Is Ai ART Real?

Ai Art is edging a massive shift in human thought and creativity.

Most artists still don’t comprehend the role they can play… or the consequences if they don’t.

Evolutionary change will be so profound, and the growing gap between part time artists and lifers will become so blurred that the average art buyer won’t be able to tell the difference between an authentic hand-crafted fine art piece and a digital creation made by a computer bot. Most can’t now.

If the opposite of artificial is real, can you spot the three real pieces of art I added to the collection above from a Pixabay search for Ai? Have you also seen StockCake, where everything is Ai, including music?

Artists who embrace artificial intelligence and learn how to use it to leverage their unconscious creative thinking, will separate from the masses in a fresh meditative wisp of inspiration and new allegorical energy.

Ai is as much about changing how artists think creatively, as it is about creating art, and maybe even more.

Another critical aspect is that, in parallel, a very select group of art buyers will tag along gaining knowledge of the intrinsic value of art in a fractured Ai landscape. Progressive art buyers are already snatching up seminal pieces at bargain prices and squirreling them away in hodling patterns.

If you haven’t been paying attention to Ai art lately, or maybe even chose to ignore it hoping it would go away, my overview here will quickly get you up to speed.

First, Ai and art aren’t going away, any more than digital art will disappear. It’s just hopeful wishing from artists set in their ways who don’t want to change because it’s not their style, which is absolutely fine. You do you. Many older artists though do want to evolve, but they are either fearful, or they simply can’t change because they don’t know how. Every single generation of artists struggles through similar dilemmas.

I’m going to explore the key advantages and disadvantages here in a way that will help artists evolve their creative process, and also how they relate to today’s art buyers. My perspective is primarily for full time artists who have had a professional sales history for at least a decade and are skilled in the art of self-promotion. There is also insight however for relative beginners who are confused, and maybe even a bit intimidated to run with the big dogs.

Ai has created substantial controversy in the art world regarding innovative thought, copyright, and the value of human sentience in the creation and appreciation of art. Some artists and buyers regard Ai as a revolutionary tool, while others fear it as a threat to human creation and expression. Both are correct… to a degree.

Ai is superfast and cost-effective, and can generate art at a rate exponentially faster than any human, whether it’s layered visuals, music, video, or a manuscript, and do it seamlessly in minutes verses days. The massive volume is unprecedented, and that difference is what will have a major impact on how artists think and evolve. There is even a teaching element tacitly built into Ai that will cause artists to seriously question why they need expensive university courses on art history or technique when it’s now only a click away and getting even closer. It’s like going from a slide rule straight to a mainframe computer without passing GO.

Ai writing tools can quickly deliver scripts, novels, articles, and poetry at a pace that even commercial or advertising buyers find overwhelming. It’s already changing how buyers think, and it will shift the value of art even further from the traditional center.

If you think the market is already oversaturated with too many artists and not enough buyers, Ai has made it even more crowded in the last year and at an exponentially alarming rate.

You don’t believe me?

Take another look at the Ai search from Pixabay that lists 245,005 FREE images of Ai art, and it’s just one company.

Older traditional artists will be fine as long as they invest in building their image and brand in a way that makes them highly visible and trusted. Why trusted? It’s because Ai flooded the art world with more fakes than there is authentic art, and it’s going to get worse. If you don’t know how to stand out you’ll be lost and swallowed up in the crowd like Waldo.

Traditional artists are now well-advised to identify their art process at every opportunity so prospective buyers know immediately that it is created by human mind and hand. If artists don’t, buyers will eventually come to assume it is Ai which tosses all artists into a bargain basement bin. If an artist doesn’t know how to manage their visibility in this swirling crowd, they’ll drown. Image is everything today.

A few years ago, NFT put similar pressure on artists, and fractured the market into niche specialties. Ai has now pulverized it into pieces the size of a grain of sand, and put the last nail in the old school star system coffin.

Artists today have to either build their own community, or join one, like Patreon, or .ART for example. The choices are endless, but if an artist chooses to do nothing and lumber along as normal on their own, they’ll eventually get sucked into the undertow.

Ai works best for digital artists, and especially for NEW artists simply because Ai art tools are so incredibly easy to access and use, plus they are often free, although with limited features. Almost anyone of any skill level or age can show up today and create art for their very first time that looks pretty good, and sometimes even better than artists with decades of experience.

That old Gladwell chestnut of investing ten thousand hours to become great at something, means even less today than it ever did. Art technique can be easily created or replicated with a click.

Ai democratized art in a way we never thought possible.

Ignore it at your peril.

Ai artists, who are more like facilitators than artists in the traditional sense, have limitless styles and possibilities. Ai algorithms can easily emulate a wide variety of techniques and styles from various art forms and historical periods, and then blend it with realistic or surreal elements to mash up genres in truly innovative and exciting ways.

This ease of use makes traditional artists nervous of course because Ai is already flooding the market with art that most people truly enjoy. Again though, there is still a niche market for meticulously crafted art by true artisans that is painstakingly created in an analog fashion by hand. The new challenge though, is finding a buyer in the whirlpool that flushes art into the ether at an unprecedented rate.

Ai also presents new opportunities for collaboration, which fits hand in glove with building a community. Ai makes it incredibly easy for artists to work with each other and collaborate on things like brainstorming, visualizing concepts, and generating unique ideas. The energy from this type of collaboration is unheard of and is already presenting new perspectives that humans never even knew existed.

A large part of the allure for a struggling artist, is that Ai makes it affordable for anyone to not only create art, but to also promote and distribute it. Ai doesn’t impact fine art as much, yet, but it has already radically changed how commercial art is created, sold, and bought. Ai heavily blurs the line between fine and commercial art in a way that has elevated the average viewers expectations and sophistication for fine art, although ironically, it has also substantially devalued it due to shear volume and lack of scarcity. It’s another reason why a traditional artist’s image is so important today. If you’re the real deal and an authentic artisan, you need to clearly tell your audience, and own it. Over time this type of traditional artist will command high rates if they position themselves properly.

Let’s take a look at the downsides, and the very real disadvantages of Ai art.

The most obvious issue is a loss of the human touch, referred to as sentience, and authenticity. Ai art is literally paint-by-numbers word-prompts that lack personal emotional energy. Computers and bots can’t feel, which means the emotional element we expect from art is artificial too. Ai art lacks genuine cultural and emotional significance which leads to detachment instead of a connection. It’s subtle, but it is critically relevant to buyers with sophisticated expectations. After all, who wants to hear the personal story or experience of a bot… owned by a billionaire? Geeks maybe, but most people buy fine art for its human and emotional connection, and that won’t change in the near future, if ever.

Ai is already having a serious detrimental impact on commercial artists, but not so much on fine artists, at least not yet. It will though eventually when select buyers become more sophisticated and demand more of artists, or at least something different. We’re already edging in that direction, but it will take a few years to really manifest itself.

One of the biggest challenges of Ai art today is Intellectual Property and Ownership.

Even though Ai is already having a big impact on commercial art, there is still considerable trepidation from commercial buyers who are concerned about intellectual property ownership. It’s serious, but there is an easy work-around. To get past property issues, artists use Ai as a way to generate ideas and rough examples that they can use as reference material. All the artist has to do is modify what the computer spits out, and edit it in a substantial way, and the artist then owns the property rights.

There is also a concern when Ai borrows elements from existing works without permission because it can create unintentional appropriation and plagiarism. In this Wild West phase, it’s currently an issue, but thankfully laws are being rewritten at a rapid pace to keep up with the technology.

The law always chases technology, so this is nothing new.

Another valid criticism is that Ai art, which is created using DATA, can quickly become monotonous. On the surface it doesn’t sound like a serious issue, but over time it can lead to a dumbing down of the mainstream art buyer that leads to a homogenization of art styles and genres, and a loss of diversity and individuality that is the cornerstone for western art. Ai fosters an echo chamber mentality that serves the Asian art market better because it blends in as opposed to expressing freedom of choice. Ai is also easy for oppressive governments to regulate which makes it easier for political propaganda purposes.

Ethical issues are high on the list because Ai holds huge potential for misuse with deepfakes. I’m fascinated with this aspect of Ai, but concerned by the confusion it is already causing in society with hyper-realistic imagery that is being leveraged as propaganda and disinformation. Ai can easily and quickly, in less than an hour with the right prompts, develop a comprehensive activism campaign including copy, images, and video of any type. If we let that loose on society unrestrained, it’ll wreak pure havoc and confusion. Protest Art will become a formidable deepfake monster in the wrong hands.

Overall, Ai art could be a boon for society and the artistic world if we learn how to manage it ethically and responsibly. The caveat is that if you ignore it, you’ll give other artists carte blanche to write the rules and regulations that you’ll be forced to follow.

In order to manage AI’s potential responsibly, it’s critical for creators, art buyers, and industry stakeholders to collaborate at a new level. Creating ethical values and policies are mandatory to protect the integrity of an artist’s creativity while leveraging AI as a tool of unconscious exploration.

There is no concern that Ai will push traditional art and artists out the door, at least in the near future because buyers are discriminating and know what they want. Buyers often move cautiously, and slowly, and will establish the value, and do it easily without galleries artificially manipulating the market.

Ai can be both good and bad depending on its use and your perspective, but to ignore it will guarantee that you’ll miss out on art opportunities that are already changing how artists think creatively.

If you don’t know Ai Artist Alexander Reben below, you’re in for either an interesting surprise or SHOCK !!! His MARBLE sculpture was designed and sculpted entirely with Ai.