[yojo]

If it’s a 10x force multiplier, then one person could do the work of 10. There are two possible outcomes:

1) the lower rate per piece enabled by higher productivity unlocks a much larger market for commissioned work. No one has to lose their job, people make up the price difference in volume.

2) there is not a much larger market waiting for cheaper art. The existing pool of artists is too big, and some of them need to find new work.

My guess is lowering the price does grow the market some, but not enough to avoid displacing at least some of the artists. Whether that’s 10% or 99% depends on how good these tools ultimately end up being.

[joe_the_user]

AI is not a "force multiplier" in any literal or semi-literal way. Having an mediocre version of an image isn't something that gives an artist much of a leg up on producing a good version.

If you want something a diffusion model can produce, you can get it for nearly free. If you want something significantly better, you have to pay an artist significant money for it.

[thunderbird120]

Except it is actually if you've been following the workflows which have popped up since stable diffusion's release. These models are not limited to just making a image which vaguely matches some description. They can also inpaint specific portions of an image, turn a vague sketch into a finished looking image, and blend together different images in convincing ways. A workflow for creating a high quality looking piece goes something like this:

1) Quick, low quality sketch

2) Generate detailed scene based on that sketch

3) Fix obvious errors by re-generating specific parts of the image

[joe_the_user]

I haven't heard of anything like this but I haven't following closely.

I also have questions, what is the "Generate detailed scene based on that sketch" process? Can an algorithm do this? Can a person easily do this? I'd be more impressed than with the raw pictures. Similarly with your #3.

[thunderbird120]

The Image2Image part of StableDiffusion lets you do that. For example https://old.reddit.com/r/restofthefuckingowl/comments/x4w3mn...

[magarnicle]

I think it is a force multiplier for people who need art to create their work, but not necessarily for visual artists themselves. Images for blogs, book illustrations, game assets, storyboards for film - that sort of thing.

[HanyouHottie]

I think the demand represented by this meme [1] is one such example of a market waiting for cheaper art.

[1]: https://www.reddit.com/r/ProgrammerHumor/comments/u8j3lf/i_n...