Generative artificial intelligence (AI) - from the perspective of a graphic artist and painter

Artificial intelligence has been on the rise for some time and is now well known. Generative AI creates digital content, such as images, text, videos, or music. Anyone can create high-resolution images for free using an AI program and use them freely. There is no copyright on these image files! Such images are now flooding the internet on a large scale, including on art portals such as Art Heroes or Artmajeur .

There these pictures are offered for purchase and the people who do this often call themselves artists and think that they have created these images themselves. But that's not true, because AI art is not regarded as the work of a human creator, so there is no copyright on these images.

I had my first experience with AI art when I got to know someone at the Art Majeur art portal who had offered AI art, that was in 2023. I immediately tried what was my riddle with the Nightcafé that is available free of charge on the Internet. At first I was thrilled how fast it was and I was looking for. It was soon clear to me: it is very easy. With some know -how and creative text ideas (prompt) that it needs to create such a picture, everyone can use it. The image tool of a AI program enables you to quickly create countless image content with simple commands, depending on the settings.

I had doubts from the start. This is sometimes due to it because, as a trained graphic designer, I learned everything in my studies, there were no computers yet. In 1993 I started with desktop publishing, which made the work very easier at work, but was still doing a lot to do in terms of creativity, thinking and implementation. Photoshop also included. My painting that I started in 2012 I worked just as hard.

Since 2022, generative AI been a serious threat to all those creative people who have learned their craft and earn their livelihood with their mentally creative implementations, such as graphic artists, illustrators, photographers, painters, video artists. Generative AI can help if you use it accordingly. Not but if you use the end result in such a way that OG seems to be superfluous.

However, to create such AI images with AI systems, the program must first be trained with a vast amount of external imagery. The interdisciplinary study "Copyright & Training Generative AI – Technological and Legal Foundations" revealed in 2024 that this violates copyright:

As a closer look at the technology of generative AI models reveals, the training of such models is not a case of text and data mining. It is a copyright infringement - according to the German and European copyright law, there is no valid barrier in sight“,

so Prof. Dornis. And further:

This study has explosive power because it proves that we are dealing with a large -scale theft on intellectual property. "

So Hanna Möllers, Justiceist of the DJV (see Urheber.info/discurs/ki-training-ist-urheberrechtsmuch )

The recycling company Bild-Kunst EV , where I have been a member for around 20 years, calls for remuneration of its artists to use their image files. So financial compensation. GEMA also calls for compensation for the unauthorized use of music files. So it is already the case that the previous regulations are infiltrated by AI art.

EU AI Act (available online) has been published since August 2024. generative AI systems . The AI ​​Act states:

The providers of AI systems, including AI systems for general purposes that create synthetic audio, image, video or text content, ensure that the expenses of the AI ​​system are marked in a machine-readable format and can be identified or manipulated manipulated. (...) "

This is where the providers of generative AI tools come in. They must ensure that AI-generated content can be technically recognized. Do they do this? Not yet, or only to a limited extent. I offer my visual art as prints on the portal Art Heroes. Unfortunately, all AI images on the portal are not yet labeled as AI, thus making no distinction between non-AI art and AI.

A clear competitive disadvantage for all those who do not offer AI pictures. AI pictures have now become popular and have become a mass phenomenon. Hobby artists create umpteen times and offer them without investing money and a lot of time. A painter often sits on his unique work for many hours, a photographer goes out and looks for his motifs or photographed in the studio, an illustrator outlines ideas and works.

A AI Hobby artist does not do all of these activities, but benefits from the AI ​​and its implementations in a way that is fed by illegal machinations. And ultimately nothing more has to do with photography, painting or drawing. No real artist would like to exchange his manual and intellectual skills for a AI program to get a result in tens of seconds at the push of a button? Or? At least I don't. Just to try it out how it works or as a source of inspiration!

I am not fundamentally against generative AI, the handling of it is crucial for me. Unfortunately, there is a lot of abuse by exploiting artists on the basis of existing images (data mining) and the same artists don't earn anything with their art because wannabe artists flood their works at thousands. I am for regulation, laws and fairness.

Reasons why I criticize AI art:

1. It is not satisfied with having a AI image generated on the PC at all, it is literally boring for me. But yes I had my flash moments where I was amazed at what generative AI can do. But also very error.
2. I would like to be perceived as a true artist, not as someone who does what millions of others in the “housewife area” now do. Anyone can handle it who is willing.
3. A high risk is that the market is flooded with AI generated products and thus lose real human works of art in visibility, finding and value. In addition, generative AI can lead to the displacement of imaging artists: inside on important platforms.
4. Generative AI use threatens work orders in both creative and artistic professions and in the area of ​​art. Due to the close integration of art production, art education and art trade, the entire ecosystem of art is structurally endangered. From now on I solidarize myself with all my colleagues (graphic artists, photographers, illustrators, painters) in the art area, be it free or commercial, whose work is endangered by AI art.
5. Copyright-protected works by artists are used as training data for generative AI models and applications. There is no remuneration for these artists who are affected.

I use AI program for certain purposes that make sense in my eyes. For example, to quickly visualize layouts or ideas, but I do the implementation myself. That is the big difference between AI furniture artists and real artists: implementation. At first, the computer makes it at the push of a button, in the latter it makes a person with ideas, thoughts and soul. - However, I see a difference in the participated image file, which is an intermediate thing. But I also get along very well without AI.

I took part in the study " AI and Fine Art on opportunities and risks " from the initiative copyright in 2024. What effects AI art on the art scene, the art market and the entire ecosystem has art.

Reading results as a 90-page PDF: kf_studie_ki_und_bildenden_kunst.pdf

The hype can no longer be stopped; it will subside and, unfortunately, become normal for art sales. However, a lot of regulation still needs to be done, both legislatively and through the implementation of the new rules. What's crucial is how people interact with the AI ​​programs that create generative AI art , and unfortunately, I don't see any positive results in this regard. It has already become a cheap mass product. Quantity instead of quality, soulless and devoid of human intellectual creativity.

The term "art" comes from "ability". A work of art arises from the skill of a person, not by text commands that a computer processes uncontrollably.