Controversy erupts over prize awarded to AI-generated art | Arts and Culture News
Critics argue that the text-to-image system poses a threat to the livelihoods of human artists.
A game designer has cause controversy after his artificial intelligence-generated artwork took the top spot at a contest in the United States with critics calling the win a threat to child artists. people everywhere.
Jason M Allen, 39, and his Theater D’opera Spatial shot beat more than a dozen other entries in the “digital art/digital photography” category at the Colorado State Fair.
The winning artwork was created with the AI Midjourney engine, which turns lines of text into amazingly realistic graphics. The prize comes with a $300 cash prize.
AI tools for image generation have been around for years with companies like Google and OpenAI being notable investors in these text-to-image systems.
“I won’t apologize for that… I won and I didn’t break any rules,” Allen, from Pueblo, Colorado, told The The New York Times newspaper in an interview published on Friday.
However, many people have taken to social media to express their anger and despair over the award, arguing that it has taken away the human investment that goes into creating remarkable artwork.
“Jason Allen, you are NOT an artist. You have never used the actual tools. Just text,” one social media user posted on Twitter. “Midjourney can be fun, but never use it to trick other artists.”
Everyone defending AI art in these comments is really stupid. This man did not put any effort into the work. Typing keywords in a good enough sequence is not art. the fact that AI can take away the work of real artists or people in the creative field is very scary. this makes me angry. https://t.co/MNe4fJsxtx
– anakin 🌕 • selfie date: 0📌 (@anikagobrrrr) August 31, 2022
Some expressed fear it could jeopardize their livelihoods, while others argued that AI-generated art should have a separate category in the future – something Allen said in an interview. Interview with the newspaper Pueblo Chieftain also suggested as a way to resolve any future controversy.
“I’m fine with that, no problem with that. But someone has to be first,” Allen is quoted as saying.
According to the Colorado newspaper, the two judges assigned to this category didn’t know Allen’s submission was AI-generated – but they added that it wouldn’t change their decision as they were looking for “artificial methods”. the art of telling a story, the way it evokes the spirit”.