This may well be a controversial post, bear with me and, if you’re going to comment, please play nicely.
Over the last few years, I’ve paid a lot of money to artists for one thing and another. Book covers, bespoke character drawings, branding and the like.
It’s very difficult to get specific images for the type of thing that I write on stock picture websites. I’ve employed a designer, paying a lot and waiting for ages while ideas are refined and perfected.
I never minded paying, I wanted the benefits of a skill I didn’t possess myself. It was part of the process.
That all changed when I moved away from novels and started writing short fiction on Medium.
I needed images and I needed them fast.
Here are some examples of the concepts for images that I’ve recently used to illustrate short stories and weekly serial fiction on Medium.
- A discretely hidden door in a dark-walled corridor reveals a small staircase.
- A blonde woman sits watching a television in a 1950s-style room.
- A multi-purpose vehicle, with a hull and tracks, in a jungle setting. Sci-fi style.
- A group of white rocks floating in space, with a small silver spaceship flying between them.
The actual prompts I used to create my final images are considerably longer and more detailed.
Imagine how long it would take an artist to produce them to my satisfaction.
And the cost.
I’m sure you can see the attraction of creating an unlimited number of images like those at the click of a mouse. Available almost instantly and all showing exactly what I want. Multiple images for a lot less than the cost of a single one, with unlimited revision.
For someone who needs artwork of a specific nature on a daily basis, for projects that are written on the fly, there really is no other option.
The thing I hear is that A.I. art will destroy traditional art. My humble opinion is that it won’t. People said the same about T.V., that it would destroy radio and cinema. Which never happened.
The fact that I’m creating those images is not taking work away from an artist, because I would never have tried to commission them in the first place.
It’s here, you might not like it, the object now is to work with it and incorporate it, so that it becomes part of the fabric.
Another thing often said is that it destroys creativity. Have you tried using it? You can’t just put a couple of words in and expect a perfect result, every time. You have to be creative and precise with your prompt or the result is useless.
Garbage in = Garbage out.
It’s a lot like writing a book, the more creative you are, the better the result.
In a way, all that’s happened is a shift towards the creativity of the prompter, away from the interpretation of that idea by the artist.
I understand all the arguments about how artists have been used without their consent to train the A.I. and I sympathise. I’m pretty sure that my written work has had the same treatment, to train the A.I. text-generating apps that are currently available.
For what it’s worth, I don’t use A.I. text generators. I’ve taken a look at a few, compared to the image generators, their output is miles away from having the same sophistication as the work of a real writer. However, they are only ever going to get better.
In his novel 1984, George Orwell spoke presciently about “novel writing machines” and that was published in 1949.
On a personal level, I would have no objection to paying a monthly subscription to an A.I. art service.
Provided I was sure that the majority of that fee went to the artists whose work had been used to train the modelling software.
At the end of the day, I can do nothing about the rise of A.I. The genie is out of the bottle and no amount of complaining or shaming will put it back in again.
And there is one more thing to consider.
Other people are currently using it, gaining an advantage over me. Whether you think it’s fair or not, it’s happening.
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Kazz
That’s such an interesting article. I too have a love hate relationship with it, although I haven’t used it except to play.
I have ChatGPT, and it feels like cheating to use it for writing. It’s good though, but stories lack the emotion I can give it.
I’ve seen people produce drawing and it’s imaginative and excellent. I asked for it to draw me something and the result was a tiny piece of nothing, lol.
You mentioned there is room for it, and I think you are right. Just like ebook and paperback, there is room for both because they both do different things.
I’m not on Medium, but you are the second one I’ve heard talk about lately. So I’ll check it out.
Richard Dee
Good points, thank you. In an ideal world, it would not have been developed without the input of creators, with proper acknowledgement and recompense. However, we are where we are.
Caz
I’m learning a lot from you Richard. Great information.
Richard Dee
Thank you, great to be able to share.