The BBC did a piece about this. It's an active item of discussion among Inkbunny staff. I'm not sure we'll come to the same conclusion as FA.
I see an opportunity to democratize artistic expression - at least in the area of conceptual art, as opposed to detailed commissions. Imagine all those stories that might be enjoyed as comics, or animations, but realistically will never even get a unique cover image without such tools.
There will always be room for artists to use the tools available to create artwork of a higher order; just as synthesizers and drum machines did not end the music business, but transformed it, opening up new possibilities. But I can foresee a time where there is less need for cookie-cutter digital art, and that may impact some artists, until they adapt.
If nothing else, this may promote a resurgence in traditional art, which I feel has been undervalued within fandom in recent years. Certainly, you can get a machine to duplicate that, too, but it may be more time-consuming and expensive, such that it cannot scale.
It should probably be possible for people to identify and, if desired, avoid such content. Credit is important, too - and yes, it is likely going to be contentious if a system has been trained on a large number of images, but that is far preferable to one which uses a small set of work and clearly duplicates the output of a specific group or person.
From a sheer resources standpoint, there may also be capacity issues with the number or uniqueness of such images generated, but this is already something sites have to deal with when hosting 3D art or photography. Nevertheless, with the tools that exist today, getting what you want beyond the initial prompt can still take a significant amount of time - and this indicates there is a level of artistic discernment going into the process.
Is this a crisis or an opportunity? Or both? It'll be interesting to see the results.
The BBC did a piece about this. It's an active item of discussion among Inkbunny staff. I'm not sure we'll come to the same conclusion as FA.
I see an opportunity to democratize artistic expression - at least in the area of conceptual art, as opposed to detailed commissions. Imagine all those stories that might be enjoyed as comics, or animations, but realistically will never even get a unique cover image without such tools.
There will always be room for artists to use the tools available to create artwork of a higher order; just as synthesizers and drum machines did not end the music business, but transformed it, opening up new possibilities. But I can foresee a time where there is less need for cookie-cutter digital art, and that may impact some artists, until they adapt.
If nothing else, this may promote a resurgence in traditional art, which I feel has been undervalued within fandom in recent years. Certainly, you can get a machine to duplicate that, too, but it may be more time-consuming and expensive, such that it cannot scale.
It should probably be possible for people to identify and, if desired, avoid such content. Credit is important, too - and yes, it is likely going to be contentious if a system has been trained on a large number of images, but that is far preferable to one which uses a small set of work and clearly duplicates the output of a specific group or person.
From a sheer resources standpoint, there may also be capacity issues with the number or uniqueness of such images generated, but this is already something sites have to deal with when hosting 3D art or photography. Nevertheless, with the tools that exist today, getting what you want beyond the initial prompt can still take a significant amount of time - and this indicates there is a level of artistic discernment going into the process.
Is this a crisis or an opportunity? Or both? It'll be interesting to see the results.