The Artist Becomes the Tool: The Impact of AI in the Art Worl

Machine Hallucinations by Refik Anadol, an art installation that ran from September 5th, 2019 to February 5th  2020 at Artechouse NYC, that utilized A.I. algorithms in a form of 'data painting.'

By Eli Kowar

Two new galleries, Offline and Heft, launched in April on the Lower East Side and specialize in digital art, or “NFTs, non-fungible tokens,” and AI art. However, AI is divisive in the art world. While some believe it is a tool that will open a world of possibilities for artists, others believe that the use of AI in creative fields devalues human talent and lacks the depth and complexity that human-made art has, and maintain the position that NFTs pose a 
danger to the average digital artist’s livelihood.

Quite a few artists have claimed that their own art has been stolen and is being minted as an NFT by 
someone else and sold on platforms like OpenSea and Twinci, which are notorious for being loosely regulated and plagued with scams, according to Jacklin Kwan in Wired magazine. The NFT marketplace is unregulated, and some artists have reported fraudulent sales, forcing these platforms to take the art down, only for scammers to reupload the stolen work elsewhere. These artists make nothing from these sales and instead are forced to keep an 
eye out for their own work on unauthorized marketplaces to prevent future theft, which is not realistic in the long term, as these artists often lack the time and resources to pursue legal action.

Another common critique of wholly AI-generated art is that although the work may look aesthetically pleasing, upon 
closer inspection it tends to be shallow, relying on patterns and repetition, making many generated pieces imitations of more complex art. David Schwittek, an associate professor of art at Lehman College, said, “AI only repackages the human creativity in its training data — it has no integrity, no lived experience, no conscience. Human artists also synthesize influences, but we do so through intuition, error, emotion, and often from places even we can’t fully explain. AI’s process is purely programmatic. While the outputs may look creative, they lack the depth and meaning that comes from being made by a living, feeling person.

In short, AI only outputs what it is fed and what it is trained on. As AI art generators grow in popularity, artists face a new form of theft: theft of art to be scanned to train these tools to mimic their styles.

But how can artists opposed to AI generators being trained on their work without their permission protect themselves?

Jonah Brucker-Cohen, an award-winning artist and associate professor at Lehman College, said: “Artists have a few ways to keep AI from training on their art. They can use tech tricks, legal options, and team up with others. Adding copyright info or Do Not Train tags to files tells everyone who owns it and what they want. Also, tools like Glaze and Nightshade can mess with images just enough to confuse AI. Putting work on sites that block scrapers is a good idea, and sending takedown notices if someone uses your work without asking also helps. Joining groups that push for clear rules about how AI datasets are made can make a difference too. It’s about owning your work, deciding where it goes, and making sure AI needs your permission to use it.

“It’s about owning your work, deciding where it goes, and making sure AI needs your permission to use it.” - JONAH BRUCKER-COHEN, AWARD-WINNING ARTIST AND ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR AT LEHMAN COLLEGE

When asked if he thought that AI would devalue the time and skill of a human artist, Bartholemew Bland, executive director of the Lehman College Art Gallery, responded, “There is still the desire for the artist’s hand in work. So, whether it’s a print or a lithograph ... or whether it’s a photograph or poster of something, there’s always this sort of distancing from the hand and the desire to see the hand sort of make ... somewhat sort of religious desire to make the object precious. And that’s very powerful, I think ... I don’t know that AI necessarily undercuts that.”

Simply put, the need to create is human. No AI can take that away from us.