What is AI art?

Art created using artificial intelligence (AI) is known as AI art. When you enter a prompt, like “watercolor floral painting”,  into an AI system, you receive multiple artificially generated images to choose from, all within seconds. In this blog post, let us look at the pros and cons of using AI art, the various platforms through which you can generate AI art, AI art’s impact on artists and the role of AI in art creation today.

How does AI work?

Artificial Intelligence works because it is trained on large datasets of images collected from various websites on the Internet. Using this data, the AI system can learn to identify objects and patterns, and create images inspired from the dataset. This technology has caught on like wildfire in the past year, with many companies offering their own platforms through which you can generate AI art. 

What are the pros of using AI art?

A big pro is that nothing can beat the speed at which AI art is generated. Within seconds of entering a prompt, you will start to receive the AI-generated images. Not only that, the images generated are often far more detailed than we humans can create in that amount of time. Revisions are easy to make too. Instead of breaking out the art supplies to touch up or edit a painting, revisions can be made just by selecting the part of the image that needs to be edited, and typing in a new prompt. For example, within seconds, a red hat on a portrait of a lady can be converted to a blue headband or a golden crown.

What are the cons of using AI art?

One of the cons is the ethical considerations of using such technology. Often, the artwork that the AI system is trained on is scraped from the web without the consent of the original artist. The original artist is not compensated for their hard work, and they may even lose their jobs. An art director may prefer to generate images for free using AI instead of hiring a professional artist and paying them a wage. This creates a negative impact on professional artists today, who depend on work for a living.

Another con is the lack of uniqueness. Artists can get inspiration and ideas from all sorts of unique places, like things they see, places they visit, and even their dreams. However, AI technology lacks that unique human touch. It is unable to think for itself in a way that humans can.

What is the role of AI in art creation today? 

People seem to use it in various phases of the art creation process. For example, when coming up with painting ideas, they can throw a prompt to AI, and see what new perspectives it comes up with. Or, they can ask AI to put the final edits on a painting, by reworking some parts of an originally created image.

What are the different AI art platforms out there today? 

While the technological landscape is constantly changing, here are some popular platforms for writing this blog post. Firefly is an offering from Adobe, a company well known for its art software like Photoshop and Illustrator. Firefly can be used in conjunction with Photoshop while creating art. Midjourney is another popular platform, which runs on a Discord server. Prompts are typed into Discord, and Midjourney outputs the image accordingly. That being said, AI images can also be generated directly from WhatsApp, Canva, and other products that you use every day.

Do you want to try incorporating AI into your artwork?

You can consult with our skilled teachers at Little Artists. Think about what part of the process you would like to use AI in and how you can make something creative and original.

Your turn

Now that you have learned about AI art, what are your thoughts on the matter? Is this something you would use to make art? We have already talked about the benefits of painting in improving cognitive growth in our earlier blog post. Do you think using artificial intelligence would stunt or enhance this growth?