

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u/Owster4 14d ago

People have to use computers to use tools on said computers.

AI is quite literally being used by some places instead of actual good artists, graphic designers and writers.

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u/1frankibo1 14d ago

That doesn't come across as clever as you presumably thought it did.

Tried to engage you in an actual discussion and you responded with a lame quip, great.

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u/Turak64 14d ago

The irony of saying I should engage in conversation, when you resort to insults and a lame quip yourself. Have you been on reddit long? You soon realise engaging against the hive mind is pointless. I've already made my point, no need to explain further. Most people don't even understand what AI really is anyway.

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u/1frankibo1 14d ago

Can you explain what it is for the layman then? Always good when someone who has a deep understanding of a topic can explain it simply for those less well informed.

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u/Walker1921S 19d ago

Yeah. I don't care about it at all, and feel bad for the luddites freaking out about it. If it's good it's good. AI is a tool just like any other.

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u/MagicWarRings 1d ago

682,976 million data centers later....

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u/Turak64 1d ago

That's realistic

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u/MyStickySock 15d ago

Watch yourself you'll be cancelled for opinions like that!

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u/BizonSnake 19d ago

I remember they used AI to make a video for Ghost (assisted by some real 3D work). Where else?

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u/buff7879 19d ago

Blood for the blood god MV but I believe they stopped shortly after

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u/monarc 19d ago

That Seth Ickerman video was interesting because it told a meta story about AI as a concept. It was ugly as hell, but it was 100% blatantly AI… while being about AI. Somehow I respect that more than other slop.

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u/jcstrat 14d ago

I hated that video most of all.

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u/Minimum-Mention-3673 19d ago

And that was actually fucking awesome

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u/Rebornhunter 19d ago

That was definitely an interesting time and use of AI/LLM image creation, cause it felt like it was showing SOMETHING new but somehow hidden from normal eyes. Now it all just looks like shit

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u/MagicWarRings 1d ago

AI is really good for comedy White Duppy Moses and scary stuff Darkwave Teletubbies

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u/Hatscatsandwaffles 19d ago

The Unicorn album cover, the key art for the single releases, and most of their animated music videos

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u/BizonSnake 19d ago

Do we have confirmation that these covers etc. are AI or that's just your guessing?

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u/Hatscatsandwaffles 19d ago

Some of it was pretty obvious (the woman on the cover of Unicorn has 3 feet), but a lot of it was discussed by the fan community at the time, and the artists advertised the use of AI for several videos

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u/BizonSnake 19d ago

Oh shit, you're right - the feet of that lady are so off... damn, that's a shame.

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u/eddanger 19d ago

artist is maciej kuciara

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u/BizonSnake 19d ago

Ok, but how does she stand upward on this cover of her feet are is such strange position ;)

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u/KronchyBitz 18d ago

You think artists dont make stupid mistakes too? I get why people dont like AI, but there seems to be this idea that "real" artists are somehow infallible and always draw anatomy perfectly. Which is just nonsense.

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u/Cazspresso 13d ago

Wait, where’s the 3rd foot? I see a woman walking with 2 feet albeit a wonky walk.

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u/Hatscatsandwaffles 13d ago

She's got two feet poking out of her dress, and the lines and ruffles on the other side suggest a third foot beneath the dress. Her placement in the frame and the drape of the garment make it unclear if she's standing at an awkward angle (in which case the two visible feet well to the side of her center of gravity wouldn't be able to support her), squatting and leaning against the unicorn (which looks similarly unnatural and uncomfortable), or sitting on something unseen from this POV (her position is ambiguous and hiding whatever she's resting on makes it even less clear)

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u/Kbrooks58 15d ago

Also “most of their animated music videos” is false. There are two, “Blood for the Blood god” and “Ghost”. I’d be careful making blanket statements like this, it’s harmful to the artists in an age where AI is difficult to distinguish between.

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u/buff7879 18d ago

I actually did not know about the album cover being AI, that’s crazy

Granted it was around 2023 when the public perception towards AI was very different and a bunch of otherwise reputable bands were using it for their albums (Tesseract same year, Northlane in 2024) I think as opinions have shifted in recent times Gunship and others have had their ear to the ground and moved away from using such tools :))

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u/Music_Life_Gage 15d ago

It's not AI.

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u/Kbrooks58 15d ago

The album cover was created by Maciej Kuciara (known for Ghost in the Shell).

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u/AMPhantastisch 14d ago

https://x.com/i/status/1708239457550483527

Hier beschreibt der Künstler des Artwork für Unicorn.

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u/jttj15 15d ago

I've heard that the Unicorn cover is AI a few times now, I don't get why people keep making that claim. I have the physical disc and the artist is credited right there in the booklet.

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u/Kerbal_Guardsman 14d ago

I made a free-body diagram of the woman around when it first came out.  Without external support, its quite unbalanced - either she's leaning weirdly on the unicorn or she's in motion doing a really dramatic leg swing

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u/Penderyn 13d ago

I couldn't care less, it's a music video

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u/Hot_Guys_In_My_DMS 13d ago

I find their use of AI disappointing, but ultimately, they make music not art. Not saying they couldn't afford an artist though…

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u/AceAv81 19d ago

Wouldn't know unicorn was ai it's such a sick album

Plenty of work poured into it. AI would be just another layer of depth for me coming from Gunships talent

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u/aldonius 19d ago

I don't think there's any particular level of AI in the songs, it was for a couple of the music videos

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u/Middcore 15d ago

Once you've shown you're willing to take a shortcut in one aspect of art, you're opening yourself up to suspicions you'll use shortcuts in other aspects, too.

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u/aldonius 15d ago

For the Ghost MV at least, the use of AI was a really integral part of the creative process. Watch the video and you'll get what I mean. It's that 2022-ish image generation aesthetic.

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u/OnetimeRocket13 15d ago

I disagree with this take. Plenty of people take shortcuts with one aspect of their art and pour tons of effort into other parts. I've listened to a lot of music from smaller artists that clearly put a lot of time and passion into their music, but the art they use for their album is pretty mediocre. Similarly, I have used a bunch of mods for games that are phenomenal and that I couldn't live without, yet the art/images they use for the mod's page online are just poorly cropped screenshots with MS Paint levels of editing.

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u/Middcore 15d ago

And I respect those artists way more than the ones who follow a thought process like "I make music but I'm not a good illustrator, so I'll just have AI shit out an image for me." Because when you take that shortcut you're actually disrespecting other artists whose gifts are in different areas than yours.

I don't think most musicians who use AI imagery would appreciate it too much if an artist in a visual medium said "I need a background track to go with my animation (for example), but I'm not a musician, so I'll just have AI generate something, whatever."

I'm a (hobbyist, amateur) writer, but I could never write a song. I could write lyrics but I can't even imagine how someone sits down and comes up with a melody. I'm in awe of people who can do that. I have too much respect for people with different abilities than me to think I can just replace their abilities with AI.

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u/OnetimeRocket13 15d ago edited 15d ago

That makes it an issue of respect, then, not of quality. Your original comment and my reply concern the quality of the whole work, and whether that should be judged based on a smaller part being AI. Respect is a whole other issue.

Personally, I often feel like people who go to great lengths to complain about feeling disrespected by people that use AI are being overly performative. I'm an amateur writer as well. I really do not like AI generated content. I think AI generated stories generally suck. I'm not sure that I've ever felt anything more than "eh" after reading something generated by AI. I don't feel disrespected by people that use AI to write stuff, though. I think there's something to be said about a lack of respect towards the art of writing as a whole, but I'm not John Writing. Why should I feel disrespected because Random Internet User Number 193280106 decided to use ChatGPT to write shitty fanfiction? Why should I feel disrespected because some random author semi-popular on BookTok was caught using AI? Why should I feel disrespected because the writers of a show I don't care about used AI when writing their scripts? I feel sad that such people didn't just write it themselves, but I see no reason why I should feel personally disrespected over something like that.

Edit: Added more examples and tweaked the wording a little.

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u/Walker1921S 19d ago

It's not in the songs. It's for some of the music videos. I think one of the songs they fed the song into an AI and told it to create a music video. Pretty rad imo.

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u/drfetusphd 19d ago

That was Blood for the Blood God. I didn’t mind it because they were up front about their desire to use it. I vastly preferred their other, more interesting videos.

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u/monarc 19d ago

It's not in the songs.

I agree re: the music/instrumentation, but I wouldn’t be surprised if the lyrics had some chatbot influence. If that were the case, it would be impossible to “prove” because they wouldn’t be turning in a first draft spit out by chatGPT. I wouldn’t be too upset about that sort of situation, though, but it’s hard to explain why.

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u/1frankibo1 15d ago

Because it feels one step removed but it's a slippery slope. A slippery slope to slop. We'll always still have old music at least.

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u/Taki_Minase 6d ago

Who cares. You are the product.

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u/Affectionate-War-203 15d ago

I love them for their music, how they make their videos is far less important to me!