Artif cial Artistry

BY CELESTE CARPINELLI Staff Reporter

“The art industry itself is very difficult to get into, even before the presence of technology. Having something that creates an output faster and cheaper than a human could is probably not the most beneficial thing for those who live off of selling art [or] taking commissions,” Lindsey Bastis, junior IB art student, said

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a technology that allows people to make various tasks through the simulation of human cognitive features. In recent years,AI has been growing in the art industry and gaining popularity online and on social media . There is also skepticism of AI art as it threatens the creativity and the concept of art itself.Young students at Sequoia who may be looking for a career in art, may be inclined to look elsewhere because of the new tech-competitive atmosphere.

Computer programmers have been experimenting with AI art generation since the 1960s. Recent programs include the web accessible Craiyon that can generate a set of nine images based on simple text inputs from the visitor. In response to the trending topic, TikTok app developers created an ‘AI green screen’ filter where users can create AI images right inside the app. Sequoia students’ are being introduced to AI art through social media,

Bastis, recently completed a study on AI art. She found the AI programs to be much faster than conventional artwork and potentially a threat to the already low income of artists. The rise of AI generated art could potentially take over the already limited digital artist jobs.

AI technology use in art raises questions around the authenticity of artworks created. The process works by taking images from the internet relating to the text input, compiling and analyzing their structure, and constructing images from the information.

“[Art is] something that speaks to or evokes emotions in people, and is something consciously created to be art. I think it’s just a tool that people can use to expand upon their skills and explore more ways of creating,” Bastis said.

Greg Stein, Digital Arts Academy (DAA) coordinator and digital artist himself agrees that art is to its fullest with human input. Stein shares a similar comment to Bastis and what many artists and creators are expressing about AI art. increased greatly because of AI programming, thus increasing the popularity of auto generated art. Consider the social impact of AI driven social media algorithms that are engineered to keep people addicted to apps like Tik Tok so the company can sell to advertisers. creative process and behind the scenes story.

“I think that the best thing about art is that [...] it was created by people to express something about the world that they wanted to express. When machines express it, it seems a little like it loses something,” Stein said.

Sequoia students considering a career in art might find themselves competing with AI art in future, or possibly benefiting from AI art tools in their own creative process.

Many high schoolers are already consuming AI art in video games and social media such as Tik Tok and Youtube. Although the effect of AI powered tools in art creation is limited to mainstream features like grammar autocorrect and auto-coloring, the expansion is rapid.

“I think that it’s really shifted the way that we communicate to be a lot more visual. So the amount of visual stimuli that we get is so much. I mean, it’s ubiquitous, right?” Multimedia and Digital Filmmaking teacher Vanessa Mitchell said.

“Some of these AI works can be created in seconds, while it may take an artist at least a week to come up with a finished drawingnot to mention how much it costs to pay a person for that much labor.

“When you’re evaluating whether something is art, you’re thinking about the decisions made by the artist and the impacts or perceptions of both the artist in the audience,” Mitchell said.

Discourse on the legitimacy of digital art has mostly died down due to the modernization of tablets and applications, but there seems to be a general consensus on the difference between digital art and computer generated images.

“Digital art still counts as art, so long as we are talking about using iPads to draw and not robots creating things, I think it’s just a tool that people can use to expand upon their skills and explore more ways of creating,” Bastis said.

“Technology is on the rise, and I think the threat of robots taking our jobs is not just present among artists, [...] it gives people an unrealistic expectation of what artists are capable of doing as human beings,” Bastis said.

The visual media that we consume has

Artificial Intelligence and the creative arts have grown to intertwine; AI generated music, art pieces, writing and other pursuits that have been historically inspired and empowered by real human emotion. Although the feeling of human emotion in AI art may seem real, the pieces are simply a constructed collage of pieces relating to the input data given. Naturally, artists have concerns for the implications of AI art.

The definition of art has been anevolving concept throughout history, but many artists agree that a significant part of the piece is the

Overall, the topic of AI art has not been in the spotlight for long, but has the potential of taking the human creative spirit away from many aspiring artists. As for now, the general consensus varies but the threat of AI taking over is still prominent.

“I don’t think that AI art is big enough of a factor right now, to dissuade people from entering the arts. However, that may change with time, we may find that machines generate more art than we can ever use or sell. It may have put people either out of work in art, or maybe they will be less inclined to pursue it. It’s possible,” Stein said.