"An AI-Generated Artwork Won First Place at a State Fair Fine Arts Competition, and Artists Are Pissed"

[spryfusion]

Article from Vice: https://www.vice.com/en/article/bvmvqm/ ... are-pissed

Jason Allen's AI-generated work "Théâtre D'opéra Spatial" took first place in the digital category at the Colorado State Fair.



A man came in first at the Colorado State Fair’s fine art competition using an AI generated artwork on Monday. “I won first place,” a user going by Sincarnate said in a Discord post above photos of the AI-generated canvases hanging at the fair.



Sincarnate’s name is Jason Allen, who is president of Colorado-based tabletop gaming company Incarnate Games. According to the state fair’s website, he won in the digital art category with a work called “Théâtre D'opéra Spatial.” The image, which Allen printed on canvas for submission, is gorgeous. It depicts a strange scene that looks like it could be from a space opera, and it looks like a masterfully done painting. Classical figures in a Baroque hall stair through a circular viewport into a sun-drenched and radiant landscape.

But Allen did not paint “Théâtre D'opéra Spatial,” AI software called Midjourney did. It used his prompts, but Allen did not wield a digital brush. This distinction has caused controversy on Twitter where working artists and enthusiasts accused Allen of hastening the death of creative jobs.

“TL;DR — Someone entered an art competition with an AI-generated piece and won the first prize,” artist Genel Jumalon said in a viral tweet about Allen’s win. “Yeah that's pretty fucking shitty.”

“We’re watching the death of artistry unfold before our eyes,” a Twitter user going by OmniMorpho said in a reply that gained over 2,000 likes. “If creative jobs aren’t safe from machines, then even high-skilled jobs are in danger of becoming obsolete. What will we have then?”

[Lorem Ipsum]

I've seen better AI generated images to be honest.

[Ozzie guy]

Forgot you can't delete a post in a thread lol this post said the same as below but I forgot to quote.

[Ozzie guy]

I've seen better AI generated images to be honest.

The AI beating humans at art makes me think of when AI beat humans at chess. I think the AI being a good AI but not the best AI and still winning adds extra flavor to this moment.

[funkervogt]

"Can a robot turn a canvas into a beautiful masterpiece?"

[Miky617]

As I saw in a discussion on Reddit about this topic, perhaps the current drawback about AI-generated art is the lack of deeper, inherent meaning. I imagine it'll be a while (though I might be surprised!) before we see AI-generated art being steeped in metaphor, subtle subversions of the the "apparent" meaning, implications of off-screen events, etc. As it stands currently, AI, whether it be DALLE-2, Midjourney, Stable Diffusion, etc. are getting excellent at interpreting and creating the images outlined by the prompts they are given, but I wonder how long it'll take before we see some of the AI's own agency and infusion of implicit "themes" show up in media synthesis.

What will be the first AI-generated artwork that tells a metaphor? Or a parody? Or a satire? I'm not sure we'll even know for sure when that happens - some people might read too deeply into random elements of a piece and claim that as evidence, whether or not it was actually put there for that purpose or not. A cigar being just a cigar and all that. On the other hand, some people might stubbornly refuse to acknowledge it and insist the work is only surface-level. Even now there's a huge spectrum on how much agency people are willing to give current AI.

However for the most part this is all beside the point. Pictures and art that aren't supposed to be deep and contemplative pieces are comfortably in the reach of AI now. Stock photo publishers in shambles. Commission artists sweating. This is a preview of the disruption and democratization that AI will force on us en masse over the coming years. What will the artists do when everyone is an artist? Same for programmers, consultants, or any service oriented job. That's a topic for other threads though I guess

[Hournmentent]

I used this new tool once for a couple of days that draws pictures on demand and it takes a lot of practice to get really cool. So when will you be able to write music on the same level.