Artificial Intelligence has been a source of controversy within the art community as of late. People have been using AI to create images by typing in a prompt, which may seem harmless, but in reality, it’s stealing artwork from other people all over the internet.
AI can “create” images when given a prompt. For AI to create images, it will take from images all over the internet. It combines them using the collected data to create a picture. Ms. Kuykendall, Coronado Drawing and Sculpture teacher, stated, “Art is communicating a message, and it’s a part of your soul. Using AI, there is no soul; it’s only compiling data.” Many people prefer to have an image generated with AI rather than spend the time or money to create one themselves.
Many companies have been using AI rather than hiring an artist for any artwork they need. Many entry-level artistic jobs have been getting replaced by AI. The major concerns with this are that many aspiring artists won’t be credited when AI technology comes in and appropriates their work. Ms. Foos, Coronado Art Department Chair, stated, “Think about writing. Using someone else’s ideas is stealing. It’s no longer that original piece of artwork.” Those same aspiring artists won’t be able to get any jobs since AI can do the work for free.
There are also the issues of cultural bias in AI images. Since AI takes pre-existing data on the internet, many cultural stereotypes are seen very predominantly. Ms. Carnevale, Coronado Digital Art teacher, stated, “ It’s plagiarizing work. The generators are very culturally biased. There’s not a lot of cultural representation in AI art.” AI struggles with creating images that are not biased to different groups of people.
People can do almost anything with AI. There are very few rules when it comes to AI image creation. Anyone can use any number of artificial intelligence outlets to create whatever image they can type into the prompt. Anyone can create these images and they won’t be punished for stealing artwork. AI created art is unethical; the people and businesses that use it to create images should receive consequences.
