No AI Here, Friends
I posted a comic illustration of my own "Starter Pack" a number of weeks ago on Threads when #starterpacknoai was trending all over social media. I initially didn't know the context behind it, and thought it was just a viral trend among artists until I finally started seeing the AI generated versions-- they were complete trash after only being exposed to artist renditions the whole time!
Anyway, the current climate surrounding AI art is very hostile within the artist community, and rightfully so. While there are mixed opinions, the majority is angered by the low effort plus blatant theft of artwork, and it raises concern about intellectual property being used for profit. I understand that a way to combat it is to opt-out of AI training, which LLM companies have started to implement, but previous versions of their training data could still include artwork from those who opt out :/
I personally haven't seen my style in AI form out in the wild since I'm just a tiny artist in a random corner of the web, but there are some sellers on Etsy who have inserted my original designs into AI softwares to generate horrible, HORRIBLE, versions of them. The use of AI is one thing but to not have any ideas of their own? It's very shameful.
It's still pretty early to know what the future is but tech moves fast and AI has been rapidly evolving since tools like chatGPT were released. Did you know that no one knew AI would take over human creativity first, not even the developers? That's terrifying. There's a lady, I'm not exactly sure who she is (I wouldn't want to name her anyway), but she made an infamous comment and it goes something like, "If AI can take over your job, then your job shouldn't have existed in the first place". Oof, if there was an award for most out of touch statement, she takes the cake.
Anyway, despite the brutal reality that AI is part of our lives now, we can push back and show that typing words in a software to create art holds no weight against real creatives/artists. Hoping to see more movements like Starter Pack No AI in the future.
