ARTIFICIAL ART

AI art generators are robbing the future of creativity and art

by emma clement online editor in chief

Almost everyone has been called a copycat before. It’s within human nature to feel inspired by someone’s work and want to accomplish that same greatness.

But we’ve also all been on the other side of this and felt the annoyance that comes with someone calling your work their own. This annoyance is what many artists are feeling about recent gains in the popularity of AI art generators.

Stable Diffusion, the AI art generator that serves as the basis for many of the programs commonly used online, is an open-source image-spawning program. This program allows users to type out descriptions of an image and the AI will generate that image.

But what many users of these generators don’t understand is that they take aspects of already existing art from databases, often without the knowledge of the artists that created the pieces the AI is learning from.

This is the case of Kelly McKernan, Karla Ortiz and Sarah Ander- son, the three artists behind a recent lawsuit against AI art generators. For McKernan, finding out that her art was an inspiration was initially exciting. But she soon realized that the generator allowed anyone to type in her name and create an original piece of art in her style, with no credit to her whatsoever. This realization made McKernan angry on behalf of all artists. Ortiz and An- fusion create art in specific artists’ styles in an instant with no credit to them, even though it may have taken the artists hours to create the original piece. derson shared similar feelings. A world in which anyone can generate art in an instant creates a lessened need for independent artists like McKernan. It’s also harmful because generators like Stable Dif-

Art generators are not only unfair to current artists, they are also discouraging to potential future artists.

As a person who has considered a career in art, knowing that my work could be used in this way makes me wary of pursuing this route. This thought is not uncommon which should be incredibly worrying.

Whether it be graffiti to support a movement or a fine art piece about injustice, art is a vehicle for social change. Furthermore, art is entertainment; animated movies could not exist without digital artists. Finally, art contains great cultural and historical relevance. There is a reason many history classes include art in their curriculums.

The fact that art is essential means that it needs to be protected. Unregulated AI art generators, like Stable Diffusion, are threatening artists’ rights worldwide, thus government regulation and clarified protection of artists’ rights to their work is key to navigating this new world of AI generated art.

The loud thump of basketballs dribbling against the gym floor. Players in eccentric uniforms bolting across the court. And a few students watching from the sidelines. Playing school sports is a common piece of many student’s high school experience. Just two miles away at Okun Fieldhouse, there is another group of students playing basketball simply for fun.

Every December, students get together to play basketball. Games are kept brief; the clock runs for both 20-minute game halves which are separated by a two-minute halftime.

The league, which brackets teams by grade level, makes for matchups where students play against teams of the opposite gender. For sophomore Brynn McGillicuddy, a member of the only girls team in the league, the Pink Pumas, this is not a problem.

“A bunch of the guys in my grade play rec basketball, so we decided we were going to do it too,” McGillicuddy said. “We don’t take it very seriously, but it feels like we have more fun than some of the other teams do because we don’t take it super seriously. For us, we’re the only girls team so it’s more just playing to have a good time instead of trying to

For junior Conner Clifton, the opportunity to play sports for fun with friends and avoid injury convinced him to join his 10-person rec team, the Shawnee Milkmen.

“My friend [junior] Jacob Morton asked me if I wanted to play with his team,” Clifton said. “I had no other way to compete through the winter since I’m not doing winter sports so I was open to the idea.”

Senior Zack Kellogg, who used to play school basketball, switched to playing rec ball with friends he has known since middle school. The transition allowed Kellogg to make memories that he believesw he wouln’t have made had he continued to play school ball.

“School basketball is a big commitment. Rec basketball isn’t really a commitment at all,” Kellogg said. “It’s a lot less commitment and a lot more fun too.”

Clifton encourages students to try rec basketball, but not necessarily for the athletic aspects.

“Playing rec basketball keeps you physically active, which is good, but it also enhances friendships,” Clifton said. “I’ve just built stronger friendships through it, spending more time with my friends has made us closer. I got at least a little bit better at basketball, but for me, it’s mostly about the friendships.”