Recently, on social media, more and more netizens have been displaying photos like paintings, using the help of applications based on artificial intelligence (AI). This made some artists restless and furious.
For example, the Lens application. By paying a certain amount of money, users can turn their selfie photos into attractive digital characters, with various styles as well.
It is this kind of phenomenon that makes some painting artists in particular feel uneasy. First, of course their income can be disrupted because people prefer to use AI which is practical and fast.
Then, the AI application generates images by studying existing images, but often without the permission of the artists who created them. So the app makers get more and more money, while the artists are getting bums.
"Why pay for unethical AI art that steals from artists and doesn't even look good," wrote one artist, as we quote from Futurism.
"You can give me and I'll do a little sketch for you and you can have a profile photo without weighing on your conscience or the company that has your face," he added.
In the face of the popularity of AI image generators, many artists have opposed their use. Take Greg Rutkowski, a fantasy artist whose work has been shamelessly pirated so frequently that his style is synonymous with the cheap look of a computer.
"I might not be able to find my work out there anymore because the internet will be flooded with the art of AI," he told the MIT Technology Review. "That's concerning."