A Human Wrote This: Thoughts on AI

Hey, folks! 

Today, I wanted to give a few quick thoughts about possibly my 

LEAST FAVORITE TOPIC EVER! Hooray! 

(What is my favorite topic? Easy! Art business stuff. You can see more about that here.) 

I’m talking about AI. Specifically AI in art-making. I typically only like to write about things that put me in a good mood, so I haven’t been interested in writing about this.

“But, Mike,” you’re now thinking aloud in your home office or aboard the commuter train, “If you dislike the topic so much, why in the world are you newsletter-ing us about it?”

Well, for three reasons. 

1. I get asked my opinion about AI often.
2. I’ve recently read some very interesting articles about it from artists whose opinions I agree with and respect and would like to share those.
3. It gave me an idea for a sketchbook assignment that we could do together. (Feel free to skip all the depressing AI stuff and scroll down to the fun sketchbook stuff below.)

First, a few thoughts:

Could AI be beneficial? 

I remember years ago when Photoshop introduced a new tool with a little band-aid symbol on it. This miraculous new tool would let me click on a small spot in a photo or drawing that I wanted gone, and “POOF” it would magically disappear. I guess it was probably intended to get rid of blemishes in photos, but I would use it on my scanned drawings. There was always lots of dust since I would draw with a very soft pencil. Like, a ton of dust. This tool would magically get rid of those specks. 

Anyway, 

That tool is excellent. (It’s the healing brush, by the way. Not the “band-aid” tool. I looked up the real name.) The computer would analyze what was around the spot and replace those pixels with what was needed to make it disappear. That’s roughly how I thought AI would work.

I thought AI would analyze a slight imperfection and help make it better. 

But I guess that’s not where it ended up, and it will only get worse. 

To be clear, I am not an expert on AI, so I’m just referring to how AI is used to make art. I’m guessing that there would be some incredibly beneficial ways that AI could be used in science or, um….heck, I don’t know! Let’s just talk about art stuff.

AI art is not good.

I recently saw a clearly AI-generated image of a gyro on a Greek restaurant menu. It made the food look absolutely disgusting. This one grotesque gyro should be enough of a reason to ban AI art. Seriously, it was gross.

Using an image like this, in particular, is confusing because you could find a royalty-free version of a gyro in roughly the same amount of time it would take to generate a bizarre monster version of one using AI. But I guess the mindset is already shifting that it’s easier to go with AI.

Also, I keep getting targeted ads about how much FASTER AI can help you generate “content” for your brand. Yuck, I don’t like most of those words. That means that anything we read could be written by a robot. So, then, what’s the point of reading it?

So, what’s my analysis?
Yes, I’m guessing there are ways that AI could be a great thing, but not when it’s the primary author—aka, the opposite of art.

For example, I use Grammarly daily. It’s great. I use it as a robust spell-check tool. I love it, and it catches silly little mistakes that I would’ve missed. It doesn’t write anything for me.  (Note: They have started offering generative AI, but that’s not for me.) They do not sponsor me; I just like the program. 

Other people have written more betterly than I could on this topic. Here are a few examples.

LINKS BY COOL AND SMART PEOPLE ON THE TOPIC OF AI.

Ellen Shapiro wrote this incredible article for Print magazine.
How Worried Should Creative Professionals Be About Artificial Intelligence?

Here’s a great article about how to protect your art from being used to train AI.

I love this digital brush from friend-of-the-newsletter Kyle Webster. Kyle is a brush guru who works for Adobe Procreate and makes some of the most versatile brushes ever. If you zoom in, you’ll see that the brush says, “Support Human Artists.” Genius.

LET’S MAKE SOMETHING WITH OUR HUMAN SKILLS!

 
Sketchbook Assignment Time

You might have noticed my badge at the top of this email. Need a minute to scroll up and check? I’ll wait! You’ve probably seen a few just like it over the summer, made and shared by real, talented HUMANS.

This badge is part of a very cool movement by illustrator Beth Spencer. Read all about how it got rolling on Creative Bloq here! Check out Beth’s original post and a few of my other favorites below.

 

 

 

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A post shared by Beth Spencer Illustration (@bethspencerart)

 

 

 

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A post shared by mark b hoffmann (@studiohoffmann)

 

 

 

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A post shared by Rachel Carter (@thehappylittlemaker)

Now it’s your turn to make your own badge and keep the movement going this fall! You can make a “Created With Human Intelligence” badge with your own personal spin and style using whatever materials or methods you like best.

(Bonus idea: if you were part of the Illustration Portfolio Challenge this year, you probably already know this would be an amazing sticker, right?)

Show it off! If you’d like to share yours, you can use the hashtag #hibadge2024 to add yours to the movement of fantastic illustrators out there proclaiming the humanness of their work. I’d love to see your art if you’d like to tag me at @mikelowerystudio!

Oh, one more thing!

Plot twist: it was all made using AI. JUST KIDDING!!

In a weird twist of ironic fate, it was all drawn by hand with a pen in my sketchbook. I planned on drawing it all in Photoshop on my iPad, but when I got to the coffee shop...my iPad was dead. And I'm so glad it was! It forced me to draw in the human realm, perfect for a journal entry all about being a human. (I still colored them on my laptop; I'm not totally off-grid yet!)