[legutierr]

Consider, however, that the output of these systems may not be copyrightable.

So, when you move human involvement up to a higher layer of abstraction, it’s possible that the economics of the whole effort will be fundamentally transformed. Meaning, if these systems displace human artists, copyright itself may cease to be a motivator of economic activity—removing a significant incentive for the production of new art.

Also, keep in mind that:

(1) there are likely to be many fewer human custodians of systems like this who sustain themselves economically than there are artists who currently sustain themselves by producing new art; and

(2) these systems are only as good as the artistic inputs that are fed to them, and is very unlikely that the contributing artists gave their consent or were compensated for their involvement in any way.

[jstanley]

Sorry, I'm not seeing the downsides. That all sounds like a big improvement.

And regarding point 2: do you think human artists are as good as they are without already having seen lots of great artworks produced by others? Human artists don't create art from an empty vacuum of nothingness either.

[legutierr]

You don’t see a downside to there being fewer artists creating art?

Art benefits humanity not only because we consume it, but also because we produce it.

Making art is part of what makes us human.

[corysama]

I’ve used Midjourney for months now. Artists love it. It will lead to fewer people creating art the same way the cars led to less people traveling. It’s like having a pre-concept artist for for concept artist. Instant style boards to run by your client.

[legutierr]

Comparing artistic production to driving is a poor metaphor.

No doubt that AI-driven tools can be leveraged by artists to create interesting things, in the same way that visual artists have used tools like Photoshop.

But there is something much more profound happening with DALL-E, etc. As I mentioned above, these AI systems simultaneously depend on human artists to populate its training corpus, while making it much less likely that these artists will be able to make a living producing art.

Even if other artists working higher-up in the value chain benefit from these systems, you are likely to see fewer professional illustrators and visual artists because these systems exists.

Something will be lost. We can hope that what we gain in return will be of equal value.