The Halcyonite

By Calder

’28

As we descend into this new age of AI technology, some new controversial questions arise. In this article, we will be reporting on these interesting questions, and how to proceed in the future.

So what is ‘DALL-E’ and AI Art in general? Artificial Intelligence (AI) art is a complicated subject, but it can be boiled down to a very simple concept:

 In every digital image, each pixel has a specific colour value. Artificial Intelligence ‘trains’ itself using these values, and learns what certain images might be showing. For example, AI might know that a hot dog has a specific brown colour value, with an additional pattern of pixels, which is the yellow squiggle (mustard). It trains by using its ‘neurons’ to tell if an image is something–a hotdog–or not, and from there, it will correct itself and learn. With enough training, this AI can eventually create their own image, which we can call a piece of art. 

A new tool called DALL-E has been developing over the past few years. DALL-E is an AI that has learned most of the images on the planet, and can paint an image from any prompt. For example, I put in the prompt ‘galaxy roses that are a portal to another galaxy’ on craiyon.com, a slightly less advanced (although 100% free) version of DALL-E.

So now, with this demo, we can really understand why the big questions have to be asked: Is AI art really… art? Ms Ellis, the Design teacher said that she considers AI “real art—just a different kind.”

“There are many types of art,” she said. “From fine art to performance, found art and generative art made by code. I think the intention of the person using it is partly what makes it real art. I use a number of AI art tools like Dall-E and Midjourney and some of the prompts people use are incredibly complex and thoughtful, whereas others just use it to generate quick, funny pictures.”

She said as well that AI artists will replace human artists “to some extent.” “I think we’ll see a lot of illustrators, designers and photographers being replaced when publishers need quick images to illustrate articles, or want to generate multiple ideas quickly,” she said. “I think there will always be human artists though – people want to see work created by humans and I think the rise of AI could actually create a backlash where people appreciate traditional materials and processes even more,.”

She thinks the art/image is “a collaboration between the AI, the person writing the prompts and the millions of creators whose images are being fed into the AI (who don’t get any credit).” She also said that “with most of the tools out there, the work created is legally yours. I’m not sure how fair that is, and there are a lot of artists and designers who are very unhappy about it.”

This new field is interesting and controversial. Someone submitted art made by AI into an art competition and it won. Do you think this is fair? Whose art is it? 

Thank you for reading this article, and feel free to email us at haclyonite@halcyonschool.com if you have any questions or comments.
To see some examples of AI generated art images, go to Midjourney Showcase.