Artists will leverage generative AI rather getting replaced by it- what are the stakes?
- tneeahc
- Dec 16, 2024
- 5 min read
Our nomadic ancestors, I believe, would have been more captivated by the potential of AI than we are today. As AI continues to evolve, there's a growing concern that it might replace many jobs, including those of artists. While this fear is understandable, it's important to remember that plagiarism has existed long before AI. Ultimately, it's human greed and laziness that drive such unethical practices.
Recently, Procreate, a leading iOS creative app, made a bold statement about safeguarding artists by refusing to integrate generative AI. While I respect their decision and the importance of human creativity, I believe that AI can also be a powerful tool for artistic expression. This post explores the potential benefits of AI for artists without undermining Procreate's stance or advocating for its widespread adoption.
A world devoid of threats, an utopia, might sound idyllic. However, such a world would stifle innovation and progress. Just as yin and yang are interdependent, so too are progress and challenge. While we may yearn for a world without conflict, it's the very existence of problems that inspires solutions. From this perspective, threats and challenges can be seen as catalysts for innovation and creativity.
Creation is the key word here. If you know how to create, from scratch or from ash- you will survive any threats. Artists, in particular, are masters of this skill. They possess the unique ability to generate new ideas from seemingly mundane experiences, whether it's a casual conversation, a film, or even quiet contemplation. While this creative mindset is a powerful tool, it can also lead to creative blocks, periods of mental fog that can temporarily stifle inspiration. This is where, I believe every Artist can turn the blank space into gold using generative AI. But before we understand how, lets look at what AI can do in general in this creative field, to name a few.
AI is being extensively trained and employed in the following areas:
Illustrators and Painters
Image Generation: AI tools can generate realistic or abstract images based on text prompts.
Style Transfer: AI can apply the style of famous artists to new images.
Automation of Tasks: AI could automate repetitive tasks like image editing and color correction.
Authors and Writers
Content Generation: AI can generate articles, reports, and even creative writing, based on prompts.
Language Translation: AI can translate text between languages
Editing and Proofreading: AI can automate editing and proofreading tasks
Musicians and Singers
Voice Synthesis: AI can generate realistic voices
Music Composition: AI can compose music in various styles
Virtual Performances: AI-powered avatars could perform live, blurring the lines between human and machine-generated performances.
While all of the above can have a daunting consequence to the category of artists, here's what we have to leverage, and this list can be vast based on each genre.
Imagination soars high and that is an ideal condition for a painter, illustrator. However, most of the artists will agree that at an early stage of their career, their inspirations were bogged down by Customer specific commissions, not all of which got them enough remuneration. So, here's the first gold mining option of a budding painter, illustrator-
let AI do the job- get the prompt from your customer and feed it to the generative AI tools, inspirational thoughts are not wasted but now you have multiple showcase options for your customers. Once the option is freezed or explored more and then freezed, you can focus on creating it. Concept Art is easier. Digital art can be further easier to implement where work might reduce significantly, conventional- yes you would still have to work out some portions yourself but you will not be bogged down by the idea of thinking over something you never wanted to create. Your creative energy gets preserved for your best!
Once you embrace AI, you can even generate more prompts and ideas and use AI to create a plan to sell those as Digital Products- in turn, for an early career start you would now have a source of income, thanks to AI.
With AI, Character development for any project gets easier. Even if AI cannot exactly match your satisfaction in the first attempt, repeated prompts do give you an excellent base to start with.
Digital tools equipped with AI can even trace your inspiration omitting the perfect "Line Art" layer work, and you can concentrate on the other aspects of the creation. Have you ever felt the frustration of those gaps in line art that needs to be filled just to drop color?
Similarly, most of these options are applicable to a music composer, song writer, authors and writers. If the prompt is accurate, most of the tasks are easier to handle and finish faster, reducing stress , last minute hassles and meeting multiple deadlines. Even an Editor shouldn't freak out of loosing his/her job and rather be happy to finish editing faster with AI, spend more time in creating ideas to uplift the article or book!
Singers too can benefit- AI-powered vocal analysis tools can provide feedback on vocal technique, pitch accuracy, and overall performance, aiding in improvement. In fact if you look back in those ages where singers learnt styles from other bigger singers by copying exact same tone and note, now with AI they are creating better results without even having to spend hours to search or even buy records. A recent example that I can quote is the song "Ankh" by Sunidhi Chauhan. If you closely listen to it, you will be able to establish notes from the famous "Hai rama..." from the movie Rangeela, and a couple of others. The song is an amalgamation of many tunes and usage of key notes to bring back multiple styles together to make it sound attractive and peppy, no doubt a marketing strategy story can evolve out of such instances and many more can be explored to gain benefit.
Ultimately, creativity is the driving force. AI, while powerful, is a tool that can be used by creative individuals to amplify their ideas. By learning to craft effective prompts, you can harness the potential of AI to achieve remarkable results.
What's your creative journey? Could AI tools help streamline your process, reducing repetitive tasks and freeing up time for more innovative thinking?
I use AI day in and out, one of my most sort out class is using AI for Character Design for Children's book, and believe me I use the free versions, keep my creative energy intact, enhance the imagination and do not plagiarize. If that interests you- how?, join me in the upcoming boot camp linked below, until we meet again in another blog!
Ciao
Tneeah
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