A.I. art comes with pros and cons, expert says

Artificial Intelligence art is trending but it comes with its pros and cons, an expert says.

Professor Steve DiPaola who teaches A.I art and technology at Simon Fraser University, says A.I art is a rapidly growing industry.

A.I apps are making it easy to generate pieces just by typing in words and themes to create a new themed photo.

“A.I. art is less that A.I is painting it for you, it’s more that it has the history of every painting that’s ever been out there in photograph, and just morphing those pixels together into something anew based on your description of what you want,” DiPaola said.

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Illustration students from Emily Carr University of Art and Design had differing opinions.

Yan Wei Lau is not a big fan of the idea of A.I Art.

“It may or may not be taking away my jobs, because I have been paying so much money just to come and study here and improve my skills so that I can make great art,” Lau said.

While A.I art can be useful to generate ideas, he says he wouldn’t use it as a final product.

Bethany Bardoe says A.I art can be a very useful tool for conceptualizing. “I don’t think it is going to take away jobs or anything- because there is always going to be a demand for traditional art and actual artist,” Bardoe said.

DiPaola agrees there are both pros and cons of art made by artificial intelligence.

“Reality making is just exciting stuff–  millions of people paying subscription prices just sit there and type in ideas and see full rendered versions of them. One big issue with reality-making is it takes a lot of computing power and if everyone’s doing it, that’s so much energy. It really will be an issue for climate change,” DiPaola said.

DiPaola notes that A.I art may just be the beginning and the tool could potentially turn into a useful professional tool.