THE ISSUE WITH AI-GENERATED ARTWORK

The recent rise of artificial-intelligence software, such as ChatGPT, has caused controversy over the link between AI art and appropriation. Modern AI is not bound by sentence outputs— it is also able to create pictures and artwork through a machine-learning technique called “artificial neural networks.” It receives words as input and generates an image in seconds.

As the line between AI-generated and human-made art has started to blur, artists have raised concerns about their copyright protections’ being violated. In one - djourney, based on the input of multiple users, used artist Kelly McKernan’s and other artists’ work to create an “original” painting. As a result, McKernan and the other artists filed a lawsuit against Midjourney, alleging that the artists had not consented to having their copyrighted artwork included in the database, and were not compensated or credited when AI images were produced using their work.

Encapsulated by the “three

C’s”—consent, compensation, and credit—these concerns reflect the problems with AI art. The violation of copyright protections has always been an issue in the art world. However, AI has the ability to violate copyright protections more effectively and pervasively than ever before, since the artwork is made digitally and without artists’ knowledge.

On top of concerns around illegal imitation are concerns about amateur artists’ using AI. Recently, the Colorado State Fair’s annual art competition awarded its first-place award in the digital art section to Jason M. Allen’s “Théâtre D’Opéra Spatial,” which he created using Midjourney. Though Allen achieved his objective of showcasing the power of AI art, he received tremendous backlash on social media platforms. One artist wrote on Twitter, “I can see how AI art can be beneficial, but claiming you’re an artist by generating one? Absolutely not.” This quote highlights the problems with amateur artists’ generating AI art: Anyone can become an artist this way, without any training. This accessibility undermines the education and efforts of trained artists, because training an AI program is much easier and less timeconsuming than training a person.

Although it is impossible to predict the full ramifications of AI-generated art, its current existence threatens human artists’ creative property rights and ownership over their work. Art is designed to express human experiences and emotions, which AI can never fully replicate on its own. As the art world continues to evolve by embracing and rejecting ideas, art styles, and perhaps even art mediums, AI in art has a tenuous future.