Not long ago I came across a website (https://www.artaigallery.com) selling art ONLY created by AI and it made me start thinking about the topic. What is AI generated art? What is the quality like? What could this mean for 'human' artists?
First off, AI generated art isn't FULLY original. The program is fed images of art by REAL artists and then creates its own versions of art using algorithms and calculations to generate images.
I browsed the gallery of art available and my first thought was that the art seemed a bit more on the abstract side, occasionally very abstract. The portraits usually had skewed features and sometimes the colors fell flat as you see in the second image below. There's no interesting light source or warmth.
The floral and landscape painting, to me, appeared to be the 'best' of the art available, but still had a more abstract appearance. often shapes and lines are unclear. As you can see in the first image below, the 'tree' on the right side just doesn't make sense as the trunk is jumbled into odd shapes and colors resembling a tree.
The strength of AI generated art falls in the abstract category. However as an artist who has created abstract art in the past, I feel like it lacks the ability to create anything along the lines of a human. It's neat to look at, but there's more to experience as a viewer than just weird shapes on a canvas. When I view abstract art created by an individual, I try to empathize with the artist and attempt to understand whatever the artist is conveying through the use of shapes, lines, colors... There's an extra emotional dynamic that you experience. When I look at these AI generated images, knowing they were created by a program, I don't feel the same emotional response.
Another thing that surprised me was the prices of the work. You can purchase art anywhere from $39-$98. This saddens me because I see many 'human' artists selling their art for way less and they actually have spent many hours studying and practicing in order to create quality works. I noticed that Art AI (the website selling all the art I've shown) seems to create a more unique demand by only selling one copy of an art print - even though they easily could reproduce the works. This makes the art seem more original and unique which may be an incentive for buyers. They also offer a certificate of authenticity. While browsing the site, I kept getting notifications in the bottom corner about paintings being sold - and I think this tactic is a way to make you feel that the art must be high in demand - because people are clearly buying it.
Overall I don't see AI generated art taking over the art world anytime soon. The works it creates are certainly interesting to look at but still have a surreal/abstract/dream like quality that really only covers the needs of a small audience when you consider the huge art market out there - like concept art (games, backgrounds, characters) or graphic design (logos, brochures, business cards). I can't deny that I think it would be a neat thing to own a piece of AI generated art just to have it as part of my personal collection, I think it would be more of a one-off purchase just to have a piece of interest to talk about and display. But I don't need an entire collection of computer generated art to enjoy the uniqueness of it.
Have you explored the world of AI generated art? What are your personal thoughts and experiences. I'd love to hear from you!
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