Recent Controversies
1. “Théâtre D’opéra Spatial”
“Théâtre D’opéra Spatial” by designer Jason M. Allen, 2022
On September 2 2022, Jason M. Allen entered the Colorado State fair art competition with his AI programmed hyper-realistic artwork. He won the state fair competition. This was the first time an A.I.-generated piece won such a prize. However, it received a lot of backlash from artists. They accused him of cheating and plagiarism. Mr. Allen used Midjourney, an AI art generator in order to create this piece of work.
Artists reactions online
People on twitter commented:
“We’re watching the death of artistry unfold right before our eyes,”
“This is so gross,” “I can see how A.I. art can be beneficial, but claiming you’re an artist by generating one?
Absolutely not.”
“Jason Allen, you are NOT an artist. You have never used actual tools. Just texts,”
The critics from Indian Express objected to the use of AI generated artwork by saying adding prompts into art is
like “painting-by-numbers” which does not provide any real skill.
“AI cannot create art, because anything generated
from an AI is entirely devoid of messages, themes, and meaning. There is no intentional conveyance on the part of the
“artist” if said artist isn’t actively thinking about the message of their work. Which I doubt the AI does,”
The Competition
The Colorado State Fair’s fine art competition did allow “artistic practice that uses digital technology as part of the creative or presentation process.” After the competition, the judges did claim that they were unaware that midjourney was an AI software. But, they said that they would still select the artwork even if they knew as they loved the piece. They explained how they liked that the piece was so detailed and how, to them, it told a very intriguing story.
Defending
There were a few artists as well who defended Mr. Allen by saying A.I. created work is no different than using photoshop or other digital image manipulation tools.
2. Kim Jung Gi Manhwa Art
Kim Jung Gi's Manhwa intricate Art style
A renowned South Korean illustrator, Kim Jung Gi, who was known for his Manhwa art style,passed away unexpectedly on October 3 2022. Immediately after this incident, a french game developer, who uses the name 5you, shared an AI model of his work as a ‘tribute’, letting users create this style of work with just a few text prompts and asked for credits. This created a big backlash as it was considered plagiarism and a theft of Jung Gi’s work of art.
AI copy of Kim Jung Gi's Manhwa Art style, 2022
Artist Objections
“Kim Jung Gi left us less than [a week ago] and AI bros are already ‘replicating’ his style and demanding credit.
Vultures and spineless, untalented losers,”
“I think they fear that they’re training for something they won’t ever
be able to live off because they’re going to be replaced by AI,”
Cartoonist, kori Michele Handwerker wrote “Artists
are not just a ‘style.’ They’re not a product. They’re a breathing, experiencing person."
There was also a backlash against the AI work itself. People said it was missing all the “subtle brilliance of his linework”
3. The Crow
"The Crow" a short film by Glenn Marshall, 2022
In August 2022 a short film called ‘The Crow’ by filmmaker Glenn Marshall won the Jury Award at the Cannes Short Film Festival. This was an AI short film depicting the story of a dancer turning into a crow in a post-apocalyptic world. However, this AI generated work did not get as much backlash as Marshall went through the process step-by-step on how the short film was created. So this way, the viewers actually knew how much time, effort and creativity went into creating this piece of work.
-Anjali Rao