A Lost Art

There has been a lot of worry online about the modern state of the arts and entertainment. It used to be because of the attitudes of the older industry stifling creativity and connection with patrons for a system that works more or less like a creaking factory belt, pumping out generic slop with a tired brand slapped on top. Now, the worry comes from the progression in technology that supposedly will make creators of just about every sort of art redundant. Of course, the old industry's obsession with making more money for less effort caused this so-called problem, but there really isn't an issue here at all if one thinks on it. Despite the rise of automation and devaluing of artistic expression by those "in charge" of things, nothing has really changed.

Perhaps you, dear reader, are confused. I should probably start from the beginning: the subject is about the growing usage of computers and AI in the realm of art production. Less and less of it is done by human hands, and more is being filtered through automation and algorithms, something big corporations love more than anything in order to cut costs. Naturally, artists are worried about their place in this new world when they are so easily replaced.

But they are not, this is why these worries are silly. Let me explain from the beginning. We will have to go back to the start to understand how we got here.

If you've been beholden to the talk on social media recently, especially in artist circles, you might have noticed the newest topic making the rounds: that of AI-created art actually starting to shape up into a viable thing, whether for book covers or just general art. There has been a flood of new (and free!) programs offering you ways to construct art based on prompts you put into the search bar to get whatever you want. Naturally, this has become a big topic of debate among those who do such things for a living.

One such example exists at the top of this very post. Author David V. Stewart created that cover for his book using AI. There is no commissioning or Photoshop at play: he simply put it through an algorithm, He writes about the subject here. 

He also created a video on how he did it on YouTube:

If you are interested in how this all works, I highly suggest watching his video. This is still a fresh new concept, but it is primed to make waves in the future, and far sooner than you might think. AI art is not going away.

Should you want to see more examples of how this works or how to use it for your own benefit, I suggest reading his above post, too. It covers all the bases about where we are. Long story short: putting in the correct information might net you some solid art that can outdo both stock photos (even through photoshop) or commissioned work. And it's totally free.

I'm not going to talk about the process of how AI art works specifically, you can find all sorts of commentary on how that subject for yourself, but I am going to talk about the bigger issue that clings to this topic like smoke to a fire. New inventions like this aren't going to change the general feeling going on in certain circles about how computers have devalued art. Not only that, how audiences have been trained to expect and love such things.

Author Rawle Nyanzi has also been posting non-stop on Twitter about how easy it was for him to create characters through putting cheap and quick drawings through the AI. Check out his twitter timeline for many examples he experimented with to get his desired results. Suffice to say, this sort of thing will only get better as it develops.

One such example:

Here is the twitter thread for this post.

So the question remains: what does this invention's impact mean for artists when potential patrons can simply put a prompt into an AI and get the image they desire instead? Does this new AI source replace artists? Should those who draw for a living be worried they are being replaced? How can you compete with ease of use and a free cost, after all?

This is where it gets complicated. In this case, we have to look to short term vs long term applicability of this invention and who will primarily use it.

Let us first proceed from the unavoidable reality that these programs will eventually be able to pump out the exact picture you desire, pixel by pixel, in the future. This technology will only get better. You have to accept that much. Of course it will never be able to do anything complex like full comic pages or the like, drawings that require specific positioning and flow, and these AI pictures are put in the public domain immediately once created, (though you should look up the legality yourself, don't just take my word for it) which already limits the sort of things these computer brains can create. Putting all that in mind, what it can and can't do, what does this mean for artists of the future when the technology only improves? What can they offer that computers cannot? Well, a lot.

There are a few things that will fall by the wayside, again, should things continue forward in their logical progression. The first is that concept art for bigger projects is a lot easier with AI, at least when building from scratch and is a lot less harsh on the wallet. Finding the basic designs you need and then taking it to a living, breathing artist afterwards to spit-shine it into a proper piece would probably be a lot easier for patrons whose wallets are a bit thin. I don't think anyone would argue about this change not being good in the long run.

The other major thing that will change, and believe it or not this is mainly for the bigger artists who live off these commissions, is pornography. They will take a hit here, and for very obvious and expected reasons.

Think of it as rationally as you can. An AI can easily replicate poses, positions, skin, clothes, or locations, with no real effort except a prompt. Pornography is the most base and easy thing to make, because it is entirely clichés that have been copy-pasted millions of times in every medium. Artists get the majority of their money from commissions of those who purchase this exact smut from them. If said patrons can get their disposable porn for free, and made custom to their specific tastes with a simple AI algorithm, then why would they ever spend money to buy it? It would save them a lot of money. Whoever invents this, and they will invent it, this is how the industry thrives, is looking to make a killing on it. Artists who live off porn commissions should be aware: AI will come down hard on this part of the business.

This means that artists, should they want to survive in this new landscape, will have to work twice as hard for less return than they ever had before. You will be like us writers are today, basically. Artists need to stand out and show their own distinct identity and style that puts them above not only other artists, but machines themselves. They must prove their worth in a landscape littered with easy options. People won't stop commissioning artists, of course, but artists are going to have to put more of themselves and their vision into even the most basic commercial art in order to justify being used over a program that can replicate the basic needs for any patron who wants the base thing. In other words, we are at the point where they will have less of a return on harder work. It's only going to get tougher. This is, unfortunately, the way the industry is today.

The original tweet.

It doesn't stop with artists, by the way. I should also mention that there are AI programs in the work for writers, too. I am not writing this from a place of safety or attempting to look down on illustrators. Every nook and cranny in regards to art and entertainment production is currently under the gun of AIs being trained to replace humans. Once Disney gets their own MCU algorithm, for instance, they'll be able to make movies without even having writers pen the clichés out for them. If you think the audience would care about a lack of humanity to the writing, you do not realize how disposable every aspect of creation is seen today after years of devaluing originality and soul for mindless trope worship in art. No one will care when this replacement eventually happens.

This is what happens when creativity is turned into forcing creatives to work on an assembly-line version of art and entertainment at the expense of any higher aim or connection. The end result is that it becomes extremely predictable and able to be made easily by an algorithm. What separates humans from robots is the soul, our inner workings, and outer personality that stems from it. Our observations and musing about life is something only we can do: but that has been replaced with mindless consumption and a rotating door of nihilistic themes. A machine can't replicate the former, but they can replicate the latter, which is what audiences have been trained to expect from their art and entertainment. 

Unfortunately, audiences have been trained to reject anything aside from corporate approved formulas designed to gave the top hats more in their pocket and stories that think base pleasure is all life is for. To break that conditioning that has been going on for decades at this point, creatives have to work much harder than they used to and for much less in return. You will never be a Rothfuss of a Martin in this new world: you can't afford to be.

Is that fair to creatives? Probably not, but it's reality. Much like how NewPub writers have to work twice as hard with half as many resources as OldPub, just to break even, or how independent comic book teams are ignored by supposed aficionados of the medium who report only on giant conglomerate company IP instead, unless you are focused on making the best art you can, you have little chance of finding an audience to begin with. Your audience is a lot more particular, and you have to work accordingly.

You can't compete with the deep pockets of the giant media conglomerates, but you can compete creatively. This is actually the easiest thing you can offer over them. The deficiency in the old system will be even more obvious when they begin to replace their in-house human cogs with AI that can pump their formulas out cheaper and faster. To be honest, looking at the covers and posters of everything the old industry puts out right now, one would have to find it hard to believe they don't already use primitive AI to design everything. It's already soulless.

The old industries are hollowed out as it is. Putting computers in there won't change a whole lot about how they operate. It will just make their descent more obvious for those who care about nothing but consumption and moving on to the next (not-so) new thing.

We're becoming more and more gutted in regards to higher experiences or aspirations these days, almost as if those in charge want us miserable at all times. Thankfully, we have the rise of independent spaces storming the online arena to keep you well stocked in art and entertainment. There you can still find the human touch. These new spaces might not be what you expect, especially if you were raised on corporate gruel, but it's guaranteed to be better than that tired slop the mainstream has been shoveling out for decades. NewPub is just one piece of this ever-growing pie.

Because at the end of the day, this is what your choice is going to be: safe and approved formula handed down from your betters for acceptable consumption, or wild and crazy art and entertainment from those just like you who want to go to different places. They are two vastly different choices before you, and only stands to change and grow as the years go on and the culture mutates and shifts around us all. Only one is a viable path forward.

Which path will you travel, and who will you choose to be? A consumer or a patron? The decision is ultimately up to the customers.

The tweet above is here!

Essentially all of this is just the next step down the road we were already traveling before this possibility was even a punchline in old late night comedy shows. Replacing God, family, and community, with brand labeling leads said brand labeling to be reshaped for whatever purposes those who own it desire. They know they can control you with it. As long as Product has that brand name on the box, you will consume whatever it is--and those in charge know it. This behooves them to control that brand like their lives depended on it: because it does.

This means that the only real way to offer an alternative to this vapid landscape is to offer a real alternative to it, something new and completely unlike what the mainstream offers today. In order to do this, one would have to strive to become the polar opposite of what this dead end industry is currently becoming. Eventually, they will restructure themselves into an AI-fronted factory-line of product meant to satiate the bare-minimum of audience enjoyment while parting you from more and more of your paycheck. That is, after all, what streaming already does. It's basically a click farm for those who think of art as nothing more than a drag on a cigarette.

A true alternative to this system requires going a completely different way from the mainstream. This is why it was called "alternative" rock back in the day. That is, before the mainstream consumed that into formulaic goo, too. The only difference here is that hijacking an aesthetic or a movement based on creativity and freewheeling ideas can't be co-opted to work on a belt-line. This is why, for instance, the Pulp Revolution was never actually taken over. It is built on principles and ideals the mainstream rejected long ago. They can't take over built on the opposite of what they are, because they can't make anything like that. These two paths can never converge on each other. It is impossible when they are each defined by things the other does not do, and the audience knows it. Once the audience realizes their options are a lot better than they think they are, the cultural landscape will change nearly overnight.

Should artists or writers be worried about being replaced by machines? No, because that is a mainstream worker bee problem. You were never part of the mainstream's world to begin with. They were already pushing outsiders to the margins and those with true alternative ideas were being labeled bad names by their media lapdogs long before this. They do not care about the customer, they do not care about their creators, and they do not care about either the past or the future. They just care about what makes it easier for them to part your money from your already thin wallet. There was never a scenario where you reading this (whoever you may be) would have had any control in their manufactured playgrounds or have a platform to spread your unique ideas. At best you would only be a tool for them, and then disposed of later.

All you can do, at this point, is to keep producing and showing the audience, and any potential customer, your own results. It might take a long time, but it is all that you can do. Prove to them that the NewPub arena and independent spaces are wilder, more fun, more exciting, and full of fresh ideas that the stale mainstream no longer has or wishes to engage in. It really is like choosing one of two paths at the fork in a road, and eventually one will be made for you.

Which one will we choose? In order to entice those to go down our path, we will have to give them plenty of reasons to do so. Understand? So let's give them that reason.

The original twitter thread is here!

At the end of the day, there is no reason to despair over computers "taking" your hobby or your career, because it's not and never really can, especially if you are a real artist. You aren't making conveyor belt art that can easily be replaced by a machine checking the correct boxes: the mainstream is. Your own soul shows you that you are irreplaceable.

People will never come to you for mere product they can guzzle like state-mandated soma from the mainstream. That is not what you are here to get from you. Perhaps, if anything, machines being able to sleepwalk art for easy bucks will prove to all of us how important this was to begin with. This could very well be the shot in the arm we need to reevaluate where the art landscape is and where to move forward. Truth be told, we've needed that wake up call for a long time now, and this might finally be what we need.

Times change, and they are even changing right now, but there is no reason to ever despair. The human spirit was made to endure much tougher stuff than this. Even if machines and AI become popular to the point that they consume the mainstream whole, it still won't actually matter to those who care about art. To be quite honest, this is a speed bump at best. Keep your eyes on the road.

Once we forge a new future built on the foundation of a strong past, only then can we finally show what flesh and blood can do in an increasingly artificial world that devalues both. No matter what changes in the future, we will always be human and we will always create.

There is nothing else we can be. Why worry? The future hasn't been written yet, so get creating. We've got trails to blaze.

Learn where the old industry went off the rails today!