AI Art: A conversation with an AI about ethics, authorship, and creativity

Foreword

There is a war raging on the practice of using AI to create art. Most artists are vocal:

“You’re with us or against us.”

This choice being offered by your peers implies that there are only two extremes and no middle ground. That’s true for Twitter, and that’s useful for sending a powerful and thought-provoking message, but you have the right to have a nuanced opinion.

“Only a Sith deals in absolutes.”

The topic of AI art is made up of dozens of distinct ideas. For each, there is the opportunity to have a unique opinion, be it black, white, or a gradient of grey. Your opinion is subject to change over time as you research and discuss it and refine your judgment. Because of that, it’s wrong for others to shame you for what you currently believe or don’t (but good luck with that).

A discussion with ChatGPT

To get a break from the emotionally draining discussions this topic generates, I went ahead and interviewed ChatGPT, an AI, about AI-generated Art. The answers were nuanced and useful in my journey to consolidate my opinion around the topic(s).

Here is a transcript of our exchange.

💬 Hi there! We will have a discussion on the topic of AI-generated artwork. How does that sound?

💬 Could there be a bias introduced in the training material you’ve received?

💬 Let’s dive into the subject. One might believe that art can only be art if it is created by a human. What are your thoughts on this?

💬 AI solutions like Midjourney, Stable Diffusion or Dall-E: Are they just tools for artists to use, or something more than that?

💬 You mention authorship. What are your views on that? If I prompt an AI to generate an image, who is the author?

💬 Is it considered fair use to train a AI model with the work of one or many artists without their knowledge?

💬 Some would say that’s how human artists create art. Thoughts?

💬 Explain to me like I’m 5 what’s the difference between an artist getting inspired by the work of others to create artwork, and an AI using the work of others to create artwork?

💬 Can AI invent new things?

💬 What’s the difference, if any, between human creativity and AI creativity?

💬 Can AI learn like humans?

💬 Do time spent honing one’s skills or crafting a piece of art impact the value of the art produced?

💬 Using AI to spit out tons of images is too easy, and people doing this should not be called artists. Am I right?

💬 Is the ease or difficulty of making a piece of art relevant in attributing value to it?

💬 Are there unethical implications of using AI to create Art? Give me a brief list of 10 if you can find any.

💬 What advice can you give me if I want to use AI to assist me with my art in an ethical way?

💬 By using a commercial AI solution, I don’t know what material was used to train it, and I can’t be sure if it used copyrighted images or not. What should I do?

Bonus

💬 Art students fear they have no future and are facing unfair competition from AI. What do you think?

Thanks for reading!

Etienne