Being a digital artist and seeing AI art almost everywhere makes me question: “Why do people still use AI?”

Making art is not easy, but the joy I get out of it makes it worth all the while. From the first idea forming, looking for references, sketching, the line art, inking to finally rendering, adding the background, shadows and light-it can take hours to finish an art work and for some people even months. As much as I hate some parts of the process, seeing the finalized piece brings me so much joy.

With AI, on the other hand, all people have to do is type in a prompt and less than two seconds later, an image is made. The way these images are made is by feeding the AI mod- els art, art which the artists did not consent to be used this way, taking different aspects of their art to make an image out of stolen artwork.

Some websites like Lovart and Artlist allow users to input images so AI can use it as “inspiration.” Not only do they make it easy to steal other art work to pass off as their own, but artists with that art style get accused of using AI for having an art style that AI trains off of.

These artists try their best to show proof that they did not use AI art programs with speedpaints [accelerated recording of an artist’s creative process, a common term in the digital art community], but AI is able to fake speedpaints now as well.

Artists and writers have tried to sue AI companies for using their art to train AI models with which is copyrighted material, but not many see results due to copyright law. In one such case, the New York Times sued OpenAI for using various articles to train their GPT models. OpenAI stated in a response that “Training AI models using publicly available internet material is fair use, as supported by long-standing and widely accepted precedents.”

Although OpenAI and many other platforms allow opt-out options [the choice of not participating in something], most users are not aware of the option. In some cases, platforms like Instagram make it impossible to opt out. Digital/traditional artists, photographers, writers, musicians and even film makers are not safe from this.

Who are the real artists? It is the ones who continue to create despite every failure they encounter during their journey; who use those experiences to continue practicing and mastering their craft. The ones whose passion pushes them to do better, to create something out of nothing.

Those who defend AI art often bring up arguments such as “It helps people with disabilities create art.” Yet when you look back in history and the modern era, there are many examples that prove this wrong. Despite suffering from disabilities, physically or mentally, people still continue to create art.

In the past we have Frida Kahlo, a famous Mexican artist in the 1900s who suffered from polio, mobility issues and chronic pain. Despite the pain, Kahlo continued to paint. Another is Ludwig Van Beethoven, a German composer and pianist born in the 1770s, slowly started to lose his hearing in his mid 20s, yet he continued composing.

When it comes to the present examples, we have John Bramblitt is a painter who is blind; AlanDeconArt who is an artist online who suffers from Primary Progressive Multiple Sclerosis; Manami Ito, a violinist who lost her arm in a traffic accident yet still continues to play; and Luren Hana Chai, a painter in Hawaii, who deals with the ongoing trauma and loss of her missing mother and still continues to paint and create art. That does not even scratch the surface of the many talented disabled artists out there.

AI defenders also bring up the argument “I don’t have the resources or tools to make art” when that is not true. The tools to create art are all around you. Draw in the dirt with a stick, pen and paper, use free apps online and etc. The best example I have seen yet was a song composed
by a 5th grader using a free app called Medly. Upon first listen, you can feel the passion and love put into it. When I first listened to it, I could not believe it was made with a free music app, but I slowly fell in love with the song.

The only limit in art is your own creativity.

When I first started my art journey as a kindergartener, all I had was leftover school supplies and access to the internet, which is all I needed to get started. Once I was done with homework, I would be at the table in the living room, watching a tutorial on how to draw eyes. It did not look like an eye at the end, but I still continued to draw and practice.

At any chance I was given, I would make little doodles in the margin of my notes and draw on leftover invoice paper my parents gave me and paint with cheap acrylics I got for Christmas. Bit by bit, I would see improvement in my art and would be proud of myself-proud of how far I have come from when I first started.

A person doesn’t need much to get started. As long they have the pas- sion and drive to get better, they will create something amazing.

In the end, I will always support human artists no matter what. No matter if they have been doing art for years or just started out, I will always support their work; painters, musicians, dancers, writers and the many other creative mediums out there. I rather commission an artist who will put effort, time and passion into their piece and talk with me about the process versus a machine that frankensteins a piece made of stolen art in less than a second.