[dartos]

For now.

It’s just market forces being unsure about the future of hiring artists.

Companies are like lemmings, they just follow one another.

Artists already know that gen AI is just another tool in the toolbox.

We’re just waiting for MBAs to also realize this.

GenAI making artists obsolete is a dumb idea. No MBA is going to be trying to coax a GenAI model into making an image.

[cruffle_duffle]

> GenAI making artists obsolete is a dumb idea

This is true for just about everything, honestly. The more you play with these tools (and use them in anger to do real shit) the more you push their boundaries and learn what they are good for and what they aren’t. You also quickly realize, like any other computer tool, there is a certain skill you need to have in order to provoke these things into generating the output you expect.

They can be time savers but also time wasters.

But what they aren’t gonna do is make the employees of entire industries vanish overnight. But I will say you’d be a fool to ignore these tools because once you master them they can be a pretty awesome force multiplier.

That all being said, many times it feels like it’s just a fancy, more annoying Alexa that you have to fight with to get the results you want. But alas…

[echelon]

I don't think I made my argument clear. This isn't about companies not paying artists, it's about peer-to-peer opportunities contracting and the market shrinking at the bottom.

https://www.reddit.com/r/artistforhire/

This is hardly the only community for this, and it's evaporated into a ghost town. Prices have decreased an order of magnitude.

This is one of the ways up and coming artists without professional training get started earning money from their skill set.

You should see also how Fiverr has filled up with GenAI artists that are pricing out traditional artists. Fiverr isn't typically a place for highly skilled work - it's for newbies and developing world opportunities. And now the money is thinning out.

[dartos]

Oh yes absolutely.

Contract art for individuals looking for a custom image has been devastated by GenAI.

This makes a little more sense as the bar for quality is much lower than a widespread commercial product and most individuals are willing to compromise on that to get a good desktop wallpaper quickly for free.

Even local events have been using AI banner images.