AI ART

by Taylor Koehnemann, Reporter

Around a year ago, the topic of artificial intelligence skyrocketed amongst people and the internet. Eventually, we got our first good look at AI with interviews of the AI and more, although one of the biggest and most popular breakthroughs of AI is its very own artwork. As popular as this artwork is, could it ruin the man-made art industry?

First of all, what is AI art and how is it made? There are a couple of particular types: the expansion photos and the description-based art. These both are different in their very own ways with the description-based art being based around a simple description of what you want the AI to show. It will then use its mind to give out the best it can, but what makes these pieces so interesting is that the AI is still developing. This means most pictures will look disoriented and disfigured while still having the main idea set within that art piece.

A good example of a description-based picture is this piece shown here of a futuristic city. As seen, it may look odd and weirdly shaped but zoomed out it still holds the bigger picture using blue and purple neon colors, tall buildings and what looks to be a rainy night sky. This is only the beginning of what AI art can be.

Next are the expansion photos. This types of AI art is used through an already existing picture, where you erase part of the picture or let it expand the picture. Some people have taken old pieces of artwork and asked the AI to expand these photos, giving it more depth than before. Others have taken photos of an existing photo, erased a portion of that picture and asked AI to add something new. These ones in particular give some of the weirder outcomes. Here is an expansion photo of the Mona Lisa, now giving a larger view of Mona Lisa herself.

Now the real question is – can this ruin the man-made art industry? Currently there is a small market for AI art mostly being sold online, similar to how NFTs were sold. To most people, AI art can’t compare to the real thing and the creative minds of people.

However, this art only continues to advance since it is AI created to become better and develop. There is a possible chance that real artwork and AI artwork could eventually both be on the same playing field with each other if the development factor does actually work well. Right now, the answer is hard to tell since this is only the start, but for now the answer is no.

But, there is still much time for this category to grow and become popular all over the world. Time will only tell.

design by: T. Koehnemann

by Connor Smith, Reporter

Truly there is no company that has a firmer clutch on entertainment than Disney, to the point where the real question is, what isn’t owned by the big mouse of destruction? To everlasting properties such as Pixar, Marvel, 20th Century Fox and so much more, Disney has been one of the biggest juggernauts in entertainment – being one of the biggest multi billion dollar companies in the world. However, this once powerhouse of a company faces dire issues that may spell out Disney’s end. If the changing of leadership and power struggles, loss of box office returns and layoffs within the company is true, then truly it spells capital devastation.

Over the past two years, Disney’s shareholders have declined 50% to an all-out high of $100 a share at the end of 2021, to only $10 in the present day. You don’t have to be a crypto genius to understand that’s a bad thing. Investors are losing faith and interest in Disney real fast. Not even the parks (which make about 28% of Disney’s revenue) are enough to keep it up for that long. Not to mention, Disney’s streaming service has lost 2 million subscribers in the past year and is still gaining in losses.

Disney’s initial plan and response to monopoly the whole entertainment market seemed like a smart move, given that they could make it work. The two powerhouses in this equation are the Marvel and Star Wars franchises. Star Wars has managed to drop in revenue with each of the sequel trilogies losing money gradually. And Marvel phase 4 hasn’t managed to bring back its own lost revenue. The only movie to even break even and make more of a profit was “Spider-Man: No Way Home.”

Now when you look at the leadership of the company, it can be pretty appalling. Bob Iger has been the CEO of Disney for 15 years. During his tenure, his plan was to essentially buy every property he could find and slap the Mickey Mouse stamp on it. The plan worked for considerably a long time, buying huge, well-established franchises like Lucasfilm, Pixar, Marvel and 20th Century Fox to add to their collection in 2009. However, as Disney is losing money, the once prominent franchises such as Star Wars are in the rumors of being sold offsomething that would be unheard of in 2012 when it was first bought.

So Iger packed his bags and left the burning shipwreck that was the company. Then stepped in Bob Chapek with a new incentive to rework the company around - to implement better resources and make Disney more effective, leading to layoffs and firing of the company. To put it simply, if they weren’t working or the content that they were producing isn’t up to standard, then sorry, you’re out.

Obviously this doesn’t look good for majority of the Disney staff who have relied on year contracts, to just collect a nice easy paycheck and push out their political agenda.

However, Disney was thrust into controversy after management’s lack of response to the legislation known as the “Don’t Say Gay” bill in Florida. This resulted in mass staff walk outs and angry tweets and social media outrage, causing Chapek to resentfully apologize for essentially being there in the crossfire. As a result, he was practically fired by the board and replaced with Bob Iger once again. Completely back tracking on their own mission statement and wasting more time. Truly a ring around the rosie of disaster.

Disney movies and shows haven’t seen much success as of late. Even the previously hyped up juggernaut of “Avatar: Way of the Water” became only the sixth film to reach that milestone in its first 14 days. Making over $1 billion so far, “Way of the Water” does not match its success as James Cameron announces that they would need to reach $2 billion to break even.

These days Disney has been staggering from failure to failure. Unable to learn from their past mistakes and get over their personal vendettas. There’s no getting around it anymore Disney is a brand in decline. Relying on making quantity over quality, meandering with no sense of purpose, exhausted of good ideas, and getting into political controversy where it absolutely shouldn’t be.

Disney is an entertainment company through and through. Its main focus should be to create good content for the public to enjoy. Not to dive into what political issue is hot at that time. It’s bad for business and it loses money. And when it comes to running a company it all comes down to that very thing. Money.

Things are going to have to change if Disney wants to stay afloat, and that savior may be on the horizon.